SCALP SENSOR: A study that delivered magnetic pulses to the scalps of children with autism and Asperger’s found differences in motor cortical inhibition.JEROME MALLER
Patients with Asperger’s syndrome (AS) display a distinctive suite of characteristics: high intelligence, high functioning, social impairments, and odd speech, movements, and interests. Earlier this year, after countless documented cases since the 1940s, Asperger’s disappeared as an official diagnosis, at least according to the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) used by clinicians. With the elimination of the label, researchers who have studied Asperger’s are now left in the lurch. “They’re trying to research a group that technically doesn’t exist anymore,” says Peter Enticott, an autism researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “That’s a bit frustrating.”
Many in the Asperger’s community were not happy with the changes. Not only might people lose part of how they identify themselves, ...
