[Music]
[Applause]
you
everyone’s brain is amazing we have
almost a hundred billion neurons
connecting to other neurons transmitting
electrical and neuro chemical messages
along familiar pathways and constantly
forging new pathways when these old
pathways are challenged adapting
changing evolving yes that is your brain
it’s my brain too and it’s my good
friend Graham’s brain also every brain
is unique but every human brain is quite
similar to its the connection pathways
that differentiate us my brain is very
unique and my friend Graham’s brain is
also very unique my friend Graham has an
autism spectrum condition and he has
neural pathways that may differ
marginally or quite markedly from what
is considered within the range of normal
I’ve had the pleasure of walking
alongside and conducting extensive
research with so many like Graham we
know that the brain controls most of
behavior in fact it’s a locus of
decision-making whether these decisions
are fast or well-thought-out emotionally
driven which I know I’ve made one or two
of these in my time or rationalized and
methodical besides reflex behavior most
of our behavior is the decision great
well how do we make decisions our
decisions are most commonly products of
our environments to quote Newton for
every action there is an equal or
opposite reaction let me step this out
and give you a simple example okay so I
want you to imagine you’re in the car
getting a lift from someone maybe it’s a
new work colleague and you’re trying to
be polite but then they turn the music
up way too loud what do you do how do
you cope your environment is
uncomfortable maybe a little bit
overwhelming so what’s your decision do
you endure it because you’re ten minutes
from your destination
and you don’t want to offend this kind
person that’s giving you a lift or do
you politely ask them to turn it down
because it’s slightly hurting your ears
but then run the risk of them being
taken aback off think you’re ungrateful
for the ride to the destination
whichever decision you make internally
it’s your behavior that out plays it
externally let’s see what’s going on
here for you now we’re going to focus
only on the sensory auditory aspect
although please keep in mind there’s
visual movement vestibular and tactile
sensory input that’s coming in okay so
when you hear something there are two
major pathways that sound travels
through for your brain to reach an
understanding of the irrelevance or
importance of that sound the first is
the primary auditory pathway which
carries messages exclusively from the
cochlea the second is the sensory
reticular pathway which as you’ve
probably guessed carries all types of
sensory messages the primary auditory
pathway it’s quite short it carries
messages from the cochlear nuclei
containing information about the
frequency intensity and duration of
sound to the superior Oliver E complex
from there the message is delivered to
the superior colliculus which is a role
in the localization of sound the message
is then delivered to the medial
geniculate body which helps establish
your motor responses to that sound so
your vocal responses lastly the message
ends up in the primary auditory cortex
where a decision is made to respond to
that sound and that is just the primary
pathway the non primary pathways are
incredibly valuable also they enable us
to mediate sensory responses via the
reticular pathway of the brainstem and
the mess and cephalus this is so we can
filter out irrelevant sounds which is
very important when we’re sleeping or
maybe conducting some work in a cafe
somewhere but it’s the integrity of
these two pathways that allow us to
consciously perceive sounds
other differences in this pathway for my
friend Graham recent study is concerning
the auditory processing of individuals
on the spectrum found differences in the
latency and amplitude of processing
between typically developing individuals
and individuals with ASD in relation to
speech and pitch sounds when considering
event-related potentials in the brain
those with asd show both increased and
decreased processing speed which makes
sense when you consider the hypo and
hyper sensitive sensory profiles of many
individuals on the spectrum early in the
processing stream way back in the
cochlear it is apparent those with ASD
differ from typically developing
individuals so I want you to imagine not
being able to endure the sound of the
loud music but not having the social
skills to be able to articulate or
communicate through any other means that
your colleague needs to turn the music
down and what if that small space with
the unfamiliar other and blaringly loud
music was impairing any of your ability
to make a rational decision what would
you do imagine trying to encode localize
respond to and filter sounds when that
isn’t the way your brain automatically
responds to sound you feel a little
stressed right after all no one else
seems to have an issue with this this is
just a theoretical example of what it
might be to step into the oftentimes
exhausting life of an individual on the
spectrum and they do whatever they can
to cope most often coping manifests in
the symptom domain are rigid and
repetitive behaviors in which the
individual finds consistency familiarity
and safety this could look like twirling
flicking fingers lining up toy cars or
engaging in a long one-sided
conversation about the molecular
structure of glass and trust me I’ve
been a part of one of those
conversations these are what are known
as low-level coping
is now the general public may recognize
them as odd or slightly strange but
harmless behaviors but I say they’ve
missed the point what is the point then
the point is behavior is a language we
all speak unique behavior language one
we have both learned and inherited
within that language we have a unique
dialect which may vary on context for
example in my home environment I must
speak a particular behavior language
dialect that I share with my family
members but that dialect may differ in a
friendship context so every individual
