0:00:00.000,0:00:05.341
I always wanted to become[br]a walking laboratory of social engagement:

0:00:06.313,0:00:11.683
to resonate other people's feelings,[br]thoughts, intentions, motivations,

0:00:11.707,0:00:13.368
in the act of being with them.

0:00:14.999,0:00:19.528
As a scientist, I always wanted[br]to measure that resonance,

0:00:20.776,0:00:23.394
that sense of the other[br]that happens so quickly,

0:00:23.418,0:00:24.725
in the blink of an eye.

0:00:25.682,0:00:28.008
We intuit other people's feelings;

0:00:28.032,0:00:31.175
we know the meaning of their actions[br]even before they happen.

0:00:31.959,0:00:33.705
We're always in this stance

0:00:33.729,0:00:36.811
of being the object[br]of somebody else's subjectivity.

0:00:36.835,0:00:39.575
We do that all the time.[br]We just can't shake it off.

0:00:40.025,0:00:43.724
It's so important that the very tools[br]we use to understand ourselves,

0:00:43.748,0:00:45.575
to understand the world around us,

0:00:45.599,0:00:47.205
are shaped by that stance.

0:00:48.226,0:00:50.277
We are social to the core.

0:00:51.572,0:00:54.023
So my journey in autism really started

0:00:54.047,0:00:57.653
when I lived in a residential unit[br]for adults with autism.

0:00:58.068,0:01:01.159
Most of those individuals[br]had spent most of their lives

0:01:01.183,0:01:02.668
in long-stay hospitals.

0:01:02.692,0:01:04.157
This is a long time ago.

0:01:05.021,0:01:08.548
And for them, autism was devastating.

0:01:09.395,0:01:12.038
They had profound[br]intellectual disabilities.

0:01:12.558,0:01:13.792
They didn't talk.

0:01:14.310,0:01:15.629
But most of all,

0:01:16.217,0:01:21.146
they were extraordinarily isolated[br]from the world around them,

0:01:21.170,0:01:23.007
from their environment

0:01:23.031,0:01:24.904
and from the people.

0:01:25.392,0:01:28.219
In fact, at the time,[br]if you walked into a school

0:01:28.243,0:01:30.031
for individuals with autism,

0:01:30.055,0:01:32.368
you'd hear a lot of noise,

0:01:32.392,0:01:36.465
plenty of commotion, actions,[br]people doing things.

0:01:37.730,0:01:40.215
But they're always doing[br]things by themselves.

0:01:41.405,0:01:44.886
So they may be looking[br]at a light in the ceiling,

0:01:45.527,0:01:48.309
or they may be isolated in the corner,

0:01:48.936,0:01:52.471
or they might be engaged[br]in these repetitive movements,

0:01:52.495,0:01:55.914
in self-stimulatory movements[br]that led them nowhere.

0:01:56.558,0:01:59.157
Extremely, extremely isolated.

0:02:00.625,0:02:06.205
Well, now we know that autism[br]is this disruption,

0:02:06.229,0:02:09.746
the disruption of this resonance[br]that I am telling you about.

0:02:09.770,0:02:11.704
These are survival skills.

0:02:11.728,0:02:13.855
These are survival skills[br]that we inherited

0:02:14.638,0:02:18.019
over many, many hundreds[br]of thousands of years of evolution.

0:02:18.845,0:02:23.513
You see, babies are born[br]in a state of utter fragility.

0:02:24.032,0:02:26.161
Without the caregiver,[br]they wouldn't survive,

0:02:26.185,0:02:28.691
so it stands to reason[br]that nature would endow them

0:02:28.715,0:02:30.492
with these mechanisms of survival.

0:02:32.169,0:02:34.112
They orient to the caregiver.

0:02:34.525,0:02:37.377
From the first days and weeks of life,

0:02:37.940,0:02:40.674
babies prefer to hear human sounds,

0:02:40.698,0:02:42.822
rather than just sounds[br]in the environment.

