Autistic adults more consistent in decision-making tasks

People with autism disorder may show more consistent choices in high-level decision-making tasks and are less likely to show a cognitive bias because they are not influenced by the way choices are presented, showed a research.

The findings indicate that individuals with autism are less susceptible to the effects of decoy options when evaluating and choosing the "best" product among several options relative to individuals without autism.

"People with autism are indeed more consistent in their choices than the neurotypical population. From an economic perspective, this suggests that people with autism are more rational and less likely to be influenced by the way choices are presented," said a psychology researcher.

People with autism are thought to focus more on detail and less on the bigger picture. Thus, in the study, researchers wanted to know if this tendency would apply to higher-level decision-making tasks.

For the study, the team recruited 90 adults with autism and 212 neurotypical adults to participate in an online decision-making study. 

The data revealed that, compared with neurotypical participants, participants with autism made more consistent choices and made fewer switches in their selections.

The results showed that individuals with autism are less likely to show a cognitive bias that often affects their neurotypical peers.

"These findings suggest that people with autism might be less susceptible to having their choices biased by the way information is presented to them -- for instance via marketing tricks when choosing between consumer products," he said.

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It's not just hormones, the way teenagers behave !

A teenage girl is a force of nature, with emotions so powerful they shock even her. In this exclusive excerpt, psychotherapist Lisa Damour uses neuroscience to help parents – and anyone perplexed by teenage girls – understand what’s really going on in their heads 

 The following is an excerpt from the book Untangled by Lisa Damour, Ph.D.

 

When I was in my first semester of graduate school, the professor teaching my psychological testing course handed me a stack of Rorschach inkblot tests to score. Before sending me on my way, he offhandedly said, “Double-check the age of the person whose test you are scoring. If it’s a teenager, but you think it’s a grown-up, you’ll conclude that you have a psychotic adult. But that’s just a normal teenager.” 

Twenty years later, I don’t need to score inkblot tests to know that healthy teenage development can look pretty irrational. Parents tell me about it every day. They describe how a minor annoyance – such as when a girl finds out that the jeans she wants are still riding out the rinse cycle – can turn into an emotional earthquake that knocks everyone in the house off balance. 

The sudden force of a teenager’s feelings can catch parents off guard because, between the ages of six and 11, children go through a phase of development that psychologists call latency . As the term implies, the mercurial moods of early childhood simmer down and girls are pretty easygoing until they become teenagers and their emotions kick up again. Recent developments in brain science offer new insight into why latency ends when it does. 

Though we used to assume that the brain stopped developing somewhere around age 12, we now know that the brain remodels dramatically during the teenage years. The renovation project follows the pattern in which the brain grew in the womb. It starts with the lower, primal portions (the limbic system) then moves to the upper, outer areas (the cortex), where the functions that separate humans from other animals live. 

Updates to the limbic system heighten the brain’s emotional reactions with research indicating that the feeling centres beneath the cortex are actually more sensitive in teens than in children or adults. For example, one straightforward study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch teenage brains respond, in real time, to emotional input. The research team showed images of fearful, happy and calm faces to children, teens and adults while monitoring the activity of the amygdala, a key player in the emotional reactions of the limbic system. Compared to the brain activity of children and adults, the teens’ amygdalas reacted strongly to fearful or happy faces. In other words, emotional input rings like a gong for teenagers and a chime for everyone else. 

With the lower-to-higher remodelling of the brain, the frontal cortex – the part of the brain that exerts a calming, rational influence – doesn’t come fully online until adulthood. This means that limbic system reactions outstrip frontal cortex controls. Put simply, intense emotions burst through and introduce you, and your daughter, to a new period of emotional upheaval. 

Adults often tell teens that their feelings are at full blast because of “hormones.” This usually doesn’t go over very well, plus it’s probably inaccurate. Despite the obvious coincidence between the beginnings of puberty – with its acne, growth spurts, and dawning smelliness – and the intensification of your daughter’s emotions, research suggests that the impact of pubertal hormones on teenagers’ moods is indirect, at best. 

