The organic etiology of infantile autism: A critical review of the literature

The Neurodevelopmental Frontostriatal Disorders: Evolutionary Adaptiveness and Anomalous Lateralization

“…Similarly, Fein et al (1996) review recent studies indicating failure of young autistic adults to shown normal metabolic brain asymmetries (both resting state and task activated) and altered or reversed patterns of lateralized electrophysiological measures. A left-hemisphere language deficit has long been hypothesized (Sanua, 1986), but this position is extensively criticized by Fein et al (1984); moreover Ozonoff and Miller (1996), studying performance on pragmatic language aspects, thought normally to be mediated by the right hemisphere, conclude in favor of righthemisphere damage. Sanua (1986) and Bryson (1990) also review the evidence of reduced, reversed, or delayed asymmetries in behavioral and handlaterality tasks; Annett (1997) considers the latter in more detail from a genetic viewpoint.…”

“…A left-hemisphere language deficit has long been hypothesized (Sanua, 1986), but this position is extensively criticized by Fein et al (1984); moreover Ozonoff and Miller (1996), studying performance on pragmatic language aspects, thought normally to be mediated by the right hemisphere, conclude in favor of righthemisphere damage. Sanua (1986) and Bryson (1990) also review the evidence of reduced, reversed, or delayed asymmetries in behavioral and handlaterality tasks; Annett (1997) considers the latter in more detail from a genetic viewpoint. Haznedar et al (1997) report that regions within the right anterior cingulate are significantly smaller in relative volume, and metabolically less active, in autistic patients than in normal subjects, while Teitelbaum et al (1998) find evidence of movement disturbances in the early months of life in autistic children, which typically occur on the right side of the body.…”

Víctor D. Sanua (1920-2009) y la Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología

“…El autismo infantil, como ya hemos señalado, fue asimismo una de sus áreas de mayor interés expresado por numerosas publicaciones (e. g. Sanua, 1981aSanua, , 1984aSanua, , 1984bSanua, , 1986aSanua, , 1986bSanua, , 1987Sanua, , 1989, siendo el editor de Interamerican Newsletter of Infantile Autism. En esta misteriosa área de la psicopatología, Sanua formuló el planteamiento (en el mejor de los casos, muy controversial cuando no rechazado; véase Feinstein, 2010, Bakare & Munir, 2011) de que el autismo infantil era una enfermedad propia de la civilización occidental, teniendo mayor frecuencia en países de alto desarrollo tecnológico y en los cuales predominaba la familia nuclear, al mismo tiempo que sostenía, como Kanner (1943;véase además Sanua, 1990), que aparecía en familias de ingresos económicos más elevados.…”

A sibling-paired observational study investigating the accumulation and deficiency of toxic and essential elements in children with autism spectrum disorders

“…Throughout the development of these psychodynamic theories, which to a certain extent, would hinder treatment due to the possibility of parents not wanting to explore therapy as an option in fear that they would be blamed for their children's condition, the progression into the shift in ideology from psychodynamics to true biological causes. A more rigorous discussion on this progression of ideologies is presented by Sanua (1986) and in general, followed the belief that if a biological/ organic cause is determined then rehabilitation, not only treatment of the ASDs may be possible (Helt et al, 2008). Although psychology cannot be completely ignored as a possible factor, organic environmental factors have been implicated heavily over the last several years due to claims of increased incidences of the ASDs and due to the possibility of linking these organic factors epigenetically (Deth et al, 2008).…”