0:02:42.846,0:02:45.323
They prefer to look at people[br]rather than at things,

0:02:45.347,0:02:48.688
and even as they're looking at people,[br]they look at people's eyes,

0:02:49.747,0:02:53.955
because the eye is the window[br]to the other person's experiences,

0:02:53.979,0:02:56.437
so much so that they even prefer[br]to look at people

0:02:56.461,0:02:59.700
who are looking at them[br]rather than people who are looking away.

0:03:00.525,0:03:03.107
Well, they orient to the caregiver.

0:03:03.131,0:03:04.764
The caregiver seeks the baby.

0:03:05.272,0:03:08.520
And it's out of this mutually[br]reinforcing choreography

0:03:09.085,0:03:12.880
that a lot that is of importance[br]to the emergence of mind --

0:03:12.904,0:03:16.428
the social mind, the social[br]brain -- depends on.

0:03:17.587,0:03:20.659
We always think about autism

0:03:20.683,0:03:25.323
as something that happens[br]later on in life.

0:03:25.347,0:03:28.752
It doesn't; it begins[br]with the beginning of life.

0:03:30.901,0:03:36.496
As babies engage with caregivers,[br]they soon realize that, well,

0:03:36.520,0:03:40.642
there is something between the ears[br]that is very important --

0:03:40.666,0:03:44.081
it's invisible, you can't see it,[br]but it's really critical.

0:03:44.849,0:03:46.776
And that thing is called attention.

0:03:46.800,0:03:48.133
And they learn soon enough,

0:03:48.157,0:03:50.745
even before they can utter one word,

0:03:50.769,0:03:53.652
that they can take that attention[br]and move somewhere

0:03:54.273,0:03:56.071
in order to get things they want.

0:03:57.555,0:04:00.655
They also learn to follow[br]other people's gazes,

0:04:00.679,0:04:04.664
because whatever people are looking at[br]is what they are thinking about.

0:04:06.704,0:04:10.350
And soon enough, they start to learn[br]about the meaning of things,

0:04:10.374,0:04:12.747
because when somebody[br]is looking at something

0:04:12.771,0:04:14.989
or somebody is pointing at something,

0:04:15.013,0:04:17.186
they're not just getting[br]a directional cue.

0:04:17.752,0:04:21.435
They are getting the other[br]person's meaning of that thing,

0:04:21.459,0:04:22.669
the attitude.

0:04:22.693,0:04:27.464
And soon enough, they start[br]building this body of meanings,

0:04:27.488,0:04:31.340
but meanings that were acquired[br]within the realm of social interaction.

0:04:32.110,0:04:34.025
Those are meanings that are acquired

0:04:34.049,0:04:36.681
as part of their shared[br]experiences with others.

0:04:38.086,0:04:43.902
Well, this is a 15-month-old little girl,

0:04:45.512,0:04:47.159
and she has autism.

0:04:48.594,0:04:54.382
And I am coming so close to her[br]that I am maybe two inches from her face,

0:04:54.406,0:04:56.241
and she's quite oblivious to me.

0:04:56.265,0:04:59.693
Imagine if I did that to you,[br]came two inches from your face.

0:04:59.717,0:05:01.922
You'd do probably[br]two things, wouldn't you?

0:05:01.946,0:05:04.544
You would recoil.[br]You would call the police.

0:05:04.568,0:05:05.742
(Laughter)

0:05:05.766,0:05:06.919
You would do something,

0:05:06.943,0:05:11.001
because it's literally impossible[br]to penetrate somebody's physical space

0:05:11.025,0:05:12.428
and not get that reaction.

0:05:12.452,0:05:15.907
We do so, remember,[br]intuitively, effortlessly.

0:05:15.931,0:05:17.096
This is our body wisdom;

0:05:17.120,0:05:19.318
it's not something mediated[br]by our language.

0:05:19.342,0:05:21.773
Our body just knows that.

0:05:22.269,0:05:24.637
And we've known that for a long time.

0:05:24.661,0:05:27.576
And this is not something[br]that happens to humans only.

