An interesting possibility; a potential therapy?

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Supposedly, the white-matter shortage in the brain of an Asperger's patient seems to be concentrated in the left hemisphere of the brain. I'm curious as to whether a person with Asperger's could be aided in motor development by training the right-hand side of the brain to take over for some of the motors. Rather, by teaching an Asperger's patient to work with the opposite from normal hand. I am uncertain, however, how ambidexterity training works. Does it merely train the left-hand side of the brain to better handle the motion of the opposite from normal side of the body, or is my conjecture correct that the right-hand side of the brain is encouraged to play a greater role in the motors? I am interested in giving it a shot, myself, and, if nothing else, I'll have taught myself to write left-handedly. I think that working from this toward adapting the right hemisphere to linear functions could help to repair some of my problem areas. However, I could always just be taking an attractive concept further than it deserves. It was, at the very least, interesting enough to impart unto this forum, I believe, but I attach the admission that this mostly consists of partial knowledge working with wild speculation.

I dont think it would do much good.

Ive always been ambidextrous and HFA.

Hmm... It is an intrigueing idea.

However, a lot of work goes into teaching someone to use their other hand for fine movements. Don't start with writing, that's too difficult for a brain and hand without some other training, I'd imagine. Instead, try to incorporate using your left hand with your daily actions. Brushing your teeth? Use your left hand. Eating with a fork or spoon? Use your left hand. Combing your hair? Left hand. Basically, in situations where you'd normally use your right hand for fine movement and/or the manipulation of objects, use your left hand.

But how old are you? It becomes exceedingly difficult to learn ambidexterity as we age, because we lose neuroplasticity (something we have a lot of in our childhood and adolescence). At least, as far as I know, anyway.

Please, do post updates as you continue with this.

I'm twenty-three, but I'm already right-hand dominant in some activities, including the opening of doors and, most especially, touch-typing. I sometimes feel more comfortable, if I am tired, merely reaching across the keyboard with my left-hand and giving the right-hand a break, cutting my typing rate only to slightly greater than half my usual. I think that I can adapt this preliminary motor handling to writing, though. I can move at a fair clip if I'm holding myself steady with my dominant hand. Now, I'd like to analyze the feel of the differences here and see if I can work out how to gear the right hemisphere also to linear thought and social skill development.

Neuroplasticity isn't completely in the grave until you've hit your thirties, in most cases. At least as far as I know.

Writing isnt a very good indicator of side dominance since its about half and half natural dexterity and muscle memory/training.

Without practice even people who are ambidextrous have poor handwriting in their off hand.

Yes. Ambidexterity might be a non-sequitur to dealing with the problems naturally related to AS. However, I think it was a nifty concept, the possibility of readapting the non-deficient hemisphere to the parts of thinking in which the left is deficient. I was thinking that, in this way, we could somehow skirt around the problems of AS if some approach could be found to encouraging this course of development. My greatest interest was in whether one side of the brain could be retrained to tasks usually handled by the opposite.

Yes, different parts of the brain can learn to do different things than what they evolved for.

Different regions of the brain can be "re-assigned" new tasks. People who are extremely good at something, art, maths, music, etc. sometimes engage different regions of the brain than those who are less proficient.

Theoretically, you could get an entire hemisphere to adapt to skills it isn't used to. Not every person uses the left brain for language/mathematics/sequential thought, some have switch hemispheres, with the left taking on the role of the right and the right taking on the role of the left. However, trying to change the role of an entire hemisphere of the brain, or even just parts of the hemisphere, is difficult. Especially if you've lost a significant amount of neuroplasticity.

To the poster who mentioned the cut-off date for neuroplasticity, I thought that most neuroplasticity was lost after 25 on average, not thirty. Even in that period of 20-30 (depending on what the average date really is) the remaining neuroplasticity is still a mere shadow of former glory.

Well, I'm late maturing in most every respect, so I said 30 because I'm apt to hit the maximum :P

Anyway, do you think that aspies who somehow self-fix later in adolescence use this switch-brain method for some tasks? For me, the negative symptoms seem to have been declining since about mid-adolescence. It's about the same time I threw a bunch of pills in my pop's face and told him I'm better off dead than living in a pill prison :P. They never realized how much of a turning point that was for me. They're still convinced I'm managing get along with normal people more easily in spite of being off the meds and never admitted that choosing them over "time consuming" therapy and training was a mistake. What I decided was that I needed to retrain myself to associate with people properly, forcing myself to maintain eye contact in spite of feeling like a frightened lamb and reigning in the tantrums like I would a misbehaving horse. What I may have done was merely train myself to somewhat "unnatural" approaches to people and to myself. That is, I may have drastically rewired my own brain to work around the problems associated with AS. I am pleasantly affirmed that I may have made real and permanent changes.

I think many aspies do learn to mask their traits if they are forced to do so for survival...ie...no family to provide basic needs:money,house,food.That is part of the reason it is more difficult to DX adults.Some of the ways we learn to adapt may be unhealthy....chemical addiction to socialize.I know that for me,the very traits that make me appear both very independent and very childlike and vulnerable,actually "attract" certain kind of people.Some of them to exploit but others who like to be
"saviors" or "knights on white horses".This may mostly apply to females,such as my self.I cant speak for anyone but myself,though.

