Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 214 posts

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#121

Post by Aurornis »

drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

> Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota.

It’s extremely common for young kids to receive antibiotics. In some countries, antibiotics are over the counter and many parents will give their kids antibiotics for nearly any infection. Antibiotic misuse is rampant in some countries where they aren’t gated behind prescriptions.

Any such link with autism would therefore be an extremely rare side effect. The rate of antibiotic use in children is far higher than the rate of autism.

I don’t think this case supports the antibiotic theory by itself at all. I think it’s confirmation bias because antibiotics are one of the current trending theories among mainstream discussion.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#122

Post by roywiggins »

yterdy wrote: post #106
giantg2 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just care, you'd probably say the "the episode called..." and maybe describe it for the person if you interpret their reaction as not understanding or recognizing it. Edit: why disagree? Not recognizing that someone wants more information, or that your communication doesn't carry enough context for a person to know what you're talking about is classic autism. If you're someone without autism and just care abou…

Because the explicit query was, "What's your favorite episode?". It's frustrating to be accused of disordered thinking on your part when the actual issue is disordered expectations from the other party. What they actually should have asked was, "What happened during your favorite episode?", which might have produced the response given by the sibling. It's not like neurotypical people don't also experience this frustr…

> the actual issue is disordered expectations from the other party.

There is something called "double empathy problem", referring to the idea that there is a mutual difficulty communicating across neurotypes. Neurotypical people struggle to understand autistic people because of a sort of "language barrier" even without a deficit in neurodivergent communication skills per se.

After all, if neurotypical people are universally great communicators, they would be better at communicating with autistic people than autistic people are, but that's not how it works at all.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/double-empathy-explained/

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#123

Post by tomstoms »

Aurornis wrote: post #121
drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

> Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. It’s extremely common for young kids to receive antibiotics. In some countries, antibiotics are over the counter and many parents will give their kids antibiotics for nearly any infection. Antibiotic misuse is rampant in some countries where they aren’t gated behind prescriptions. Any such link with autism would theref…

«So John went back to the hospital and spent a month on powerful antibiotics pumped directly into a vein near his heart.»

This is not «extremely common».

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#124

Post by kjkjadksj »

nickpeterson wrote: post #114
ycombinete wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Counterstrike rank was always inversely correlated with my general happiness.

I remember being a young teenager (25 years ago now, yikes) playing counter strike and StarCraft all the time and being pretty good at both. I started playing with others who were in really good leagues (back then it was called cal-i for cs, not sure what exists now), and I realized the level of dedication and time necessary to compete at that level and I basically gave it up. Once you start thinking, “becoming bette…

Those sorts of guys have ruined all the games I grew up with. I can’t just casually play anymore. It doesn’t exist. Every lobby left is a sweatfest from people who have been playing the game nonstop since it came out 10-20 years ago sometimes. You have to swing vine from vine to whatever crap game is currently popular to get a chance at pwning noobs again.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#125

Post by cyanydeez »

jrsdav wrote: post #108
scottlamb wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or just being in the hospital environment for a month. The older theory they mentioned here: > "The earliest twin studies really helped to debunk this theory that autism was caused by parenting," Morris says. Under this theory, moms took the brunt of the blame, supposedly for being "cold and distant and detached from their child." ...might not be entirely wrong. They've since shown genetics is a factor, and I'll i…

> Under this theory, moms took the brunt of the blame, supposedly for being "cold and distant and detached from their child." Before the heredity nature of autism was accepted, this was the school of thought (“refrigerator mothers”). But in truth, it’s neurodivergent parents having neurodivergent children, and society punishing the parents (namely mothers) for their inability at providing the “expected” nurturing con…

Tied back, atypical behavior.may create neurodivergent conditions, but one would expect children of aurististics to seek less overall care which doesnt support the hypitheses that antibiotics are causing aitism as this thrwad started

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#126

Post by cma »

drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

Wouldn't we see much lower rates in Christian Scientists?

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#127

Post by peterkelly »

sctb wrote: post #117
jawns wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one type of autism. The reason it's now called Autism Spectrum Disorder is because there are many very different manifestations, not all of which involve hyperfixation.

It's not hyperfixation exactly, but a requirement for an ASD diagnosis is some forms of "Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities" (from the DSM-V).

This is one of four criteria listed in section B, which only requires two to be present. See https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html

So it's still possible to receive a diagnosis if you don't have hyperfixation but have two or more of the other section B criteria.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#128

Post by brightball »

cma wrote: post #126
drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

Wouldn't we see much lower rates in Christian Scientists?

Why would that correlate?

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#129

Post by j45 »

drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

It’s possible but there was no explicit mention of this other than one receiving treatment they couldn’t avoid.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#130

Post by jjallen »

drooby wrote: post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

Isn't autism much older than antibiotics? I mean it couldn't be - I haven't actually researched it but I'm pretty sure autism is older than antibiotics.
Post reply on HN