Before we get too far into 2021, I thought I’d write a thread recapping some of the research that came out of my lab in 2020. Most of this work was led by my talented team of graduate students, Kerrianne Morrison, @kmdebrabander, and @DesiRJones.

Back in January, a news story was published about Kerrianne’s study showing improved social interaction outcomes for autistic adults when paired with another autistic partner. https://t.co/3hct0yZ3Ly
A detailed thread about the study and a link to the paper can be found here (feel free to DM me your email address if you’d like a copy of the full paper for this study or any of our studies): https://t.co/Sc7B2ob6h0
Another paper published early in 2020 (it appeared a few months earlier online) showed that traditional standalone tasks of social cognition are less predictive of functional and social skills among autistic adults than commonly assumed in autism research. https://t.co/96HTjX75Rk
Next, @kmdebrabander led and published an innovative study about how well autistic and non-autistic adults can predict their own cognitive and social cognitive performance. https://t.co/GbDkZzNe67
Meanwhile, @DesiRJones was making huge strides highlighting how the woeful underrepresentation of Black scientists and Black autistic people within autism research affects cultural assumptions and clinical practice. https://t.co/0V1H0eS9Mt
Desi also hosted this powerful round table about the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx autistic adults. https://t.co/KNOjygLZcd
She then participated in this thoughtful podcast produced by @Spectrum about being Black in autism research. https://t.co/SnoArruJ3a
Our lab then published a paper supporting the “double empathy theory” by @milton_damian showing that traditional measures and notions of social skill, social motivation, and social cognition have almost no relation to the real-world social interaction outcomes of autistic adults. https://t.co/2ZyK3qIkr8
My lab isn’t an island, though! We continue to pursue collaborations with wonderful colleagues around the country (and now internationally as well! @cjcrompton @SueReviews among others). For instance...
I was thrilled to be part of this incisive and righteous paper led by @KristenBott about avoiding ableist language when taking about and researching autism. https://t.co/sC3MxSVdql
I’m also so lucky to continue to work with @ClareHarropPhD and colleagues examining sex differences in social and non-social attention in autistic children. We have a series of papers on this topic. Here’s the latest that came@out this year: https://t.co/BNluinj2gx
We have several other papers coming out soon, including a really important (IMO) study led by @DesiRJones testing how well an autism acceptance “intervention” for non-autistic adults reduces explicit and implicit biases about autism. Stay tuned!

More from Health

Thread on how atheism leads to mental retardation (backed with medical citations🧵💉)

To start with, atheism is an unnatural self-contradicting doctrine.

Medical terminology proves that human beings are naturally pre-disposed to believe in God. Oxford scientists assert that people are "born believers".

https://t.co/kE0Fi588yn
https://t.co/OqyXcGIMJn


It should be known that atheism could never produce an intelligently-functioning society and neither ever will.

Contrastingly, Islam produced several intellectuals & polymaths, was on the forefront of scientific development, boasting 100% literacy


It is also scientifically proven that atheism led to lesser scientific curiosity and scientific frauds, which is also why atheists incline to pseudo-science.

Whereas, religion in general and Islam in particular boosted education.

https://t.co/19Onc84u3g


Atheists are also likely to affected by pervasive mental and developmental disorders like high-functioning autism.

Cognitive Scientists and renowned Neurologists found that more atheism is leads to greater autism.

https://t.co/zRjEyFoX3P
1/16
Why do B12 and folate deficiencies lead to HUGE red blood cells?

And, if the issue is DNA synthesis, why are red blood cells (which don't have DNA) the key cell line affected?

For answers, we'll have to go back a few billion years.


2/
RNA came first. Then, ~3-4 billion years ago, DNA emerged.

Among their differences:
🔹RNA contains uracil
🔹DNA contains thymine

But why does DNA contains thymine (T) instead of uracil (U)?

https://t.co/XlxT6cLLXg


3/
🔑Cytosine (C) can undergo spontaneous deamination to uracil (U).

In the RNA world, this meant that U could appear intensionally or unintentionally. This is clearly problematic. How can you repair RNA when you can't tell if something is an error?

https://t.co/bIZGviHBUc


4/
DNA's use of T instead of U means that spontaneous C → U deamination can be corrected without worry that an intentional U is being removed.

DNA requires greater stability than RNA so the transition to a thymine-based structure was beneficial.

https://t.co/bIZGviHBUc


5/
Let's return to megaloblastic anemia secondary to B12 or folate deficiency.

When either is severely deficient deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP*) production is hindered. With less dTMP, DNA synthesis is abnormal.

[*Note: thymine is the base in dTMP]

https://t.co/AnDUtKkbZh

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