0:05:27.600,0:05:30.800
It happens to some[br]of our phyletic cousins,

0:05:30.824,0:05:34.890
because if you're a monkey,[br]and you look at another monkey,

0:05:34.914,0:05:38.908
and that monkey has a higher[br]hierarchy position than you,

0:05:38.932,0:05:42.461
and that is considered[br]to be a signal or threat,

0:05:42.485,0:05:44.879
well, you are not going[br]to be alive for long.

0:05:45.365,0:05:50.197
So something that in other species[br]are survival mechanisms,

0:05:50.221,0:05:53.328
without which they[br]wouldn't basically live,

0:05:53.352,0:05:55.883
we bring into the context of human beings,

0:05:55.907,0:05:59.624
and this is what we need[br]to simply act, socially.

0:06:00.180,0:06:02.949
Now, she is oblivious to me[br]and I'm so close to her,

0:06:02.973,0:06:04.947
and you think, maybe she can see you,

0:06:04.971,0:06:06.482
maybe she can hear you.

0:06:06.506,0:06:08.128
Well, a few minutes later,

0:06:08.152,0:06:10.093
she goes to the corner of the room,

0:06:10.117,0:06:13.867
and she finds a tiny little piece[br]of candy, an M&M.

0:06:14.859,0:06:19.376
So I could not attract her attention,

0:06:19.400,0:06:21.271
but something -- a thing -- did.

0:06:21.930,0:06:24.447
Now, most of us make a big dichotomy

0:06:24.471,0:06:27.351
between the world of things[br]and the world of people.

0:06:28.882,0:06:33.373
Now, for this girl,[br]that division line is not so clear,

0:06:33.397,0:06:36.503
and the world of people[br]is not attracting her

0:06:36.527,0:06:37.986
as much as we would like.

0:06:38.010,0:06:41.697
Now, remember that we learn a great deal[br]by sharing experiences.

0:06:42.445,0:06:48.306
What she is doing right now[br]is that her path of learning is diverging,

0:06:48.330,0:06:50.071
moment by moment,

0:06:50.095,0:06:53.315
as she is isolating herself[br]further and further.

0:06:53.913,0:06:56.855
So we feel sometimes[br]that the brain is deterministic,

0:06:56.879,0:06:59.056
the brain determines[br]who we're going to be.

0:06:59.429,0:07:02.217
But, in fact, the brain[br]also becomes who we are,

0:07:02.241,0:07:06.230
and at the same time[br]that her behaviors are taking away

0:07:06.254,0:07:08.416
from the realm of social interaction,

0:07:08.440,0:07:10.465
this is what's happening with her mind,

0:07:10.489,0:07:12.905
and this is what's happening[br]with her brain.

0:07:15.143,0:07:20.343
Well, autism is the most strongly[br]genetic condition

0:07:20.367,0:07:22.239
of all developmental disorders.

0:07:24.461,0:07:26.119
And it's a brain disorder.

0:07:26.695,0:07:29.924
It's a disorder that begins[br]much prior to the time

0:07:29.948,0:07:31.263
that the child is born.

0:07:32.217,0:07:36.198
We now know that there is a very[br]broad spectrum of autism.

0:07:36.222,0:07:39.691
There are those individuals[br]who are profoundly intellectually disabled

0:07:39.715,0:07:41.672
but there are those that are gifted.

0:07:41.696,0:07:44.090
There are those individuals[br]who don't talk at all;

0:07:44.114,0:07:46.502
there are those individuals[br]who talk too much.

0:07:46.526,0:07:50.023
There are those individuals[br]that if you observe them in their school,

0:07:50.047,0:07:53.717
you see them running the periphery fence[br]all the school day if you let them,

0:07:53.741,0:07:56.102
to those individuals[br]who cannot stop coming to you

0:07:56.126,0:07:58.979
and trying to engage you[br]repeatedly, relentlessly,

0:07:59.091,0:08:01.360
but often in an awkward fashion,

0:08:02.232,0:08:04.889
without that immediate resonance.

0:08:05.812,0:08:09.558
Well, this is much more prevalent[br]than we thought at the time.

