Unraveling the Mysteries of Autism
AUTISM BLOG
FOR PARENTS CONCERNED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS
Why is it important to have our gene clocks synchronized? How does gene clock synchrony happen?
We have something called “attentional states.” Basically, this just means where our attention is focused. Our attentional states have daytime and nighttime modes. It’s well known that our brains don’t rest when we’re sleeping. In fact, there are periods of sleep when our brains are as active as when we’re awake. The difference is, when we’re sleeping, our attention is focused inward. When we’re awake it’s focused on our bodies and our external environment. Having gene clocks uniformly synchronized to “Day” allows our brains and bodies to operate on daytime mode, fully aware of our bodies and our external environment. At night, the gene clocks allow our brain to go into a sort of “disconnect/ auto-pilot” mode for our bodies while it turns its attention to sorting, aggregating, and giving meaning to our cognitive experiences. Then our brains file this information and associated meanings for retrieval and use as needed in the future.
The cycles of day and night modes are called circadian rhythms. Theses rhythms follow a roughly 24-hour cycle. This cycle lets us adapt predicatively to our fluctuating daily environment. Circadian synchrony provides integration between components of the body’s internal environment and between internal and external environments. Circadian synchrony occurs when all the body’s organs and tissues are in the same time zone, biologically speaking. That is, the gene clocks are all set to the same time and mode of operation. When the rhythm is disturbed, for example, by retinal exposure to light or food in the stomach in the dark hours of the circadian period, dys-synchrony can occur. Examples of dys-synchrony are jet lag, fatigue–induced disorientation, and bipolar disorder. Long-term effects of dys-synchrony can result in heart disease, dementia, and depression. So you can probably see why circadian synchrony is important.
Our clocks are synchronized through a hormone called melatonin (1,2). Many of you know this as the jet lag pill. I will present more about melatonin in the next blog session. For this session, it’s important to know that melatonin puts a kind of peer pressure on the brain to stop paying attention to the external world and go to sleep. Evidence suggests there may be a dysfunction in ASD of the signaling systems that coordinate circadian synchrony. This may mean that the attention signals for people with ASD may be disorganized, so their nervous systems go into overwhelm because they don’t know where to direct their attention or what to tune out. Can you imagine what it would be like to try to function with parts of your brain in daytime mode and other parts in nighttime mode?
Funny I should ask (if I say so myself!). Remember those transient autistic states I mentioned? Well, consider these situations:
{?} Have you ever been sick, and every minor bump or cut hurts way more than when you’re feeling great?
{?} Have you ever been so absorbed in an activity that you didn’t notice getting a bruise or cut?
These are very basic examples of “autistic moments”. The signaling systems between our brains and our bodies are out of sync because the on/off switches for daytime vs. nighttime modes aren’t synchronized between our brains, retinas, gastrointestinal tracts, skin, etc. Fortunately most of us can resynchronize our clocks, so we can effectively direct our attention to appropriate cues – internal versus external. There is evidence that people with ASD have difficulty knowing where to direct their attention because their clocks are perpetually out of sync.
{?}What do you think might happen if the different organs and tissues are not synchronized to the same biological clock?
When our brains are helping our body’s battle stress, our brains can’t do their internal work. Our signaling systems get dys-synchronized, and we experience the short- and long-term effects mentioned earlier, like disorientation, cardiovascular disease, and depression. Additionally, we may have more inflammation and oxidative stress – or “body rust” — because melatonin is suppressed. Melatonin is both a powerful anti-oxidant and an anti-inflammatory, but only when it is produced in cycles.
Two more “autistic moment” scenarios (please answer):
{?} when awakened by a sound, and you were scared & couldn’t identify a sound – what was your reaction when something lightly touched your skin.
{?} Have you ever been so overloaded with tasks requiring your attention that when your child asks for a drink or to go to the bathroom, you want to scream, “Calgon, take me away!”?
Now imagine that this is the perpetual high-alert neural state of a person with ASD.
. Since we all have “autistic moments”, the questions become:
(1) Why doesn’t their neural system return to an “All’s clear” state?
and
(2) How do we restore circadian synchronicity.
I will share more of my findings from review of the research next blog. Please note, for those interested, I will be updating postings with the references used in the blogs, though I may post before I complete references.
1, Torres-Farfan, C., Rocco, V., Monso, C., Valenzuela, F.J., Campino, C., Germain, A., Torrealba, F., Valenzuela, G.J., Seron-Ferre, M. (2006). Maternal melatonin effects on clock gene expression in a non-human primate fetus. Endocrinology;doi:10.1210/en.2006-0628.
2. Hill, S., Frasch, T., Xiang, S. Yuan, L., Duplessis, T. Mao, L. (2009). Molecular mechanisms of melatonin anticancer effects. Integrative cancer therapies;8(4):337-346.
Part 1: What is ASD?
12 April 2010
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