اخبار مرکز اتیسم

طبق روال گذشته، مرکز تهران اتیسم،  روز جهانی اتیسم را با سه گروه برنامه طی ۱۰ روز  (از ۱۳ تا ۲۳ فروردین ماه ۱۳۹۸) گرامی می دارد:

۱. برنامه ها با بزرگداشت روز جهانی اتیسم در طبیعت در روز ۱۳ فروردین آغاز می شود. در این روز، ده ها اکیپ از مربیان مرکز در پارکهای اقصی نقاط ایران به اطلاع رسانی(توزیع برشور، هدایا و…)می پردازند و از فعالیت های خود عکس می گیرند. عکس ها به اشتراک گذاشته می شود. سپس مسابقه عکس برگزار می شود و به برترین عکس ها جوایزی تعلق می گیرد.

یکی از عکس های برنده در مراسم سال ۱۳۹۷

۲.  دومین بخش از برنامه ها، حضور در رسانه است که بین ۱۴ تا ۲۲ فروردین ۱۳۹۸ برگزار می شود. در طول این مدت، برنامه های متعدد رادیو و تلویزیونی اجرا می شود یا در مطبوعات مکتوب می گردد.

تصویری از یکی از برنامه های تلویزیونی سال ۱۳۹۷ (در دهه بزرگداشت روز جهانی اتیسم) 

۳. طبق سنوات گذشته، مراسم با برگزاری جشنی در یکی از مراکز فرهنگی با شرکت خانواده ها و افراد موثر در حوزۀ اتیسم برگزار می شود

سخنرانی سرکار خانم دکتر ناهید خداکرمی در مراسم پایانی دهۀ بزرگداشت رور جهانی اتیسم  در سال ۱۳۹۷

Children who have been exposed to digital media for several hours a day from a very young age, miss the opportunity to interact with their mother or caregiver and do not receive the rich environmental experiences that are necessary for the normal development of the nervous system. Also, children’s extreme use of digital devices increases the risk of overweight and obesity, changes in eating habits and sleep patterns, structural changes in the brain, motor and language delays, vocabulary weakness, verbal intelligence, executive functions, as well as emotional, communication, social and behavioral problems are associated. Recent studies have shown that extreme exposure of young children to digital devices can cause symptoms of pseudo-autism in young children. In fact, at a critical age for brain development and neurological flexibility, toddlers are attracted to the many auditory and visual stimuli of digital devices and lose the social stimuli around them. As child grows in non-communicative context, the brain’s circuits related to receiving and processing non-social stimuli evolve, in this way the specificity of the brain in non-communicative circuits prevents the child from paying attention to social stimuli and the evolution of the social circuits of toddler’s brain. In fact, long term exposure of toddlers to digital devices (digital midwifery) in sensitive growth periods such as social deprivation, restructuring of structural and functional links in the brain of toddlers is distorted and leads to impairment in social and verbal interactions, repetitive behaviors and stereotypes.

According to these cases, a study of investigating the effectiveness of enriching the parent-child relationship and removing digital devices from children’s lives on pseudo-autism behaviors and brain activity of 12 children under 4 years of age, who exposed to digital devices more than half of their waking hours conducted at Shahid Beheshti University.

The results of this study showed that after two months of intensive interaction between parents and children, their symptoms of pseudo-autism were significantly reduced, and their brain waves activity specially in the frontal areas of the brain, has undergone significant changes that are consistent with improvements in communication skills. The findings of this study show the need for human interactions in the early years and the avoidance of the use of digital devices by children and poor lifestyle in terms of communication.

In this study it is assumed that that post birth epigenetic changes caused by environmental conditions, especially in susceptible children, can affect the development and proper development of the brain in early life, causing a rage of autism disorders. One of these factors is the lack of proper interaction between mother and child in the sensitive period after birth.

During this sensitive period, certain physiological changes occur in the central nervous system, which have a significant effect on brain function and behavior in later life.

Due to unknown nature of this disorder and the ethical limitations of human studies, it is necessary to conduct animal studies to investigate the causes and treatment strategies.

At present, a research team with various experts in the field of clinical psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience has been formed in the Laboratory of Evolutionally Neurology of the Research Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences of Shahid Beheshti University in collaboration with the University of Aarhus Denmark to analyze animal studies in order to find possible causes and treatments for autism spectrum disorder.

In this regard, a project has been defined according to which the effect of separation from the mother during infancy on the development of Pseudo-autism behaviors in mice was investigated.

For this purpose, the mice were separated from the mother for three hours daily during infancy. During adolescence, the effect of separation from the mother on the development of pseudo-autism behaviors as well as brain structure was investigated using three-dimensional studies of stereology. The results of this study showed that mice that were isolated from their mothers exhibited pseudo-autism behaviors, such as defects in social behavior and repetitive behaviors, compared with mice that grew naturally. A study of brain structure showed that the hippocampal area of the brain of mice with autism was significantly larger than the normal group. The results of this study show the effect of environmental factors, especially the correct parent-child interaction on brain development in the first years of life and its behavioral consequences in the development of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

In the continuation of this project, the effects of drug and environmental therapy on these pseudo-autism behaviors resulting from maternal separation in mice are being investigated. It is hoped that a step will be taken to identify and treat this disorder.

1. Mounireh Mansouri
2. Hamidreza Pouretemad
3. Maryam Ardalan
4. Gregers Wenger
5. Mehrdad Roghani