0:08:09.582,0:08:10.993
When I started in this field,

0:08:11.017,0:08:14.105
we thought there were four individuals[br]with autism per 10,000 --

0:08:14.129,0:08:15.400
a very rare condition.

0:08:15.861,0:08:19.515
Well, now we know it's more[br]like one in 100.

0:08:19.957,0:08:23.245
There are millions of individuals[br]with autism all around us.

0:08:25.216,0:08:28.469
The societal cost[br]of this condition is huge,

0:08:28.585,0:08:31.533
in the US alone,[br]maybe 35 to 80 billion dollars.

0:08:31.557,0:08:32.745
And you know what?

0:08:32.769,0:08:37.406
Most of those funds are associated[br]with adolescents and particularly adults

0:08:37.430,0:08:39.181
who are severely disabled,

0:08:39.205,0:08:41.366
individuals who need[br]wraparound services --

0:08:41.390,0:08:43.646
services that are very, very intensive.

0:08:43.670,0:08:47.756
And those services can cost in excess[br]of 60,000 to 80,000 dollars a year.

0:08:48.536,0:08:51.760
Those are individuals who did not[br]benefit from early treatment,

0:08:52.474,0:08:56.612
because now we know[br]that autism creates itself

0:08:56.636,0:09:00.788
as individuals diverge in that pathway[br]of learning that I mentioned to you.

0:09:01.200,0:09:03.773
Were we to be able[br]to identify this condition

0:09:03.797,0:09:06.547
at an earlier point,[br]and intervene and treat --

0:09:07.812,0:09:11.866
I can tell you, this has been probably[br]something that has changed my life

0:09:11.890,0:09:13.186
in the past 10 years,

0:09:13.210,0:09:17.464
this notion that we can absolutely[br]attenuate this condition.

0:09:18.922,0:09:21.277
Also, we have a window of opportunity,

0:09:21.301,0:09:23.921
because the brain[br]is malleable for just so long,

0:09:24.437,0:09:27.950
and that window of opportunity[br]happens in the first three years of life.

0:09:27.974,0:09:30.685
It's not that that window[br]closes; it doesn't.

0:09:31.621,0:09:34.134
But it diminishes considerably.

0:09:34.899,0:09:37.997
And yet, the median age[br]of diagnosis in this country

0:09:38.021,0:09:39.933
is still about five years,

0:09:39.957,0:09:42.052
and in disadvantaged populations,

0:09:42.076,0:09:45.205
the populations that don't have[br]access to clinical services,

0:09:45.229,0:09:47.642
rural populations, minorities,

0:09:48.338,0:09:51.047
the age of diagnosis is later still,

0:09:51.071,0:09:53.096
which is almost as if I were to tell you

0:09:53.120,0:09:56.887
that we are condemning those communities[br]to have individuals with autism

0:09:56.911,0:09:59.234
whose condition is going[br]to be more severe.

0:10:00.162,0:10:02.706
So I feel that we have[br]a bioethical imperative.

0:10:03.168,0:10:04.897
The science is there.

0:10:06.025,0:10:08.145
But no science is of relevance

0:10:08.169,0:10:11.098
if it doesn't have an impact[br]on the community.

0:10:11.727,0:10:14.681
And we just can't afford[br]that missed opportunity,

0:10:14.705,0:10:17.650
because children with autism[br]become adults with autism.

0:10:18.412,0:10:22.416
And we feel that those things we can do

0:10:22.440,0:10:24.818
for these children,[br]for those families, early on,

0:10:24.842,0:10:27.019
will have lifetime consequences --

0:10:27.043,0:10:31.051
for the child, for the family,[br]and for the community at large.

0:10:31.075,0:10:33.648
So this is our view of autism.

0:10:34.145,0:10:37.467
There are over a hundred genes[br]that are associated with autism.

0:10:37.491,0:10:39.450
In fact, we believe there are going to be

0:10:39.474,0:10:43.279
something between 300 and 600[br]genes associated with autism,

0:10:43.303,0:10:46.606
and genetic anomalies,[br]much more than just genes.

