How Odd Behavior in Some Young Horses May Reveal a Cause of Autism

Re:How Odd Behavior in Some Young Horses May Reveal a Cause ... by s_q_b on Saturday February 28, 2015 @01:40PM (#9124551)

"Autism" is probably like "cancer" in that it is likely a series of pathologies with similar presentation rather than one specific disease.

It wouldn't surprise me if neurosteroids and neurohormones are involved, as they're the next frontier in psychopharmacology. They affect the brain further up the metabolic chain, so they don't have the nasty rebound effects of monkeying around with neurotransmitters directly.

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Re:How Odd Behavior in Some Young Horses May Reveal a Cause ... by robotresearcher on Saturday February 28, 2015 @03:53PM (#9125013)

> "Autism" is probably like "cancer" in that it is likely a series of pathologies

Why "probably"? What evidence is there for that one way or another?

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Re:How Odd Behavior in Some Young Horses May Reveal a Cause ... by s_q_b on Saturday February 28, 2015 @05:01PM (#9125213)

To assume that autism is a single disorder is to get the scientific method backwards. There's no proven underlying cause, just symptoms that vary greatly from individual to individual. What evidence is there that autism is a single disorder with a single underlying cause?

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Re:How Odd Behavior in Some Young Horses May Reveal a Cause ... by robotresearcher on Saturday February 28, 2015 @05:23PM (#9125275)

I guess that's true, but Occam's Razor applies too. I'm not claiming anything either way.

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