What if the real reason your child struggles to regulate emotions or stay focused isn’t behavior at all? Dr. Marielly Mitchell reveals how airway health, mouth breathing, and sensory processing play a surprising role in brain development. This episode challenges what you think you know about sleep, stress, and why your child just can’t seem […]
Posts Tagged
‘Sensory’
In everything from teen rom coms to relationship advice columns, kissing is painted as the litmus test for love, desire, and connection. What’s often overlooked is how complicated kissing can be for neurodivergent people, whose brains and bodies process touch, taste, and proximity differently. “Why Don’t I Like Kissing?” The ADHD Sensory Block For many […]
Tickle test: Sensory learning is altered in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome, according to a new preprint. The investigators recorded neuronal activity in response to repeated whisker stimulation in the mice and observed hampered long-term potentiation—synaptic changes that underlie learning—in pyramidal neurons. The researchers speculate that these findings may reflect “a significant deterioration […]
Autism-related behaviors and susceptibility to seizures both arise from hyperactivity in a key region of a sensory-information-processing circuit in the brain, a new study finds. The results may help explain the frequent co-occurrence of autism and epilepsy and point to a new therapeutic target. According to current estimates, about 12 percent of people with autism […]
There’s more to your child’s behavior than what you see. What if the real struggle isn’t defiance but the way the world feels to them, both inside and out? This episode offers a powerful new lens on neurodivergence, gender, identity, and safety. It’s a conversation that invites you to pause, reconsider, and stay curious from […]
In vertebrates, sleep changes the way the brain responds to stimuli, specifically disrupting neural responses to unexpected sounds. Now, researchers have found that Drosophila brains, too, selectively process sensory information during sleep. The work, by Bruno van Swinderen, professor of behavior and cognition at the Queensland Brain Institute, and postdoctoral research fellow Matthew Van De […]
8-year-old Logan Doyle from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland is a wonderful and intelligent little boy with many talents. His autism and hyperlexia contributed to who he is today, and that’s positive in many ways. His first word when he was a little over two years old was “triangle”. He learned to read and write at […]
As Christmas approaches quickly, Santa Claus will be visiting malls across the country to meet the good guys and girls. While this experience is exciting for most children, it can be very overwhelming and nerve-wracking for children with special needs or people with sensory issues. Photo: YouTube / KIII 3 News La Palmera Mall in […]
Since sensory differences became part of the diagnostic criteria for autism in 2013, more and more autism researchers have been drawn to the thalamus, the egg-shaped sensory relay station deep in the brain. The surge of interest has created an argument for the thalamus as an important sensory filter that may function differently in autism, […]
Short circuit: Several genes linked to autism (top) and schizophrenia (bottom) are highly expressed in the thalamus of mice and, when mutated, appear to cause memory problems. Silencing multiple genes associated with autism or schizophrenia in the thalami of mice increases neuronal excitability there and leads to memory problems reminiscent of those in people with […]
Family trips to the cinema are a great way to get out with the kids and laugh for a few hours together. Millions do it every week. However, for families with children with autism, a day at the movies can be a difficult and sometimes impossible ordeal. “For children with autism, the experience can be […]
Chrissie Render’s son Zac was diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay shortly before he turned three. Since then, and before, Chrissie has looked for things that could calm her son, enhance his educational experience, and stimulate him to communicate verbally. Now the family seems to have found a helpful tool to do this. A […]
