Published on 12, July, 2020
Suppose you have the funding and technical skills to carry out autism research (e.g., questionnaires, qualitative interviews, MRI, EEG, behavioural experiments, virtual reality, etc). What kind of research question would you like to ask? What autism question do you think is still not well known, and what would be your solution to solving it, or extend current knowledge?
Alot of autistic adults that I have spoken to believe that you are born with autism as it occurs as the brain develops in the womb, however the NHS and many other places state that environmental factors play a part as well as health at birth.
I would like to see further research into children who have had severe birth trauma or early onset sepsis and possible link between this and autism.
What I've heard form most people is that it's an interaction of both genetic and environmental factors. But, yes, it would be very useful to know exactly what those factors are. I think there are some teams that are looking into difficult births, birth trauma, and preterm birth and the effects they have in future life, but it requires establishing a very large database, and waiting for those children to grow up to be able to track them as they develop, so maybe we will know more several years later as these studies become more available and give new insights.
I am probably a bit of an idealist and also undoubtedly overlooking some factors which might impact, but my feeling is that lots of information will already be there, were the research teams directing their work into this area.
Many of us already in our 40s, 50s and 60s would be able to give information about birth trauma and problems in pregnancy (for example, my own mother is in her 80s and has a very clear recollection of her pregnancy and my birth). So some data on how life was affected (or not) will already be there for those of us whose lives are already at least half lived. This might then suggest useful areas for further research in the next generations.
Within my own family I'm convinced it's largely genetic as i can see that many of us are autistic, including some born in very different times (the 1920s) or in another country away from the original family and their ongoing patterns and influences (e.g. third generation of family members in Australia).
I think families like us present a research opportunity but, of course, no researcher has ever approached us.
I guess it's harder to do it retrospectively, as they will need to interview lots of people to collect the information, and it will be based on memories of mothers from 40 years ago. So I guess people who are starting in the field would prefer to the research by starting from recording data in hospitals where it takes place. I remember hearing something about preterm and birth trauma studies being planned for the new Cambridge children's hospital: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-receives-ps100-million-for-major-new-childrens-hospital It's been a while back since I heard about it, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think they will try to record lots of data and look at both physical and mental health in relation to lots of factors.