(Psych Central News) Two separate new theories have been proposed that may explain the development of autism, and the milder form of autism known as Asperger Syndrome.The new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the ... ...


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From Psych Central News.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19059284
Brain Res Rev. 2009 Mar;59(2):388-392. Epub 2008 Nov 24.
Autism, fever, epigenetics and the locus coeruleus.
Mehler MF, Purpura DP.

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http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...i?artid=194752

BMC Pediatr. 2003; 3: 9.
Published online 2003 September 2. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-3-9.

Is fever suppression involved in the etiology of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders?
Anthony R Torre

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???

http://scienceblog.com/cms/node/4780
Left-Brain/Right-Brain Differences Found in People with Autism


http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/herbert.pdf

Large Brains in Autism: The Challenge of Pervasive Abnormality
Martha R. Herbert

etc. etc. etc.

Too many theories, not enough practical help.

I don't think the cortisol thing has all that much to do with stress.

I know, I know... cortisol is associated with stress. We all know that. But you have to remember that it was the peak in cortisol upon awakening that they measured differently in Asperger subjects, not overall cortisol levels--those were the same. That peak doesn't just have to do with cortisol, but with the entire hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal interaction, and at the base of it, with the brain itself, including sensory input and processing.

Also--the study was preliminary, with a small number of subjects, and especially considering that that cortisol peak is absent in many typical people. So this needs more research.