0:10:47.460,0:10:50.779
And we actually have[br]a bit of a question here,

0:10:51.644,0:10:54.929
because if there are so many[br]different causes of autism,

0:10:54.953,0:10:59.221
how do you go from those liabilities[br]to the actual syndrome?

0:10:59.245,0:11:00.796
Because people like myself,

0:11:01.530,0:11:03.767
when we walk into a playroom,

0:11:03.791,0:11:06.149
we recognize a child as having autism.

0:11:06.835,0:11:09.063
So how do you go from multiple causes

0:11:09.087,0:11:11.415
to a syndrome that has some homogeneity?

0:11:12.491,0:11:15.182
And the answer is what lies in between,

0:11:15.753,0:11:17.185
which is development.

0:11:17.660,0:11:22.433
And in fact, we are very interested[br]in those first two years of life,

0:11:22.457,0:11:26.245
because those liabilities[br]don't necessarily convert into autism.

0:11:26.269,0:11:28.027
Autism creates itself.

0:11:28.812,0:11:32.657
Were we to be able to intervene[br]during those years of life,

0:11:33.569,0:11:38.985
we might attenuate for some, and God[br]knows, maybe even prevent for others.

0:11:39.975,0:11:41.213
So how do we do that?

0:11:41.837,0:11:44.729
How do we enter that feeling of resonance,

0:11:44.753,0:11:47.547
how do we enter another person's being?

0:11:49.137,0:11:52.252
I remember when I interacted[br]with that 15-month-old,

0:11:52.276,0:11:54.414
the thing that came to my mind was,

0:11:54.438,0:11:56.751
"How do you come into her world?

0:11:57.410,0:12:00.807
Is she thinking about me?[br]Is she thinking about others?"

0:12:01.910,0:12:04.760
Well, it's hard to do that,

0:12:04.784,0:12:06.962
so we had to create the technologies.

0:12:06.986,0:12:09.455
We had to basically step inside a body.

0:12:09.479,0:12:12.073
We had to see the world through her eyes.

0:12:13.192,0:12:15.504
And so in the past many years,

0:12:15.528,0:12:17.924
we've been building these new technologies

0:12:17.948,0:12:19.529
that are based on eye tracking.

0:12:19.553,0:12:24.469
We can see, moment by moment,[br]what children are engaging with.

0:12:26.046,0:12:27.810
This is my colleague, Warren Jones,

0:12:27.834,0:12:31.128
with whom we've been building[br]these methods, these studies,

0:12:31.152,0:12:32.481
for the past 12 years.

0:12:32.879,0:12:36.035
And you see there a happy five-month-old,

0:12:36.789,0:12:41.856
a five-month little boy[br]who is going to watch things

0:12:41.880,0:12:43.792
that are brought from his world:

0:12:44.596,0:12:46.829
his mom, the caregiver,

0:12:46.853,0:12:51.083
but also experiences that he would have[br]were he to be in his daycare.

0:12:51.884,0:12:55.724
What we want is to embrace that world[br]and bring it into our laboratory,

0:12:55.748,0:12:57.782
but in order for us to do that,

0:12:57.806,0:13:02.061
we had to create[br]these very sophisticated measures,

0:13:02.085,0:13:05.566
measures of how people, how little babies,

0:13:05.590,0:13:10.104
how newborns, engage[br]with the world, moment by moment.

0:13:10.128,0:13:12.413
What is important and what is not.

0:13:13.163,0:13:15.774
Well, we created those measures,

0:13:15.798,0:13:19.159
and here, what you see[br]is what we call a funnel of attention.

0:13:19.826,0:13:21.191
You're watching a video --

0:13:21.739,0:13:24.470
those frames are separated[br]by about a second --

0:13:24.494,0:13:28.366
through the eyes of 35 typically[br]developing two-year-olds.

0:13:28.837,0:13:31.134
And we freeze one frame,

0:13:31.908,0:13:34.996
and this is what the typical[br]children are doing.

0:13:35.020,0:13:39.437
In this scan pass, in green here,[br]are two-year-olds with autism.

