Daniel Tammet is a self-described high functioning autistic savant with a mastery of language. This incredibly talented and interesting man has synesthesia that affects his perception of language, numbers and colors, so that all three are deeply intertwined. His synesthesia allows him to perceive the world in a phenomenally interesting way. Daniel Tammet gave a [...]

1. Personal Hero: Temple Grandin
2. Daniel Wolpert Asks & Answers: “Why Do We Have Brains?”
3. Julian Treasure: 5 Ways to Listen Better

Ed. note: This week, in the run-up to Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring a 5-part series about the neuroscience of love and romance. At the end, we’ll put the full series on our website. Enjoy! You may have heard of oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone.” Human and animal studies have shown that oxytocin plays a [...]

1. Oxytocin and Autism
2. Your Brain in Love: Part 2 – Love and Marriage
3. Your Brain in Love: Part 1 – When Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

I happened across this video of Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic man whose ability to remember incredible detail and draw it with near perfection is extraordinary. If he flies in a helicopter over a city just once, he can recreate the city perfectly in a drawing. The buildings have the right number of columns and windows. [...]

1. Bobby McFerrin’s Amazing Musical Brain Trick
2. Adelson’s Amazing Optical Illusion
3. When Toddlers Have Talents Far Beyond Their Years

Earlier this month, researchers at the University of South Florida came out with a recommendation for pregnant women: wait longer before cutting the umbilical cord. The researchers conducted a review of the evidence to date and released a paper called Mankind’s First Natural Stem Cell Transplant in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. In [...]

1. Oxytocin and Autism
2. Brain Performance, Kindness and Autism
3. How Do You Teach A 6-Year-Old with Autism to Ride a Bike?

People have been talking about Temple Grandin quite a bit lately, partly because HBO recently released an original movie about her life and achievements starring Claire Danes. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. (If you don’t have HBO, you can make a note to check it out when it’s released [...]

1. Personal Hero: Autistic Savant Daniel Tammet Speaks About “Different Ways of Knowing”
2. Brain Performance, Kindness and Autism
3. Learning, Thinking, Feeling: People vs. Animals

Science magazine is reporting on a new study that found that oxytocin, the so-called “trust hormone”, may be beneficial in dealing with the symptoms of autism. In two small studies conducted in Toronto, researchers administered oxytocin inhalers to children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Following the oxytocin dose, the children, who previously had difficulty interacting [...]

1. Your Brain in Love: Part 4 – Oxytocin, the Love/Hate Hormone
2. How Do You Teach A 6-Year-Old with Autism to Ride a Bike?
3. Brain Performance, Kindness and Autism

Over a recent long weekend I participated in a 4-day camp that teaches children with disabilities how to ride a bike. One of the participants in this camp was my son Daniel, who is six and has autism. The bi-annual camp was put together through a partnership between the Sonoma State Kinesiology department and United [...]

1. Oxytocin and Autism
2. Biking in the city
3. Brain Performance, Kindness and Autism

An impactful experience when my family spent time at Animal Assisted Happiness

1. Oxytocin and Autism
2. Umbilical Cord Clamping, Stem Cells, and Autism – Is There a Link?
3. How Do You Teach A 6-Year-Old with Autism to Ride a Bike?