In fact, studies find that hormones respond to, or may even be trumped by, other factors that influence your daughter’s mood, such as stressful events or the quality of her relationship with you. 

In other words, the changes in your daughter’s brain and the events that occur around her are more likely to shape her mood than the hormonal shifts occurring inside of her. 

Here’s the bottom line: What your daughter broadcasts matches what she actually experiences. Really, it’s just that intense, so take her feelings seriously, regardless of how overblown they might seem. Parents who are surprised by their daughter’s dramatic ups and downs can lose sight of the fact that she is pretty shocked, too. 

So if your teenage daughter is developing normally, you are living with someone who secretly worries that she is crazy and who might have the psychological assessment results of a psychotic adult. 

And we might as well add that you are living with a girl whose key support system – her tribe – consists of peers who are also as reactive and erratic as they will ever be. Your daughter works hard every day to harness powerful and unpredictable emotions so that she can get on with doing everything else she means to do. 

To manage all of that intensity and to keep from feeling crazy, she’ll recruit your help. Depending on the moment, she might ask for your support directly, she might unload her feelings on you or she might find a way for you to have a feeling on her behalf. 

Sometimes you’ll recognize the role you are being asked to play, other times you’ll only appreciate your part in retrospect, if at all. Understanding your daughter’s efforts to harness emotions will allow you to maintain your sanity while you’re busy helping her feel confident in her own. 

Teenagers often manage their feelings by dumping the uncomfortable ones on their parents, so don’t be surprised if you find that the arrival of adolescence comes with a surge in complaining. No parents enjoy listening to their daughter’s endless stream of complaints, but it’s a lot easier to stand if we appreciate that her griping serves a valuable purpose. 

 this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
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Schizophrenia- what one must know about it and its various types

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary; may be unresponsive or withdrawn; and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations.

Schizophrenia is not split personality or multiple personality. Most people with schizophrenia are not violent and do not pose a danger to others. Schizophrenia is not caused by childhood experiences, poor parenting or lack of willpower. The symptoms  are not identical for each person.

 Causes Schizophrenia

The cause  is still unclear. Some theories about the cause of this disease include: genetics (heredity), biology (the imbalance in the brain’s chemistry); and/or possible viral infections and immune disorders.
Genetics (Heredity). Scientists recognize that the disorder tends to run in families and that a person inherits a tendency to develop the disease. Schizophrenia may also be triggered by environmental events, such as viral infections or highly stressful situations or a combination of both.
Similar to some other genetically-related illnesses, schizophrenia appears when the body undergoes hormonal and physical changes, like those that occur during puberty in the teen and young adult years.
Chemistry. Genetics help to determine how the brain uses certain chemicals. People with schizophrenia have a chemical imbalance of brain chemicals (serotonin and dopamine) which are neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters allow nerve cells in the brain to send messages to each other. The imbalance of these chemicals affects the way a person’s brain reacts to stimuli--which explains why a person with schizophrenia may be overwhelmed by sensory information (loud music or bright lights) which other people can easily handle. This problem in processing different sounds, sights, smells and tastes can also lead to hallucinations or delusions.

What are the Early Warning Signs of Schizophrenia?

The signs of schizophrenia are different for everyone. Symptoms may develop slowly over months or years, or may appear very abruptly. The disease may come and go in cycles of relapse and remission.
Behaviors that are early warning signs of schizophrenia include:

• Hearing or seeing something that isn’t there
• A constant feeling of being watched
• Peculiar or nonsensical way of speaking or writing
• Strange body positioning
• Feeling indifferent to very important situations
• Deterioration of academic or work performance
• A change in personal hygiene and appearance
• A change in personality
• Increasing withdrawal from social situations
• Irrational, angry or fearful response to loved ones
• Inability to sleep or concentrate
• Inappropriate or bizarre behavior
• Extreme preoccupation with religion or the occult

Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the world population. It knows no racial, cultural or economic boundaries. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 13 and 25, but often appear earlier in males than females.
If you or a loved one experience several of these symptoms for more than two weeks, seek help immediately.

