Team 1 of the Delacato & Delacato Center, Naples, Italy
The validity of therapeutic patterns for any morbid
process concerning human beings is closely connected to the etiopathogenesis
of the morbid process.
Autism is a clinic pattern caused by a brain injury
that affects one or more of the sensory channels in one of the
following ways: hyper; hypo. The changes for hyper or hypo depend
on where the injury occurs. All of the symptoms of autistic syndrome
are simply a consequence of the fact that autistic children's
brains are injured (they often have very small injuries). The
injuries make them perceive inputs from the world differently
from not injured brains (1).
This apparently reductive theory has to be linked
to a recent finding in the field of neuroscience to which Delacato's
studies have contributed. This finding shows that the nervous
system is based on the functional organization of neurons of which
it is made up, and on the distribution of their axons and dendrites
that form nervous nets.
Developing neurons are like thousand million spiders
weaving webs whose main wefts are carried out following a fixed
project (genetic programme) but their single threads depend upon
neurons and on the countless and complex sensory stimuli they
receive (environment factor) (2).
This means that brain development is not completely
programmed in the genes of neurons but it also depends on environmental
or epigenetic factors (combinatory theory). The farther we go
in the phylogenetic range the more this is true, that is why it
finds its greatest expression in human beings.
The genetic programme of man gives information in
order to build up neuronal circuits but only the sensory inputs
mould the brain by helping to make neuronal maps (3).
When the brain gets messages of environmental stimuli
in one of the following ways: hyper or hypo, the neuronal maps
develop abnormally. The brain, then, will organize itself irregularly
and the child will behave in an anomalous way.
Autistic syndrome may exhibit apparently different
symptoms and this because they are the result of combinations
of 1) what sensory channels are affected; 2) which alteration
(hyper or hypo) they suffer from; 3) how much irregularly this
anomaly has moulded the brain (Neurological Organization).
The Delacato Method, also known as Method of Neurological
Organization (4), is a neurorehabilitative method. At the present
time it represents the most effective therapy to treat autism(5)
.
Its effectiveness is due to two characteristics of
nervous system: 1) the nervous system organizes itself continuously;
2) this neurological organization, which is at the highest in
the early years of life, is possible because neurons keep their
plasticity all their life long.
Neurons are the anatomic component of the grey matter
of encephalon. They use an electric code and a chemical code
for their functions (receiving, processing, memorizing, transferring
stimuli). Some diseases of nervous system are due to an alteration
of these codes.
Autism is a consequence of the most different causes
of brain injuries (6). Therefore, this clinic pattern is sometimes
based on an anatomic alteration of neurons and sometimes on the
alteration of the codes that neurons use. This second possibility
explains why scans, such as CAT scan and NMR in autistic children
may be within the standard, whereas EEG always shows an alteration,
even if it is not specific.
Hubel's experiments on the visual system of cats
have definitively proved (7) that neuronal nets need to function
(to receive inputs); the only anatomic integrity not being enough.
Then, it has been shown that growing nerve fibres follow fixed
pathways but the fine and final modulation in the making of circuits
depends entirely on the sensory stimuli.
The Neurological Organization is therefore the outcome
of the combination of genetic and epigenetic factors. Sensory
inputs (visual, gustatory, tactile, auditory, olfactory) are able
to leave their imprints on brain tissues (8). Such sensory inputs
stimulate and in time support the development of specific nervous
pathways, while others fall out use.
Some scientists have compared developing brain with
a road system that evolves with use. The streets with little
traffic may be left out, the busy ones may be enlarged and, if
necessary, new streets may be built.
Environment stimuli get to the brain through sensory
channels. As the brain is made up of neurons endowed with plasticity
it organizes itself in reaction to such stimuli.
The plasticity of neurons can be defined as the ability
of neurons to modify at first their metabolisms, then their shapes
and finally their functions depending on the sensory stimulation
they have received, that is to say, on their use (8).
After all we can state that the request for function
from neurons that environment and other neurons make regulates
metabolic activity first and then the shapes of neurons (plasticity)
(9).
As the shape of the neuron is responsible for its
function, what C. H. Delacato maintains in his clinical observation
is thus demonstrated scientifically: function makes structure
and the structure in its turn helps to keep that certain function
better.
References
1) Delacato C.H. The Ultimate Stranger, Novato, California, Arena Press., 1974
2) Calissano P. Neuroni, Milano, Garzanti Editore, 1992
3) Edelman G. M. The Remembered Present, New York, Basic Books, Inc., 1989
4) Delacato C.H. Neurological Organization and Reading, Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield, Illinois, 1973
5) Delacato F.D., Szegda D.T., Parisi A., Neurophysiological View of Autism:
Review of Recent Research as it Applies to the Delacato Theory of Autism,
Brain Dysfunction, Karger,1994
6) Bauman M., Kemper T. L. Histoanatomic observations of the brain in early
infantile autism, Boston, Neurology, 35, 866, 1985
7) Hubel D. H. Eye, Brain and Vision, New York, Scientific American Books,
1988
8) Kandel E., Hawkins R. Apprendimento e individualią, Milano, Le Scienze,
1992
9) Aoki C., Siekevitz P. La plasticiąį del cervello, Milano, Le Scienze, 1989