I don't know if the pics will come through but here is big news!

http://autism.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/TMSCasanova.htm

http://autism.about.com/b/2008/12/06/initial-studies-of-transcranial-magnetic-st\
imulation-tms-treatment-for-autism-are-encouraging.htm

http://www.redroom.com/blog/john-elder-robison/the-latest-tms-lab

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show?cond=%22Asperger+Syndrome%22&rank=2

and from http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/05/john-robison-ca.html
TODAY JOHN ELDER ROBISON CAN LOOK ME IN THE EYE
What I'm about to write will be astounding to all of you, too good to be true to
others and (sadly) heresy from some who'd prefer to keep autism treatment at a
stand still. You ready?

How's this quote from John Elder Robison, Aspergian and author of the best
selling, LOOK ME IN THE EYE, to whet your interest: "Science is making real
solid progress to remediating some symptoms of autism." Let me repeat that:
"REMEDIATING SOME SYMPTOMS OF AUTISM."

My version of the quote goes something like this: "Holy $#it! John, my tall
Aspergian friend, is making perfect eye contact with me, he can read my emotions
in my face and he is animated! How the heck did that happen?"

Let me back up for a second here. Last night I spoke at the monthly meeting of
ASCONN, the Autism Society of Connecticut, greater Hartford region. Thanks to
Beth Katten and Melissa DuMont for coordinating the meeting (and the taboo Wheat
Thins.)

I was scheduled to present with CAMMIE McGOVERN who, like me, has a chapter in
Embracing Autism. Cammie had a family emergency and couldn't attend. So I called
my friend John Elder Robison. "John, what are you doing tonight? Want to come to
Hartford?" I asked with my fingers crossed. "Sure! I'll tell the group about
that new study at Harvard."

John is the master of understatement. That new study is testing Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation on several people with Aspergers and the results have
shocked everyone involved. People who were unable to make eye contact, read
facial expressions and empathize are suddenly able to do all three. Without
losing any of their keen intelligence or in John's case, their wit.

I saw John last night for the first time since last winter. I can see real,
physical changes in him. It's crazy! His voice modulates up and down. His facial
muscles move more than they did, showing emotion. When we first met last
spring, he told me he had trained himself to glance into someone's eyes every 30
seconds or so, just for a moment, to establish an appropriate social rapport. He
had trained himself to do that. It wasn't natural for him. Last night, he looked
straight into my eyes while we spoke without flinching. (Now that makes a girl
feel good! LOL!)

There were at least two people in the audience who had met John and me last
December at an event at Elms College, and they too were taken by the visible
changes in John. One gal said, "You don't look at the floor when you speak
anymore."

Yup, John Elder Robison has had some of the symptoms of his Aspergers reversed
in a trial that is currently underway in the Harvard University Neurosciences
lab. Here's the story:

The study is being conducted by Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone who is a Professor of
Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Non Invasive
Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. (TMS Lab) The tests
are scientifically trackable and verifiable as eliciting real changes in the
brain. Functional MRI proves it. The treatment is non-invasive and painless. My
insufficient summary of the theory behind the study is that everything our
kids/people with autism need to function is in their brain intact. But that our
kids are running the "wrong software program" and thus are impaired. TMS allows
the brain to run the proper software. In other words, our kids are NOT brain
damaged and their wiring is just fine, they just aren't using the tracks they
need to. And the proper tracks can be turned on!


After hearing of John's experiences, the scientists were stunned to hear other
study participants describe new insights into their own emotional intelligence.
One participant told of reading the emotional meaning in sentences for the first
time, and another talks of "seeing what I'd been missing." Can you imagine the
impact of that? It takes my breath away. It appears that the test subjects who
have seen results are very pleased with their newfound abilities. In other
words, losing some of their autistic traits has not diminished them.

Even better, the doctors never expected the results of this treatment to last
more than a few hours at most! And yet, they are lasting far longer for John and
the other participants. Currently, more than a month.

You can learn much more than I can explain at John's blog HERE. He expects this
story to hit the mainstream media perhaps as early as this Fall. The testing is
being done on verbal adults at this time. But the researchers will likely add
more significantly impaired people as the tests progress. Perhaps including
children at some point, if ethics allow.

I can't tell you how beautiful it was to watch John talk to me with full on eye
contact. Not because I didn't enjoy my friend exactly as he was when his eye
contact was fleeting. Not for a minute. But because he is obviously so pleased
himself. I asked him, "So, what color are my eyes?" (He'd said that prior to the
test he could not tell you people's eye color.) "Blue!" he said with certainty.

I'd like to thank John for allowing me to share his story here at Age of Autism.
I've made a few changes to the original piece with John's input. Mark Blaxill is
our science guy and now I know why. But I'll keep you posted on developments.

Here are some photos that illustrate the changes in John. The one below is the
first time he and I met last Spring.






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