What are the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?

A medical or mental health professional may use the following terms when discussing the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Positive symptoms are disturbances that are “added” to the person’s personality.

• Delusions -- false ideas--individuals may believe that someone is spying on him or her, or that they are someone famous.
• Hallucinations –seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing or smelling something that doesn’t really exist. The most common experience is hearing imaginary voices that give commands or comments to the individual.
• Disordered thinking and speech -- moving from one topic to another, in a nonsensical fashion. Individuals may make up their own words or sounds.

Negative symptoms are capabilities that are “lost” from the person’s personality.

• Social withdrawal
• Extreme apathy
• Lack of drive or initiative
• Emotional unresponsiveness

What are the Different Types of Schizophrenia?

• Paranoid schizophrenia -- a person feels extremely suspicious, persecuted, or grandiose, or experiences a combination of these emotions.
• Disorganized schizophrenia -- a person is often incoherent in speech and thought, but may not have delusions.
• Catatonic schizophrenia -- a person is withdrawn, mute, negative and often assumes very unusual body positions.
• Residual schizophrenia -- a person is no longer experiencing delusions or hallucinations, but has no motivation or interest in life.
• Schizoaffective disorder--a person has symptoms of both schizophrenia and a major mood disorder such as depression.

No cure for schizophrenia has been discovered, but with proper treatment, many people with this illness can lead productive and fulfilling lives.

Treatment

If you suspect someone you know is experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, encourage them to see a medical or mental health professional immediately. Early treatment--even as early as the first episode--can mean a better long-term outcome.

Recovery and Rehabilitation
While no cure for schizophrenia exists, many people with this illness can lead productive and fulfilling lives with the proper treatment. Recovery is possible through a variety of services, including medication and rehabilitation programs. Rehabilitation can help a person recover the confidence and skills needed to live a productive and independent life in the community. 
Types of services that help a person with schizophrenia include:

• Case management helps people access services, financial assistance, treatment and other resources.
• Psychosocial Rehabilitation Programs are programs that help people regain skills such as: employment, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, shopping, socializing, problem solving, and stress management.
• Self-help groups provide on-going support and information to persons with serious mental illness by individuals who experience mental illness themselves.
• Drop-in centers are places where individuals with mental illness can socialize and/or receive informal support and services on an as-needed basis.
• Housing programs offer a range of support and supervision from 24 hour supervised living to drop-in support as needed.
• Employment programs assist individuals in finding employment and/or gaining the skills necessary to re-enter the workforce.
• Therapy/Counseling includes different forms of “talk”therapy, both individual and group, that can help both the patient and family members to better understand the illness and share their concerns.
• Crisis Services include 24 hour hotlines, after hours counseling, residential placement and in-patient hospitalization.

  Medication

 The new generation of anti-psychotic medications can help people with schizophrenia to live fulfilling lives. They help to reduce the biochemical imbalances that cause schizophrenia and decrease the likelihood of relapse. Like all medications, however, anti-psychotic medications should be taken only under the supervision of a mental health professional.

 There are two major types of anti-psychotic medication:

 Conventional anti-psychotics effectively control the “positive”symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and confusion of schizophrenia.

• New Generation (also called atypical) anti-psychotics treat both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, often with fewer side effects.

Side effects are common with anti-psychotic drugs. They range from mild side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, drowsiness and dizziness which usually disappear after a few weeks to more serious side effects such as trouble with muscle control, pacing, tremors and facial ticks. The newer generation of drugs have fewer side effects. However, it is important to talk with your mental health professional before making any changes in medication since many side effects can be controlled.

 this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.
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