0:13:39.461,0:13:44.824
So on that frame, the children[br]who are typical are watching this,

0:13:46.039,0:13:48.564
the emotion of expression[br]of that little boy

0:13:48.588,0:13:51.314
as he's fighting a little bit[br]with the little girl.

0:13:51.338,0:13:53.375
What are the children with autism doing?

0:13:53.399,0:13:56.494
They are focusing on the revolving door,

0:13:57.304,0:13:58.725
opening and shutting.

0:13:59.542,0:14:02.891
Well, I can tell you that this divergence[br]that you're seeing here

0:14:02.915,0:14:05.727
doesn't happen only[br]in our five-minute experiment.

0:14:05.751,0:14:08.685
It happens moment by moment[br]in their real lives,

0:14:09.820,0:14:14.053
and their minds are being formed[br]and their brains are being specialized

0:14:14.077,0:14:18.100
in something other than what is happening[br]with their typical peers.

0:14:18.807,0:14:25.326
Well, we took a construct[br]from our pediatrician friends,

0:14:25.350,0:14:26.869
the concept of growth charts --

0:14:26.893,0:14:29.370
you know, when you take[br]a child to the pediatrician,

0:14:29.394,0:14:32.476
and you have physical height and weight.

0:14:33.066,0:14:36.000
Well, we decided we were going[br]to create growth charts

0:14:36.024,0:14:37.325
of social engagement.

0:14:38.354,0:14:41.122
We sought children[br]from the time they're born.

0:14:41.574,0:14:44.949
What you see here on the x-axis

0:14:44.973,0:14:49.158
is two, three, four, five,[br]six months and nine,

0:14:49.182,0:14:50.945
until about the age of 24 months.

0:14:50.969,0:14:53.740
This is the percent of their viewing time

0:14:53.764,0:14:55.675
that they're focusing on people's eyes,

0:14:55.699,0:14:57.628
and this is their growth chart.

0:14:58.144,0:15:00.617
They start over here --[br]they love people's eyes --

0:15:00.641,0:15:02.684
and it remains quite stable.

0:15:03.350,0:15:06.613
It sort of goes up a little bit[br]in those initial months.

0:15:07.319,0:15:11.056
Now, let's see what's happening[br]with babies who became autistic.

0:15:11.771,0:15:13.263
It's something very different.

0:15:14.004,0:15:16.934
It starts way up here,[br]but then it's a free fall.

0:15:17.799,0:15:21.670
It's very much like they brought[br]into this world the reflex

0:15:21.694,0:15:24.887
that orients them to people,[br]but it has no traction.

0:15:25.511,0:15:27.945
It's almost as if that stimulus -- you --

0:15:28.540,0:15:31.530
you're not exerting[br]influence on what happens

0:15:31.554,0:15:33.908
as they navigate their daily lives.

0:15:35.236,0:15:41.996
Now, we thought those data[br]were so powerful, in a way,

0:15:42.686,0:15:45.936
that we wanted to see what happened[br]in the first six months of life,

0:15:45.960,0:15:49.168
because if you interact[br]with a two- and a three-month-old,

0:15:49.192,0:15:52.442
you'd be surprised[br]by how social those babies are.

0:15:53.513,0:15:56.370
And what we see[br]in the first six months of life

0:15:56.394,0:16:01.271
is that those two groups[br]can be segregated very easily.

0:16:02.159,0:16:05.276
And using these kinds[br]of measures and many others,

0:16:05.300,0:16:08.953
what we found out[br]is that our science could, in fact,

0:16:08.977,0:16:11.201
identify this condition early on.

0:16:11.749,0:16:14.910
We didn't have to wait[br]for the behaviors of autism

0:16:14.934,0:16:17.013
to emerge in the second year of life.

0:16:18.156,0:16:22.683
If we measured things that are,[br]evolutionarily, highly conserved,

0:16:22.707,0:16:25.030
and developmentally very early-emerging --

0:16:25.054,0:16:27.731
things that are online[br]from the first weeks of life --

0:16:27.755,0:16:29.717
we could push the detection of autism

0:16:29.741,0:16:32.269
all the way to those first months,

0:16:32.293,0:16:34.277
and that's what we are doing now.