with ASD may have a unique behavior
dialect but that is often misunderstood
by everyday people like you and I so
imagine like my friend Graham you speak
a particular behavior language but
that’s always misunderstood by your
friends by your family and by the
general public
and what can we do then I say
acknowledge behavior as a communication
method before you judge someone from
their overt behavior ask yourself what
is this behavior trying to say what is
it trying to communicate and from there
you can begin to connect the dots what
preceded this behavior to set it up what
does the behavior itself look like what
were the consequences to the behavior
that could possibly be feeding it and
ultimately what was the purpose of the
behavior the behaviors purpose is called
its function and once you’ve figured
this out you’re in the ballpark of their
behavior language understanding anyone’s
behavior language is an important and
powerful tool to have in building up
great social skills and making
meaningful connections but let me show
you and tell you why it’s so important
to make a meaningful connection with
someone like Graham he struggled at
school so his mother homeschools him
because the bullying from other children
became too in
tense unfortunately this is all too
common on the Gold Coast 81.3% of
children and adolescents with an ASD
reported experiencing bullying at school
worse yet 41.7% of these same
individuals reported they experienced
bullying daily by multiple groups of
people and this is all too common but
now wait a minute I’m gonna play devil’s
advocate for a second these are boys who
have trouble interpreting social
situations how do we actually know what
they’re experiencing is bullying easy
you ask them what bullying is and that’s
what these Gold Coast researchers have
done they asked the boys directly about
what they thought constituted bullying
as you can see in this table here their
responses show that they actually know
what they’re experiencing is bullying it
looks and sounds like to me that these
boys know exactly what is going on and
this is hard to digest for some I know
it was for me the research went further
in depth and investigated the
ramifications of this bullying most of
the boy is reported trying to keep their
emotions inside until they got home
resulting in completely withdrawing or
oftentimes melting down and this is
quite common I’ve spoken to numerous
parents whose child has a meltdown
straight after they finished school
either in the car or at home but what
can we do how connection make a
difference
well I suggest two avenues both
person-to-person connection and neural
pathway to neural pathway connection
both I am familiar with and both I seek
to marry together as a researcher and
clinician the person-to-person
connection is simple seek to understand
their behavior language start to become
multilingual with the behavior languages
of people around you seek to find out
who they are what their sensitivities
are for instance if I wish to connect
with someone like Ryan
and I know who’s sensitive to
fluorescent lighting I’ll engage him in
connection in a room with alternative
lighting small changes like that are so
simple to make yet so prevent that
profound for the individual but what if
you’re already making an effort to
connect what if you’re seeking them out
then that’s amazing well done keep up
the incredible work the world needs more
people like you but what about the
individual with ASD isn’t there evidence
to suggest there are abbyr answers in
the ASD brain when compared to typically
developing individuals yes there are
quite a lot actually and I’ve compiled
just a fraction for you in this table
here well I mean that’s just a little
overwhelming I mean I guess the brain
one I should just go home it looks like
there’s going to be a resounding issues
with socialization communication and
rigidity all their lives because we know
that the brain doesn’t change wrong we
now know that this is incorrect the
brain is plastic it is dynamic it
responds to the environment it even
moderate the expression of genes this is
known as neuroplasticity neuroplasticity
refers to the brain’s ability to
reorganize itself by forming new neural
connections throughout life but what
wait how can this happen and more
importantly what can we do to kick off
this process there are lots of ways
learning for example creates new neural
pathways that challenge old ones and
strengthens new areas of the brain but
every individual learns in a different
way and every individual has a unique
brain with unique strengths and
weaknesses so that could be a bit of a
roundabout way of going about it that’s
why I prefer to go straight to the
source if it’s a neural issue let the
individual look at their brain waves and
change those connections themselves but
how is that possible I’m glad you asked
that’s the beauty of neurofeedback
training trance direct currents
stimulation infra low-frequency training
and other brain training tools we can
use electroencephalography to create a
unique profile of the individuals brain
pinpoint areas of strengths and
weaknesses work on changing and shaping
pre-existing connections and developing
and molding entirely new connections and
this is not just the future this is now
although it’s relatively new in the last
two to three years a breadth of research
has been conducted concerning the
efficacy of brain training tools and the
results although they’re in their
infancy are quite promising this is
amazing because individuals who
previously struggled with crippling
social anxiety and out-of-control
rigidity of behavior are beginning to
forge meaningful connections firstly
because everyday people like you and I
are seeking to understand their behavior
language and secondly because neuro
training is becoming increasingly
recognised and therefore available to
those who would really benefit so what
to take out of this talk today Connect
for connection thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
you
