Investigating Autistic Savants

When I hear the word autism. I automatically think about people with disabilities. Most people with autism have difficulty communicating with people. It could be due to their inability to speak or their shyness. In rare cases some autistic children are discovered with superhuman skills. They range from being able to play an instrument completely from memory, drawing an entire city from memory, reading two pages at once in less than 3 seconds and do massive calculations in head. Scientists believe that they gain something for loosing other abilities. Scientists are trying to analyze the autistic savants to see how they are able to perform such superhuman abilities. It is hypothesized that by chance someone can become a savant by being hit on the head with an object. There are several cases of such examples which led to another hypothesis that everybody holds the capability hidden within themselves to become a savant.


Works Cited:
1. http://www.neatorama.com/2008/09/05/10-most-fascinating-savants-in-the-world/
2. Gerald Newport. (2006). How do they do it? insight on calendar skills from an asperger's savant. Journal of Autism and Developmental disorders, 36(No. 2),

The internet source is not from a scholarly reviewed website but using common sense one can tell that the author is not lying about the information given out. The author has many links that lead to their original articles and sources that are peer reviewed and legit news articles.

late realization

Last Thursday I went to Pep boys to get my engine oil changed. Back then i didn't realize it but when we talked about boys being trapped in a female body and girls being trapped in a male body issue, I realized that the encounter was related to Developmental Biology. At the first glance I thought it was just a regular couple, but at the second glance I noticed some lumps on the chest area of the supposedly male partner. As I examined that person closer I realized "he" was actually a "she". It was hard to distinguish at the first glance because she was dressed in a hip hop style fashion. She wore baggy pants that showed her boxers on her rear and very loose T-shirt with a baseball cap. Other than her partial looks and voice, she resembled a typical male. She acted like a boyfriend would to her partner and portrayed manliness. At that time i thought she was just a typical tom girl, but now that i ponder about the encounter more thoroughly, I realize that she could have been a boy trapped inside of a female body. She may have been born male but was somehow surgically treated at birth and was administered with estrogen hormone supplements. Another theory would be that she was lacking the right genes to have Wolffian ducts formed. Whatever the case may be we can't find out for sure unless we have her DNA tested. I believe that I'll pay more attention to such people more than ever thanks to the developmental Biology class.

Reflection on the past few weeks of school

Thinking about my past weekends, I realize that I haven't been productive at all. I always planned to get ahead in school work before the weekends started but at the end of each weekend I would find myself frustrated at the fact that I didn't get anything done that I had planned. Another weekend is coming up and again I have planned to get some school work done, but I don't know if I'll be able to any of them. I am a person that needs someone to push me if I want to get anything done. I tried to read ahead or at least catch up with the materials being taught in Developmental Biology class but to no one's surprise I didn't do it. When Joel asked about conjoined twins on D2L, I looked up some information. That was the only time I actually put some input for the class. I want to complain that this class has the most homework and most assignments written down in my student handbook were and are for this class. But if I think about it, if i didn't have these assignments I wouldn't have learned about the formation of gonads on my own. The case studies actually motivated me by grabbing my attention. I was always curious about how it was decided whether an embryo would form into a boy or a girl. We have yet to learn about it completely but now I know that there needs to be many enzymes and genes present for the Mullerian or Wolffian ducts to form or disintegrate. I don't really know what kind of study method suits me the best because i have not given my best trying to study with a certain method. But I believe that I can learn things better when they are visually simulated.

I hope that i can push myself to study/read ahead so that I can put more input of my knowledge into the class. I want to be more familiar about the sexual differentiation of humans before the weekend is over.

Dictionary

Antrum - In the mammalian ovary, the space that develops between follicle cells that fills with liquor folliculi.
Atretic follicles - In a mammalian ovary, the follicles that degenerate during any cycle of follicle maturation, as the dominant follicles go on to mature.
Eosin - An acidic de that has an affinity for cytoplasmic elements. Its yellowish-red color makes it an ideal counter stain to hematoxylin.
Leydig Cells - The interstitial cells of the testis These cells lie between the seminiferous tubules. They secrete testosterone in response to leutinizing hormone.
Oogonium - A developing ovum that is in the gonial stage, dividing by mitosis.
ootid - A developing ovum in the gonotid stage, An ootid is haploid, with each of its chromosomes consisting of single chromatid. The second meiotic division divides the secondary oocyte asymmetrically, producing one ootid and one tiny polar body.
Spermatogonium - A developing sperm in the gonial stage, dividing by mitosis.
spermiogenesis - The differentiation process that transforms a spermatid into a mature spermatozoan.

Works Cited:

Definitions from: Tyler Labmanual

Pictures from (in order):
1) http://www.clevelandclinic.org/reproductiveresearchcenter/images/follicle_antrum01.jpg 2) http://www.ouhsc.edu/histology/Glass%20slides/83_16.jpg
3) http://www.oligos.com/MCRCServlets/images/eosin.gif
4) http://instruction.cvhs.okstate.edu/histology/images/InterstitiumLo.jpg
5) http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISC2006/saprol2.jpg
6) http://www.creationofman.net/chapter1/rescreation/yaratilis219.jpg
7) http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/histology/labmanual2002/labsection3/TestesandSperm03_files/image002.jpg
8) http://www.ccs.k12.in.us/chsBS/kons/kons/images/spermiogenesis.jpg