0:16:36.618,0:16:39.775
Now, we can create[br]the very best technologies

0:16:39.799,0:16:42.805
and the very best methods[br]to identify the children,

0:16:43.591,0:16:46.505
but this would be for naught[br]if we didn't have an impact

0:16:46.529,0:16:49.209
on what happens in their reality[br]in the community.

0:16:49.680,0:16:51.962
Now we want those devices, of course,

0:16:51.986,0:16:54.815
to be deployed by those[br]who are in the trenches --

0:16:54.839,0:16:59.377
our colleagues, the primary care[br]physicians, who see every child --

0:17:00.067,0:17:02.430
and we need to transform[br]those technologies

0:17:02.454,0:17:05.456
into something that is going[br]to add value to their practice,

0:17:05.480,0:17:07.666
because they have to see so many children.

0:17:07.690,0:17:11.767
And we want to do that universally[br]so that we don't miss any child.

0:17:11.791,0:17:13.402
But this would be immoral

0:17:14.529,0:17:19.892
if we also did not have an infrastructure[br]for intervention, for treatment.

0:17:20.487,0:17:24.379
We need to be able to work[br]with the families, support the families,

0:17:24.403,0:17:27.416
to manage those first years with them.

0:17:28.384,0:17:30.782
We need to be able to really go

0:17:30.806,0:17:34.728
from universal screening[br]to universal access to treatment,

0:17:34.752,0:17:37.741
because those treatments[br]are going to change

0:17:37.765,0:17:40.630
these children's[br]and those families' lives.

0:17:42.450,0:17:48.888
Now, when we think about what we [can][br]do in those first years,

0:17:48.912,0:17:53.482
I can tell you, having been[br]in this field for so long,

0:17:54.077,0:17:56.453
one feels really rejuvenated.

0:17:56.832,0:18:01.554
There is a sense that the science[br]that one worked on

0:18:01.578,0:18:04.347
can actually have an impact on realities,

0:18:04.371,0:18:07.351
preventing, in fact, those experiences

0:18:07.972,0:18:10.716
that I really started[br]in my journey in this field.

0:18:11.343,0:18:14.753
I thought at the time[br]that this was an intractable condition.

0:18:14.777,0:18:18.056
No longer. We can do[br]a great deal of things.

0:18:18.707,0:18:21.116
And the idea is not to cure autism.

0:18:21.140,0:18:22.640
That's not the idea.

0:18:23.791,0:18:25.865
What we want is to make sure

0:18:25.889,0:18:28.441
that those individuals[br]with autism can be free

0:18:28.465,0:18:32.080
from the devastating consequences[br]that come with it at times,

0:18:32.876,0:18:35.937
the profound intellectual disabilities,[br]the lack of language,

0:18:35.961,0:18:38.448
the profound, profound isolation.

0:18:39.563,0:18:41.809
We feel that individuals[br]with autism, in fact,

0:18:41.833,0:18:44.299
have a very special[br]perspective on the world,

0:18:44.323,0:18:45.669
and we need diversity.

0:18:46.440,0:18:50.066
And they can work extremely well[br]in some areas of strength:

0:18:50.090,0:18:53.469
predictable situations,[br]situations that can be defined.

0:18:53.493,0:18:56.451
Because after all,[br]they learn about the world

0:18:56.475,0:18:58.357
almost, like, about it,

0:18:58.381,0:19:01.178
rather than learning[br]how to function in it.

0:19:01.202,0:19:05.201
But this is a strength if you're working,[br]for example, in technology.

0:19:06.081,0:19:09.912
And there are those individuals[br]who have incredible artistic abilities.

0:19:09.936,0:19:12.269
We want them to be free to do that.

0:19:12.293,0:19:15.412
We want that the next generations[br]of individuals with autism

0:19:15.436,0:19:18.514
will be able not only[br]to express their strengths,

0:19:18.538,0:19:20.437
but to fulfill their promise.

0:19:20.952,0:19:22.699
Well, thank you for listening to me.

0:19:22.723,0:19:24.501
(Applause)