Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Asperger's Experience

I mentioned recently in a previous post about researchers using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to alter the brain in patients who had aspergers disorder. I've come across another patient who also talked about their experience undergoing this procedure at the same TMS center. It's a very interesting article with many links to the other guys blog. There are lots of pictures of his experience and it's definitely worth a look.

The effects from the treatment session appear to be relatively long lasting.

The amazing thing was that, as we were comparing notes, we all three agreed that whatever had happened in that session has lingered on, despite what the research team told us. John mentioned a general feeling of wellbeing; a lower overall level of anxiety.

Both patients sound like they got some really interesting effects that don't appear to be placebo in nature.

John said he is now able to make eye contact for the first time in his life. Real eye content, not just faking it by looking in the direction of people's eyes. I could see the difference in him.

The other man had increased executive functioning. This is interesting because aspergers has some symptoms in common with injury to medial frontal areas of the brain. So in a way aspergers is similar to decreased frontal lobe/executive functioning. Basically normal intelligence is intact, but being able to use that intelligence is significantly impaired.

Another example of increased executive function: I've been talking about my needed medical appointments for many months now; dentist, annual physical, dermatologist, and have been wondering who I can get to help me make appointments.

People with aspergers can sometimes have difficulty doing fairly simple tasks that normal people take for granted (socializing, planning). This guy, for instance, tests in the 99% percentile of intelligence testing but has trouble making appointments. However, after TMS he was much more able to function on his own.

So, this past week, I made appointments with all of them. All on my own.

I think one of the problems with an asperger's diagnosis is that it is a fairly heterogeneous "disorder". Patients often are on the autistic spectrum and may not necessarily share symptoms with one another. So it may be crude to draw the distinction absolutely between normal and asperger's. This article also brings up the point that many people with aspergers don't necessarily want to change themselves. They don't want to be"neurotypical" and are fine the way they are. However, increasing selectively of the new brain manipulation tools may allow people in the future to basically shape their own brain to whatever they want to be. I think this is similar to cosmetic pharmacology that is performed already using drugs like prozac and ritalin. TMS, though may be much more selective and can shape the brain in some really interesting and unusual ways. I think it goes into the whole issue of what is a disorder and what is normal. It also brings up the issue of how much should people be allowed to shape their own brain.