everyone’s brain is amazing we have
almost a hundred billion neurons
connecting to other neurons transmitting
electrical and neuro chemical messages
along familiar pathways and constantly
forging new pathways when these old
pathways are challenged adapting
changing evolving yes that is your brain
it’s my brain too and it’s my good
friend Graham’s brain also every brain
is unique but every human brain is quite
similar to its the connection pathways
that differentiate us my brain is very
unique and my friend Graham’s brain is
also very unique my friend Graham has an
autism spectrum condition and he has
neural pathways that may differ
marginally or quite markedly from what
is considered within the range of normal
I’ve had the pleasure of walking
alongside and conducting extensive
research with so many like Graham we
know that the brain controls most of
behavior in fact it’s a locus of
decision-making whether these decisions
are fast or well-thought-out emotionally
driven which I know I’ve made one or two
of these in my time or rationalized and
methodical besides reflex behavior most
of our behavior is the decision great
well how do we make decisions our
decisions are most commonly products of
our environments to quote Newton for
every action there is an equal or
opposite reaction let me step this out
and give you a simple example okay so I
want you to imagine you’re in the car
getting a lift from someone maybe it’s a
new work colleague and you’re trying to
be polite but then they turn the music
up way too loud what do you do how do
you cope your environment is
uncomfortable maybe a little bit
overwhelming so what’s your decision do
you endure it because you’re ten minutes
from your destination
and you don’t want to offend this kind
person that’s giving you a lift or do
you politely ask them to turn it down
because it’s slightly hurting your ears
but then run the risk of them being
taken aback off think you’re ungrateful
for the ride to the destination
whichever decision you make internally
it’s your behavior that out plays it
externally let’s see what’s going on
here for you now we’re going to focus
only on the sensory auditory aspect
although please keep in mind there’s
visual movement vestibular and tactile
sensory input that’s coming in okay so
when you hear something there are two
major pathways that sound travels
through for your brain to reach an
understanding of the irrelevance or
importance of that sound the first is
the primary auditory pathway which
carries messages exclusively from the
cochlea the second is the sensory
reticular pathway which as you’ve
probably guessed carries all types of
sensory messages the primary auditory
pathway it’s quite short it carries
messages from the cochlear nuclei
containing information about the
frequency intensity and duration of
sound to the superior Oliver E complex
from there the message is delivered to
the superior colliculus which is a role
in the localization of sound the message
is then delivered to the medial
geniculate body which helps establish
your motor responses to that sound so
your vocal responses lastly the message
ends up in the primary auditory cortex
where a decision is made to respond to
that sound and that is just the primary
pathway the non primary pathways are
incredibly valuable also they enable us
to mediate sensory responses via the
reticular pathway of the brainstem and
the mess and cephalus this is so we can
filter out irrelevant sounds which is
very important when we’re sleeping or
maybe conducting some work in a cafe
somewhere but it’s the integrity of
these two pathways that allow us to
consciously perceive sounds
other differences in this pathway for my
friend Graham recent study is concerning
the auditory processing of individuals
on the spectrum found differences in the
latency and amplitude of processing
between typically developing individuals
and individuals with ASD in relation to
speech and pitch sounds when considering
event-related potentials in the brain
those with asd show both increased and
decreased processing speed which makes
sense when you consider the hypo and
hyper sensitive sensory profiles of many
individuals on the spectrum early in the
processing stream way back in the
cochlear it is apparent those with ASD
differ from typically developing
individuals so I want you to imagine not
being able to endure the sound of the
loud music but not having the social
skills to be able to articulate or
communicate through any other means that
your colleague needs to turn the music
down and what if that small space with
the unfamiliar other and blaringly loud
music was impairing any of your ability
to make a rational decision what would
you do imagine trying to encode localize
respond to and filter sounds when that
isn’t the way your brain automatically
responds to sound you feel a little
stressed right after all no one else
seems to have an issue with this this is
just a theoretical example of what it
might be to step into the oftentimes
exhausting life of an individual on the
spectrum and they do whatever they can
to cope most often coping manifests in
the symptom domain are rigid and
repetitive behaviors in which the
individual finds consistency familiarity
and safety this could look like twirling
flicking fingers lining up toy cars or
engaging in a long one-sided
conversation about the molecular
structure of glass and trust me I’ve
been a part of one of those
conversations these are what are known
as low-level coping
is now the general public may recognize
them as odd or slightly strange but
harmless behaviors but I say they’ve
missed the point what is the point then
the point is behavior is a language we
all speak unique behavior language one
we have both learned and inherited
within that language we have a unique
dialect which may vary on context for
example in my home environment I must
speak a particular behavior language
dialect that I share with my family
members but that dialect may differ in a
friendship context so every individual
with ASD may have a unique behavior