I also think I learned to read "differently".I wonder if I dont use a different part of my brain for this.I would love to get a MRI while reading.I have loved words and letters for as long as I can remember.Yet,inspite of millions of hours and words...I still have difficulty spelling.When I read it is like watching a movie and totally effortless.(unlesss it is something I find boring or poorly written and then it is almost impossible or painful).

What I have read about the autistic brain...is that there are multiple areas effected.Part of the problem is that certain areas are smaller and there is less connection between the hemispheres themselves.People who have had medical damage to brain areas...even adults,have been able to learn new skills,it's just more difficult.I dont know if there are any types of "brain exercises" could be harmful to people with AS.I do wonder if it might take away some of the positive aspie traits.When I was trying to "be normal",learning how to be more social,care about my appearance,etc...I did have less time to be creative in the area of my interests.It wasnt worth it to me.A matter of priority,I guess.

I think many aspies do learn to mask their traits if they are forced to do so for survival...ie...no family to provide basic needs:money,house,food.That is part of the reason it is more difficult to DX adults.Some of the ways we learn to adapt may be unhealthy....chemical addiction to socialize.I know that for me,the very traits that make me appear both very independent and very childlike and vulnerable,actually "attract" certain kind of people.Some of them to exploit but others who like to be
"saviors" or "knights on white horses".This may mostly apply to females,such as my self.I cant speak for anyone but myself,though.

I also think I learned to read "differently".I wonder if I dont use a different part of my brain for this.I would love to get a MRI while reading.I have loved words and letters for as long as I can remember.Yet,inspite of millions of hours and words...I still have difficulty spelling.When I read it is like watching a movie and totally effortless.(unlesss it is something I find boring or poorly written and then it is almost impossible or painful).

What I have read about the autistic brain...is that there are multiple areas effected.Part of the problem is that certain areas are smaller and there is less connection between the hemispheres themselves.People who have had medical damage to brain areas...even adults,have been able to learn new skills,it's just more difficult.I dont know if there are any types of "brain exercises" could be harmful to people with AS.I do wonder if it might take away some of the positive aspie traits.When I was trying to "be normal",learning how to be more social,care about my appearance,etc...I did have less time to be creative in the area of my interests.It wasnt worth it to me.A matter of priority,I guess.

Do you have an instant messenger that we could use to converse outside of this forum? I have AIM, MSN, and Google Talk. I am OghmanDruid in AIM and Druidus[at]gmail[dot]com is my email.

Perhaps what you are doing is developing a social intelligence. I have read that Aspergean brains try to solve social problems with their generalized intelligence. As if the social problem were a puzzle as opposed to a social happening. I doubt that Aspergeans have completely lost their social intelligence, that's absurd. Therefore, perhaps in forcing eye-contact and the other things you did, you kindled the flame of your social intelligence. It finally began to truly develop because you forced it out of its young stage of development.

Compare it to the growth of a tree. Without water and sustenance, the plant will wither/not grow at all. If a seed is released too early, before it develops enough, it will not grow without special help. The social intelligence of an Aspergean is like a seed released too early. It developed, but not enough to keep developing naturally. Instead, perhaps something else is necessary, such as the eye contact forcing you mentioned. These might spark the social intelligence and bring it just over the level necessary for it to maintain itself and grow (though perhaps not to the full extent it would have achieved were the child not Aspergean).

Of course, that's very conjectural.

I was speaking of actually rewiring the brain, itself, though, Krex. I hope that extensive training, if an effective program can be found, could correct some of the developmental problems, with merely some generalized oddities of character showing up during adulthood. Isn't it true that aspies often improve over time? From my reading, the white matter deficits are concentrated mainly in the left hemisphere, which sparked my imagination somewhat. This isn't directly related to the problems with sensorimotor control in case you're wondering. I believe that mere practice can positively affect coordination and motor control.

Druidus, Gmail coming at you.

Current knowledge contradicts old!! !!

1. There are fewer neurons than thought before, and females supposedly have even FEWER. "normal" females anyway. Dendrites are supposedly less plastic, and females supposedly have more. Glial cells can support and effectively emulate neurons to some degree. BTW Glial cells DO grow, and ARE repaired! MAN, what a concept! ALSO, babys do some neat things, but there IS some trick involved! And I am finding that a lot of the beliefs are myths. So I wouldn't engrave that headstone just yet.

BTW I fit the AS profile. I can understand a lot of social things, react, etc... It's a shame I can't understand it all, or react fast enough to some things. If I thought about it more, MAYBE. BTW I can certainly learn social things, etc... But it is often like an inside joke, and you are left trying to figure it out. LUCKILY, that isn't usually THAT necessary. As for the hand bit, outside of writing, I now use both hands pretty much equally. I ALSO try to do as many things as possible using both at once for different tasks. As for looking into a persons eyes, I sometimes do THAT too. I HAVE done writing with both hands before though. My mother is ambidextrous. It doesn't seem to make her any more capable.

Steve