More than 60 years after autism was first described by American psychiatrist Leo Kanner, there are still more questions than answers about this complex disorder. But slowly, steadily, many myths about autism are falling away, and researchers are finding some surprises.
Autism is almost certainly, like cancer, many diseases with many distinct causes. It’s well known that there’s a wide range in the severity of symptoms –from profound disability to milder forms like Asperger syndrome, in which intellectual ability is generally high but social awareness is low.
Indeed, doctors now prefer the term Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). But scientists suspect there are also distinct subtypes, including an early-onset type and a regressive type that can strike as late as age 2.
Once thought to be mainly a disease of the cerebellum, a region in the back of the brain that integrates sensory and motor activity, autism is increasingly seen as a pervasive problem with the way the brain is wired.
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