Interesting fact #3 -Autism

So, last week I attended a seminar on autism and epigenetics. Though I probably understand only 20% of the entire seminar because it involves a lot of genetics (which was bluerggh!), I jot down few interesting facts about autism.

Autism is characterized by the followings :

1. Impairment in social communication and interaction
2. Impairment in language
3. Restrictive and repetitive behavior.

It appears usually in the first three years of life and apparently, male has increased risk to get autism which is 4:1. And the risk is greater if your sibling has autism compared to general population (ratio 50:1)

The speaker also pointed out that consuming FOLIC ACID before you get pregnant could actually reduce the risk of your child developing autism. And getting rubella injection WHILE you are pregnant increase the risk of your child developing autism.

I attended another talk about autism when I was in my first year and they talked about one of the mechanism of how autism might have developed ie: the maternal (mother) antibody actually the one that attacks the fetus' brain and contribute to the development of autism. I know there are now many ongoing research on autism especially in UC Davis itself, and the research were mostly done in monkeys. They actually videotaped the monkeys to observe their social skills and behavior, like for example, giving them toys and observe how the monkey that has autism play with toys and compare it to normal monkey. I wish I have the video but I don't, but if I have more facts on autism, I'll be very happy to share with you guys in the future.