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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Dementia and autism
I was interested to read your article about damaged areas of the brain possibly explaining confusion in dementia patients (April issue). I was diagnosed autistic when I was 38 and I noticed a lot of similarities with my own experience in relation to coping with small changes. I, along with many other autistic people, often find small changes disorientating or distressing. I would be fascinated to know whether the same areas in the multiple demand network of the brain are noticeably different in autistic people. I also struggle with multitasking and am curious whether that is related to the same area of the brain.
This exact study was not conducted with autistic people, but other researchers have identified differences in frontal areas of the brain in autistic people compared with controls. Other research has also demonstrated difficulties with ‘executive control’ (including multitasking and task switching) in autistic people, but it’s a controversial and complex area of study because some experts believe at least some of the differences seen in autism might be due to other factors having to do with motivation and social challenges, rather than to do with cognitive impairments per se.
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Puppy love
In the article titled ‘Does Your Dog Really Love You?’ (May issue), a reasonable conclusion is drawn that dogs have evolved to form a stronger attachment to humans than their wolf ancestors. However, it is also likely that the persecution of wolves has caused their evolution too, as only those wolves that were most wary of humans have survived.
Frozen in ice?
I have a theory regarding the origin of the current COVID pandemic. Is it not possible that this virus has been ‘locked up’ for millennia in glaciers and permafrost, which are now melting due to global warming, and releasing bugs into our atmosphere? What other atmosphere borne bugs might be released on further melting? Or am I just a crackpot (wife’s words)?
Thawing permafrost could lead to the release of viruses that have lain dormant in the frozen ground. It’s a worry, but their potential for transmission is limited by there being so few people around to infect. A number of studies point to the most likely source of the COVID outbreak being an infected animal at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China.
Daniel Bennett, editor
YY not?
Your interview with geneticist Turi King in the April issue says that sex is determined by the 23rd pair of chromosomes: comprising either two X chromosomes or an X and a Y. Is it possible to have the third permutation of two Ys, and if so, how would this affect gender?
While the most common combination of sex chromosomes is either XX or XY, it is possible to be born with other combinations. The most common of these are Turner syndrome (where a person is born with just one X chromosome and is female (X0)), Triple-X (where someone is born with more than two X chromosomes and is female (XXX)), Klinefelter syndrome (where a male has more than one X chromosome (XXY)), and XYY syndrome (where a male is born with more than one Y chromosome).
Prof Turi King, geneticist
More than a myth
I would not be quite so hasty to conclude that “the idea that kids go crazy when it’s windy seems to be no more than an urban myth” (May issue). In my teaching days, it certainly seemed to me that children become restless and uneasy on very windy days, and was frequently corroborated by colleagues.
Here in Norfolk, I’ve often heard it said that horses and farm animals become anxious and confused during high winds because they lose their sense of smell. Some suggest that this is the consequence of an evolutionary response.
A creature such as a zebra on the plains of Africa would rely on its sense of smell to detect a predator lurking in the long grass. So it’s easy to see how being deprived of the sense of smell could have led to distress. Perhaps a vestige of that ancient response has remained with humans to the present day.
Alan Johnson, Norfolk
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