'People should be allowed to do what they like': Autistic adults' views and experiences of stimming

'Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements' are characterised as core features in the diagnosis of autism, yet many autistic adults (and the neurodiversity movement) have reclaimed them as 'stimming'. Supported by a growing body of scientific research, autistic adults argue that these behaviours may serve as useful coping mechanisms, yet little research has examined stimming from the perspective of autistic adults. Through interviews and focus groups, we asked 32 autistic adults to share their perceptions and experiences of stimming, including the reasons they stim, any value doing so may hold for them and their perceptions of others' reactions to stimming. Using thematic analysis, we identified two themes: stimming as (1) a self-regulatory mechanism and (2) lacking in social acceptance, but can become accepted through understanding. Autistic adults highlighted the importance of stimming as an adaptive mechanism that helps them to soothe or communicate intense emotions or thoughts and thus objected to treatment that aims to eliminate the behaviour.

Mapping the Autistic Advantage from the Accounts of Adults Diagnosed with Autism: A Qualitative Study

Background: Autism has been associated with specific cognitive strengths. Strengths and weaknesses have traditionally been conceptualized as dichotomous.

Methods: We conducted 28 semi-structured interviews with autistic adults. Maximum variation sampling was used to ensure diversity in relation to support needs. We asked which personal traits adults attributed to their autism, and how these have helped in the workplace, in relationships, and beyond. Data were collected in two stages. Responses were analyzed using content and thematic techniques.

Results: The ability to hyperfocus, attention to detail, good memory, and creativity were the most frequently described traits. Participants also described specific qualities relating to social interaction, such as honesty, loyalty, and empathy for animals or for other autistic people. In thematic analysis we found that traits associated with autism could be experienced either as advantageous or disadvantageous dependent on moderating influences. Moderating influences included the social context in which behaviors occurred, the ability to control behaviors, and the extent to which traits were expressed.

Conclusions: Separating autistic strengths from weaknesses may be a false dichotomy if traits cannot be isolated as separate constructs of strengths or deficits. If attempts to isolate problematic traits from advantageous traits are ill conceived, there may be implications for interventions that have reduction in autistic traits as a primary outcome measure.

Selective patient and public involvement: The promise and perils of pharmaceutical intervention for autism

BACKGROUND

Guidelines suggest the patient community should be consulted from the outset when designing and implementing basic biomedical research, but such patient communities may include conflicting views. We examined how engagement occurred in one such instance.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to scrutinize patient and public involvement (PPI) by a pan-European biomedical consortium working to develop drugs to treat autism. We aimed to use this as an example to illustrate how PPI has been utilized in biomedical research.

SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND ANALYSIS

Two public events, one in the UK and one in Denmark were conducted as part of the consortium's on-going PPI activities in 2014 and 2015. Sixty-six individuals submitted written comments on the consortium's research after these events. The textual data produced were analysed using a thematic approach. Approximately 71% of respondents reported themselves to be adults on the autism spectrum or parents of children with autism.

RESULTS

The themes identified illustrated major differences between some community concerns and the biomedical research agenda. While treating autism per se. was seen as problematic by some, treating specific co-occurring problems was seen as helpful in some circumstances. The biomedical consortium selected PPI with a limited user viewpoint at its outset and more widely once basic research was on-going.

DISCUSSION

This case illustrates what we term "selective PPI" where only a sympathetic and/or limited patient viewpoint is included. Findings highlight the perils of using selective PPI to legitimise scientific endeavours, and the possibilities for constructive dialogue.

Multiphase patterns in periodically forced oscillatory systems

Periodic forcing of an oscillatory system produces frequency locking bands within which the system frequency is rationally related to the forcing frequency. We study extended oscillatory systems that respond to uniform periodic forcing at one quarter of the forcing frequency (the 4:1 resonance). These systems possess four coexisting stable states, corresponding to uniform oscillations with successive phase shifts of pi/2. Using an amplitude equation approach near a Hopf bifurcation to uniform oscillations, we study front solutions connecting different phase states. These solutions divide into two groups: pi fronts separating states with a phase shift of pi and pi/2 fronts separating states with a phase shift of pi/2. We find a type of front instability where a stationary pi front "decomposes" into a pair of traveling pi/2 fronts as the forcing strength is decreased. The instability is degenerate for an amplitude equation with cubic nonlinearities. At the instability point a continuous family of pair solutions exists, consisting of pi/2 fronts separated by distances ranging from zero to infinity. Quintic nonlinearities lift the degeneracy at the instability point but do not change the basic nature of the instability. We conjecture the existence of similar instabilities in higher 2n:1 resonances (n=3,4, em leader) where stationary pi fronts decompose into n traveling pi/n fronts. The instabilities designate transitions from stationary two-phase patterns to traveling 2n-phase patterns. As an example, we demonstrate with a numerical solution the collapse of a four-phase spiral wave into a stationary two-phase pattern as the forcing strength within the 4:1 resonance is increased.

Impulse patterning and relaxational propagation in excitable media

Wavetrains of impulses in homogeneous excitable media relax during propagation toward constant-speed patterns. Here we present a study of this relaxation process. Starting with the basic reaction-diffusion or cable equations, we derive kinematics for the trajectories of widely spaced impulses in the form of ordinary differential equations for the set of times at which impulses arrive at a given point in space. Stability criteria derived from these equations allow us to determine the possible asymptotic forms of propagating trains. When the recovery after excitation is monotonic, only one stable train exists for a given propagation speed. In the case of an oscillatory recovery, however, many stable trains are possible. This essential difference between monotonic and oscillatory recoveries manifests itself in qualitatively distinct relaxational behaviors.