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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
As a research scientist in biology, I do not doubt that some children with severe symptoms of classical autism can get better. I also don't doubt that they are in the minority.

We don't yet know what causes autism. I've often wondered myself if there is[b] a link to proper or improper myelinization of the brain. [/b]

We may also find, as in inattentive and hyperactive types of ADHD, that different types of autism have actually little to do with each other, and that some have a better prognosis than others.

[/quote]

Do you mind explaining this, and also what would cause it?[/quote]

Oh, it's purely hypothetical on my part. 
Myelin is the fat layer that envelops nerves to increase conductivity, and therefore efficiency of messaging between neurons. It is highly specific yet develops in a very predictable way in normal brains: practicing a specific skill makes more myelin layers in that particular neuronal circuit, making it even faster and highly tuned. This is how infants learn to walk and talk. By dint of listening, observing and imitating sounds or movements, they build up myelin in those circuits and eventually master walking or talking. Same for playing violin or chess.
However, if you don't use that circuit, the myelin degrades. "Practice makes perfect" describes it well.
Perhaps in atypical brains such ADHD and autistic brains, myelin cannot build up in the typical way, even with intense therapeutic focus on certain skill acquisition. There would be a kind of myelin block upstream.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which myelin is progressively destroyed. So myelin could play a role in other brain diseases.

Very fuzzy-wuzzy, isn't it? We're only just realizing the immense power and ramifications of myelin, and studies are pretty thin on the ground. You know Einstein is supposed to have had enormous quantities of it in his brain, whereas his neuron mass was exactly the same as an average brain?

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