In honor of April, a very taxing month, I rented The Accountant from Netflix. Ben Affleck stars as Chris Wolff, an adult high-functioning autistic with genius skills in accounting, martial arts, weaponry, and mathematics. He also has the problems of those afflicted with autism and Asperger's, such as difficulties socializing and adapting to unexpected events, and hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch.
There are several mysteries that propel the story: how did the Accountant acquire his skills, what is his relation to law enforcement, some of whom regard him as an arch-criminal, and what's going on with millions of dollars appearing and disappearing from Living Robotics, a company about to have an IPO?
There's a lot of violence and gunplay, and all the major mysteries are explained by the time the credits roll.
I enjoyed the movie not only because of the unusual characteristics of the protagonist but also because the writers took the risk of inserting some finance-geek dialogue. It's about time accountants got respect!
Financial statement analysis unearths the problem
A big reveal, though "not in a commensurate fashion" doesn't have the ring of "Luke, I am your father."
Of course, if you had to pick truth vs lies, we know which one is better (National Autism Resources)
People with autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) [bold added]
indeed have a hard time being untruthful.
This is caused, [Duke professor Murali Doraiswamy) added, by the trouble they have with what specialists in the field call “theory of mind”—that is, the basic ability to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes and empathize with their perspective. Most of us are able to ask ourselves, “How would that person feel if I told them that their haircut is unflattering or that they smell?” Many young people with Asperger’s don’t tend to think this way, so they often don’t develop the habit of telling white lies for reasons of politeness. They don’t learn to dial down unnecessarily hurtful truths to spare another person’s feelings.
We know a number of ASD children and adults, and they do find it difficult to lie. (The more socially adept change the subject or keep silent.) However, it's been our experience that it's not their excessive truthfulness that gets them into trouble but their physical reactions---not necessarily violent---in social situations.
It's no wonder that ASD kids 1) Like computers, video games, and other screen-based media, yet 2) Stay away from social forms of the technology.
Some forms of autism may have a biological basisnot originating from malfunctioning of the brain [bold added]:
WHAT causes autism is a mystery. One theory is that a phenomenon called the cellular-danger response lies at the root of it. The CDR makes cells put their ordinary activities on hold and instead switch on their defence systems, in reaction to high levels in the bloodstream of chemicals called purines. These are important and widespread substances: ATP, a molecule that shuttles energy around cells, is a purine; so are half the “genetic letters” in DNA. Cells under viral attack tend to shed them. Too many of them in the blood can thus be a signal of viral infection. In that case activating the CDR makes perfect sense. But studies have shown that people with autism (and also those with some other brain conditions, such as schizophrenia) often seem to have chronic CDR. The purine signal has somehow got stuck in the “on” position.
Why this happens is obscure. But it has occurred to Robert Naviaux of the University of California, San Diego, that once the signal is stuck in this way, chronic CDR might, by subverting the function of crucial brain cells, be the immediate cause of the symptoms of autism. In a series of experiments, the latest of which has just been published in Translational Psychiatry, he makes a plausible case that this is exactly what is happening—and he also illuminates a route to a possible treatment.
Experiments showed that inducing CDR in mice caused the mice to show symptoms of human autism, i.e., "fear of strangers, fear of novelty and poor co-ordination." Dr. Naviaux was able to reverse the symptoms in the mice by using a powerful drug, suramin, that counters the cellular-danger response. (However, suramin has damaging side-effects that make it unsuitable for long-term human use.)
We're miles away from a safe cure for autism, if one even exists, but Dr. Naviaux' work with purines is a significant step in researching a condition that has afflicted thousands of patients and their families.
researchers last week reported that they had identified 34 people who had all been diagnosed with autism by age 5 but years later were indistinguishable from peers on language, socialization and communication skills.
2) Animal studies show that neurons can be turned off and on by using beams of light, possibly leading to cures for psychiatric disorders like depression and drug addiction.
researchers have found they can instantly modify animals' behavior, suppress memories and lay bare the biological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders—all by illuminating neurons primed with light-sensitive proteins...."You can play the brain like a piano."
There are obvious privacy and philosophical concerns about free will and the manipulation of an individual's actions by other human beings, but to the many who must contend with mental illness and diseases like Parkinson's, development of such drug-free treatments seems like a godsend.
Advances in medical science are proceeding at such an astounding pace that one can't be blamed for being hypochondriacally vigilant about one's health. We should all try to stay alive as long as we can; conditions that portended an unhappy future a few years ago have much better prognoses today. Truer than ever: if one has life, one has hope.
A growing body of research shows the gut affects bodily functions far beyond digestion. Studies have shown intriguing links from the gut's health to bone formation, learning and memory and even conditions including Parkinson's disease.
Scientists have unearthed connections from the gut to the brain that have not heretofore been obvious:
Low serotonin levels in the brain are known to affect mood and sleep. Several common antidepressants work by raising levels of serotonin in the brain. Yet about 95% of the serotonin in the body is made in the gut, not in the brain.
And..
In a study of 23 autistic children and nine typically developing kids, a bacterium unique to the intestines of those with autism called Sutterella was discovered.
To these unscientific eyes the relationship between autism and digestion is a far more promising line of study than the pseudo-science that attributed autism to vaccinations.
The Atlantic runs a portrait of the first autism patient (“Case 1 - Donald T. ”), whose condition was documented in 1943. The life of Donald Gray Triplett, now 77, gives hope to every parent of an autistic child. Donald’s parents have been gone over 25 years, and their son “has freedom, independence, and good health. All in all, life has turned out well for autism’s first child.”
Donald’s typical day in Forest, Mississippi, is “morning coffee with friends, a long walk for exercise, a Bonanza rerun on TV, and [a] short drive down Route 80 to get in some golf.”
Donald was blessed with parents of means. More importantly, they indefatigably pursued the best treatments of the day, pulling the plug when they didn’t work. His lawyer father’s 33-page letter to a psychiatrist about his 5-year-old son is the first detailed listing of the symptoms of autism . (It doesn’t say so in the article, but it’s possible that the senior Triplett would today be placed somewhere on the autistic spectrum.)
Donald’s brother, Oliver, looks after him, as do other members of the Forest community. It helps that an irrevocable trust (Donald cannot touch the principal) provides for his basic needs and that his housing--he lives in his parents’ house—is taken care of. Donald is high-functioning; he is proficient with numbers and has learned enough skills to interact with others on a day-to-day basis. (It’s likely, however, that most “normal” people can tell he is “different” within just a few seconds of watching or talking to him.)
Donald reached his potential thanks, in large part, to the world he occupied—the world of Forest, Mississippi—and how it decided to respond to the odd child in its midst. Peter Gerhardt speaks of the importance of any community’s “acceptance” of those who have autism. In Forest, it appears, Donald was showered with acceptance, starting with the mother who defied experts to bring him back home, and continuing on to classmates from his childhood and golfing partners today. Donald’s neighbors not only shrug off his oddities, but openly admire his strengths—while taking a protective stance with any outsider whose intentions toward Donald may not have been sufficiently spelled out.
Whether one agrees with Hillary Clinton’s statement, it’s very clear that it does take a village to look after adults with autism. It also is likely that these special people have a better chance at happy, fulfilling lives in the towns of “flyover country” instead of the urban jungle.
