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Rewiring the Autistic Brain
sciencehabit writes "Signs of autism — such as impaired social skills and repetitive, ritualistic movements — usually begin to appear when a child is about 18 months old. Autism is thought to result from miswired connections in the developing brain, and many experts believe that therapies must begin during a 'critical window,' before the faulty circuits become fixed in place. But a new study (abstract) shows that at least one malfunctioning circuit can be repaired after that window closes, holding out hope that in some forms of autism, abnormal circuits in the brain can be corrected even after their development is complete."
...any experiments along these lines will lead to the subjects developing terrifying mental powers, leading to a series of events ending with the callous lead scientist having his head explode.
We are, in a way. But you know what's to be said about judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree. Only we're like monkeys that have difficulty learning how to climb trees, and perhaps more importantly, don't like climbing trees even if we do learn.
Should we learn how to climb trees? Definitely, you don't know when you might need to climb a tree as a monkey. But perhaps not all monkeys have to climb trees to be monkeys. Maybe they're perfectly happy on the ground using sticks to eat bugs. Not liking climbing trees (and being absolutely terrible at it) shouldn't mean there's something wrong that needs to be corrected.
And think of all the things the ground monkey can explore. On the ground there are rivers to play in and lots more space than up in the trees. And maybe that's what the monkey community needs, monkeys that can find nice fresh sources of water on the ground or somewhere to bathe as well as monkeys that enjoy living their whole lives in trees eating fruit and swinging around.