Post by momofautistic on Feb 26, 2005 0:24:24 GMT -5
Neural Retraining Initiative
2003 Project Cost: $500,000
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Michael Merzenich
Francis Sooy Professor
Department of Otolaryngology
Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience
University of California, San Francisco
The most exciting news in neuroscience in the last five years is the idea of neuroplasticity - the concept that the brain continues to grow and change throughout life. There have been amazing breakthroughs in the treatment of stroke and dyslexia through neural retraining. Using specialized education techniques, the brain is able to rewire around damaged or undeveloped areas and re-regulate the way it deals with sensory input.
Cure Autism Now is compiling an integrated team of scientific leaders to focus on bringing these techniques to bear on autism to find non-pharmacological ways to retrain the brains of the very young and those most affected by autism that in many instances are not able to speak at all. This group would be a combination of leaders in the field of neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, animal model development, and engineering. We have already begun work with Dr. Michael Merzenich from the University of California - San Francisco who is a leader in this field and the developer of Fast ForWord - a family of programs that has been very effective in helping those with dyslexia rapidly improve language, reading and learning skills.
The outcome of this effort would be a combination of tools and techniques that could make a significant impact on those severely affected by autism. The results will also have applications beyond autism - and could be helpful in cerebral palsy or traumatic head injury.
Initial Project: Development of a New Generation of Computer-Implemented Training Tools Designed for Therapeutic Application in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The primary objective of this research and development project is to design, produce, and test the application of new training tools designed to ameliorate the expressions of autism Spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to test new strategies designed to prevent the emergence of the full expression of ASD symptoms in at-risk infants.
Initial funding shall support studies designed to provide crucial preliminary information that shall help set up the accelerated development of these new treatment strategies. With this support:
Important preliminary studies conducted in animal models of autism origin shall be completed.
Limited behavioral and brain imaging studies that can contribute importantly to the further definition of neurological deficits and to the further extension of origins hypotheses shall be conducted in ASDs.
An initial set of training tools shall be produced, and tested in 3- to 10-year-old ASDs.
Collectively, we believe that these proposed experiments are as important as are any now being directed toward the therapeutic training of ASD children. They hold out the real hope that ASD may be preventable in many at-risk children, may be significantly reversible in at least some very young ASD children, and that through understanding the neurology of the origins of, and the expressions of ASD, much more effective training tools can be developed
2003 Project Cost: $500,000
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Michael Merzenich
Francis Sooy Professor
Department of Otolaryngology
Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience
University of California, San Francisco
The most exciting news in neuroscience in the last five years is the idea of neuroplasticity - the concept that the brain continues to grow and change throughout life. There have been amazing breakthroughs in the treatment of stroke and dyslexia through neural retraining. Using specialized education techniques, the brain is able to rewire around damaged or undeveloped areas and re-regulate the way it deals with sensory input.
Cure Autism Now is compiling an integrated team of scientific leaders to focus on bringing these techniques to bear on autism to find non-pharmacological ways to retrain the brains of the very young and those most affected by autism that in many instances are not able to speak at all. This group would be a combination of leaders in the field of neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, animal model development, and engineering. We have already begun work with Dr. Michael Merzenich from the University of California - San Francisco who is a leader in this field and the developer of Fast ForWord - a family of programs that has been very effective in helping those with dyslexia rapidly improve language, reading and learning skills.
The outcome of this effort would be a combination of tools and techniques that could make a significant impact on those severely affected by autism. The results will also have applications beyond autism - and could be helpful in cerebral palsy or traumatic head injury.
Initial Project: Development of a New Generation of Computer-Implemented Training Tools Designed for Therapeutic Application in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The primary objective of this research and development project is to design, produce, and test the application of new training tools designed to ameliorate the expressions of autism Spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to test new strategies designed to prevent the emergence of the full expression of ASD symptoms in at-risk infants.
Initial funding shall support studies designed to provide crucial preliminary information that shall help set up the accelerated development of these new treatment strategies. With this support:
Important preliminary studies conducted in animal models of autism origin shall be completed.
Limited behavioral and brain imaging studies that can contribute importantly to the further definition of neurological deficits and to the further extension of origins hypotheses shall be conducted in ASDs.
An initial set of training tools shall be produced, and tested in 3- to 10-year-old ASDs.
Collectively, we believe that these proposed experiments are as important as are any now being directed toward the therapeutic training of ASD children. They hold out the real hope that ASD may be preventable in many at-risk children, may be significantly reversible in at least some very young ASD children, and that through understanding the neurology of the origins of, and the expressions of ASD, much more effective training tools can be developed
