<story><title>High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism</title><url>https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190729094538.htm</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Zenst</author><text>Maybe so, though equally could just be a small part in a larger puzzle or even a red herring.&lt;p&gt;However, as somebody who is on the autistic spectrum, I have noted that my index and &amp;quot;ring finger&amp;quot;[edit thanks to comment] are of equal lengths, a trait more common in females than males who tend to have one longer - see &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Digit_ratio&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Digit_ratio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another aspect&amp;#x2F;theory from personal experience is that my earliest memory was as a baby, equally I used to have a nightmare that abaieted when I was able to tell my mother who informed me of my birth complications and so much of my nightmare correlated, just seemed so related but then, never know for sure beyond once I knew this, my nightmares stopped.  In short, maybe (least in my case) autistic people senses and other parts of the brain kick in earlier at a time when we are less able to process them and this becomes another party of the puzzle.&lt;p&gt;But would I change if I could go back in time and become normal  is a question I have asked myself and the answer for me is - no, though the thought of what life would of been like, naturally yields to pondering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>erikgaas</author><text>I took a neuroscience course back in the day that discussed findings related to autism. I don&amp;#x27;t remember everything, but there was a discussion on excess dopamine early in the brain and a later depression of glutamate levels. All in all this would lead to more sparsity of neural activations in the brain. This made sense. Too much dopamine would lead to excess plasticity, causing a normal amount of glutamate to have too great of an effect, so the brain compensates by producing less glutamate, producing the same amount of neural activations but now sparsely spread out in a post-plastic brain. From my naive common sense perspective, it would make sense that an autism prevention would be some mechanism to limit plasticity during development. I&amp;#x27;m really stretching argument here, but maybe this has some connection to autism brains &amp;quot;kicking in&amp;quot; early.&lt;p&gt;The connection to estrogen is an interesting one. Estrogen does have an important effect on neurotransmitter receptors, including dopaminergic, but my speculation is worthless here. Is there anyone here that has a better understanding of this that can provide some clarity?</text></comment>
<story><title>High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism</title><url>https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190729094538.htm</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Zenst</author><text>Maybe so, though equally could just be a small part in a larger puzzle or even a red herring.&lt;p&gt;However, as somebody who is on the autistic spectrum, I have noted that my index and &amp;quot;ring finger&amp;quot;[edit thanks to comment] are of equal lengths, a trait more common in females than males who tend to have one longer - see &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Digit_ratio&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Digit_ratio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another aspect&amp;#x2F;theory from personal experience is that my earliest memory was as a baby, equally I used to have a nightmare that abaieted when I was able to tell my mother who informed me of my birth complications and so much of my nightmare correlated, just seemed so related but then, never know for sure beyond once I knew this, my nightmares stopped.  In short, maybe (least in my case) autistic people senses and other parts of the brain kick in earlier at a time when we are less able to process them and this becomes another party of the puzzle.&lt;p&gt;But would I change if I could go back in time and become normal  is a question I have asked myself and the answer for me is - no, though the thought of what life would of been like, naturally yields to pondering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bogwog</author><text>That digit ratio stuff has always weirded me out. There are even some studies that show certain ratios correspond with homosexuality. That wikipedia page even has a huge table with a list of stuff like having a high digit ratio corresponds to reduced financial trading ability, and a low digit ratio corresponds to a longer penis.&lt;p&gt;That shit is weird.</text></comment>