dialect but that is often misunderstood
by everyday people like you and I so
imagine like my friend Graham you speak
a particular behavior language but
that’s always misunderstood by your
friends by your family and by the
general public
and what can we do then I say
acknowledge behavior as a communication
method before you judge someone from
their overt behavior ask yourself what
is this behavior trying to say what is
it trying to communicate and from there
you can begin to connect the dots what
preceded this behavior to set it up what
does the behavior itself look like what
were the consequences to the behavior
that could possibly be feeding it and
ultimately what was the purpose of the
behavior the behaviors purpose is called
its function and once you’ve figured
this out you’re in the ballpark of their
behavior language understanding anyone’s
behavior language is an important and
powerful tool to have in building up
great social skills and making
meaningful connections but let me show
you and tell you why it’s so important
to make a meaningful connection with
someone like Graham he struggled at
school so his mother homeschools him
because the bullying from other children
became too in
tense unfortunately this is all too
common on the Gold Coast 81.3% of
children and adolescents with an ASD
reported experiencing bullying at school
worse yet 41.7% of these same
individuals reported they experienced
bullying daily by multiple groups of
people and this is all too common but
now wait a minute I’m gonna play devil’s
advocate for a second these are boys who
have trouble interpreting social
situations how do we actually know what
they’re experiencing is bullying easy
you ask them what bullying is and that’s
what these Gold Coast researchers have
done they asked the boys directly about
what they thought constituted bullying
as you can see in this table here their
responses show that they actually know
what they’re experiencing is bullying it
looks and sounds like to me that these
boys know exactly what is going on and
this is hard to digest for some I know
it was for me the research went further
in depth and investigated the
ramifications of this bullying most of
the boy is reported trying to keep their
emotions inside until they got home
resulting in completely withdrawing or
oftentimes melting down and this is
quite common I’ve spoken to numerous
parents whose child has a meltdown
straight after they finished school
either in the car or at home but what
can we do how connection make a
difference
well I suggest two avenues both
person-to-person connection and neural
pathway to neural pathway connection
both I am familiar with and both I seek
to marry together as a researcher and
clinician the person-to-person
connection is simple seek to understand
their behavior language start to become
multilingual with the behavior languages
of people around you seek to find out
who they are what their sensitivities
are for instance if I wish to connect
with someone like Ryan
and I know who’s sensitive to
fluorescent lighting I’ll engage him in
connection in a room with alternative
lighting small changes like that are so
simple to make yet so prevent that
profound for the individual but what if
you’re already making an effort to
connect what if you’re seeking them out
then that’s amazing well done keep up
the incredible work the world needs more
people like you but what about the
individual with ASD isn’t there evidence
to suggest there are abbyr answers in
the ASD brain when compared to typically
developing individuals yes there are
quite a lot actually and I’ve compiled
just a fraction for you in this table
here well I mean that’s just a little
overwhelming I mean I guess the brain
one I should just go home it looks like
there’s going to be a resounding issues
with socialization communication and
rigidity all their lives because we know
that the brain doesn’t change wrong we
now know that this is incorrect the
brain is plastic it is dynamic it
responds to the environment it even
moderate the expression of genes this is
known as neuroplasticity neuroplasticity
refers to the brain’s ability to
reorganize itself by forming new neural
connections throughout life but what
wait how can this happen and more
importantly what can we do to kick off
this process there are lots of ways
learning for example creates new neural
pathways that challenge old ones and
strengthens new areas of the brain but
every individual learns in a different
way and every individual has a unique
brain with unique strengths and
weaknesses so that could be a bit of a
roundabout way of going about it that’s
why I prefer to go straight to the
source if it’s a neural issue let the
individual look at their brain waves and
change those connections themselves but
how is that possible I’m glad you asked
that’s the beauty of neurofeedback
training trance direct currents
stimulation infra low-frequency training
and other brain training tools we can
use electroencephalography to create a
unique profile of the individuals brain
pinpoint areas of strengths and
weaknesses work on changing and shaping
pre-existing connections and developing
and molding entirely new connections and
this is not just the future this is now
although it’s relatively new in the last
two to three years a breadth of research
has been conducted concerning the
efficacy of brain training tools and the
results although they’re in their
infancy are quite promising this is
amazing because individuals who
previously struggled with crippling
social anxiety and out-of-control
rigidity of behavior are beginning to
forge meaningful connections firstly
because everyday people like you and I
are seeking to understand their behavior
language and secondly because neuro
training is becoming increasingly
recognised and therefore available to
those who would really benefit so what
to take out of this talk today Connect
for connection thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
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