VEP: Clinical Analysis

1.4 Describe the sensory and perceptual difficulties commonly experienced by individuals with autistic spectrum condition cont...

The term autism currently holds a meaning that is significantly different than when it was first adopted into our vocabulary in the 1960’s. The evolution of scientific discoveries within the field of autism research is remarkable and consistently improving. With the prevalence of autism continuing to reach sky rocketing numbers, the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the school system is extremely important. Every child has the right to obtain an education and finding new methods that provide this for children with ASD is vital. Creating programs and techniques that can be personalized to a child is the key to them receiving the most out of their education. Discrete trial teaching, pivotal response treatment and picture

During their checkup at 9 months old doctors will begin monitoring for developmental delays that may be observable. In order to medically diagnosis, tests for vision, hearing, neurological, and genetic mutations are performed to centralize the possible cause. Some observable symptoms associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder include children avoiding eye contact and not directly looking at objects. Many have repetitive tendencies consisting of either actions or words. Autism Spectrum Disorder patients will not develop adaptations including social skills or the ability to acclimate to change. Although components of Autism Spectrum Disorder are still being discovered researchers still have a vast amount of knowledge already to build from

How do we know infants can see at birth? They can’t tell us. For this we depend on clues such as eye movement, light sensitivity and the appearance of the eye. Though an infant 's vision is present at birth the strength of their vision is far from mature. However, vision develops rapidly in infants, going from only being able to focus on images 4 to 30 inches away to a rapid ability to see details and shape (Berger, 2014). By 3 months these same infants with immature ability can see patterns color and motion. Surveys and medical research are regularly used to develop a better understanding of infant development.

VL:VM activation ratio displayed a significant relationship with VM activation delay in PFP subjects classified as maltrackers (Fig. 2). There were no correlations between VL:VM activation

The original hypothesis was to be able to modify the infant’s behavior and the dyadic synchrony to the repeated FFSF exposures by shorting the time between the

Neurological disorders are complex in nature and often the least understood. Given the recent boom in imaging technology and other diagnostic methods, it is now possible to see more clearly into the scope of neurological development and accurately determine the etiology of these diseases. One of such disorders is Autism; a multifactorial condition impairing normal brain development. It affects many aspects of development, including social behavior, cognitive ability and communication skills1 and is commonly diagnosed in children before the age of three1. The symptoms of this condition can vary greatly between individuals; hence its classification as a spectrum disorder. Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome and pervasive

In the first article, Knight, Mazzi and Savazzi (2015) made 3 hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) threshold would change when the background changed from uniform to pattern (Knight et al., 2015). The second hypothesis was that the likelihood of the participant sensing light versus dark percepts would change when global luminance of the background changed (Knight et al., 2015). The third hypothesis was that the likelihood of light versus dark percepts would stay the same at different TMS intensities (Knight et al., 2015). The study had 16 participants who all wore corrective lens (Knight et al., 2015). To test the threshold of phosophenes, a Method of Constant Stimuli (MOCS) was used (Knight et al., 2015). The participants received 120 randomly administered trials with pulses from TMS under two different background conditions (Knight et al., 2015). A paired t-test was used to analyze the difference in stimulator intensity threshold for inducing percepts between background conditions (Knight et al., 2015). A repeated-measures analysis of variance

Over the past decade, the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased at a rapid rate (MacFarlane & Kanaya, 2009). “Autism spectrum disorder is defined as a heterogeneous, behaviorally identifiable neurodevelopment disorder that occurs in 1 in 150 children (Press & Richman, 2013).” During the infancy and toddlerhood stage, a baby showing signs of ASD will typically have an absence of normal brain development, which can hinder their physical development specifically their perceptual development of vision (Berk, 2014). For example, a baby with normal brain development will begin to make eye contact with their caregiver at approximately 8 weeks of age during daily feedings; in comparison a baby showing signs of abnormal brain development will struggle with making directly eye contact with their caregiver during the same daily feedings (MacFarlane & Kanaya, 2009). Jake, a 3-year-old boy was diagnosed with ASD at 18 months of age. Jake has been struggling with making direct eye contact with others since his early infancy and toddlerhood and it has continued throughout his early childhood (Carbone, O’Brien, Sweeney-Kerwin, & Albert, 2013). “A substantial number of children with autism fail to develop this important skill and therefore experimenters with both develop- mental and behavior

Research has found that impairments in functioning associated with the medial temporal lobes and the limbic system may explain some of the deficits characterizing ASD (Joseph, 1999). Hippocampal abnormalities have been suggested to exert influence on sensory sensitivity in those with ASD.

Arguably one of the most important features of the brain’s info center is the ability to not only obtain and retain information, but the ability to perceive it. In the article: Selective Attention and Perceptual Load in Autism Spectrum Disorder by Anna Remington, John Swettenham, Ruth Campbell, and Mike Coleman discuss how Autism affects one’s attention, and perceptual load throughout the Autistic spectrum. They explored these topics through an experiment in which individuals both with and without an Autistic Spectrum Disorder performed varying selective attention tasks while experiencing different amounts of perceptual load (Remington, A., Swettenham, J., Campbell, R., & Coleman, M 1388).

This might be of relevance because the current diagnostic gold standard (MRI) is expensive and not always available.

Left Ventricular Assistant Devices or LVAD are the new means of delaying death from end stage cardiac failure when all other means such as medicines, and other procedures have failed. Patients who are option to have the LVAD must meet key indicators to qualify, which is discussed and determined by their physician (Cleveland Clinic 2014). While there is still much research out there being done on LVAD and the short term, as well as long term effects, certain types of machines such as the HeartMate II have been stamped with the go ahead from the FDA. (FDA 2012). While it is not certain exactly how long it will take for perfection, improvements in methods and procedures have been seen. Extended survival rates meeting the time for transplants have

New born infants have poor visual acuity as opposed to adults. Visual acuity measures to what extent an individual can detect visual detail. Their lack of visual acuity means they see the world a more ill-defined manner. Adult visual acuity is thirty times the visual acuity of a new born (Van Hof-van Duin & Mohn 1985). Atkinson & Bradrick (1981), supported this and found that new born infants could only detect the separation of lines if they are 30 times wider than the minimum width adults can detect. There is at least a five-fold improvement by 6 months of age in acuity, though it takes several years for it to reach adult level, Brown & Yamamoto 1986. New born infants also have poor visual accommodation, needed to make sharp retinal images at different distances.

At birth newborns eye muscles and nerves are still developing, so their vision is not great. At birth infants can see an estimated 20/240, but in six months’ time the babies’ vision tremendously increases and they are able to see at 20/40. As infant’s vision increases they begin to see color and eventually recognize shapes. By 8 weeks of age infants are able to see color and around 3 months they are able recognize that an objects shape stays the same, even if in a different setting. As infants develop they not only are able to distinguish colors and shapes but also are able to develop the ability to perceive objects that are occulted are in fact whole.