r a fear impulse. It is possible that an autistic person may be in a constant state of fear (autism zone, treatment:nuerological reorganization). One of the main problems with diagnosing autism is that there are no real tests that positively show for certain that the person is autistic; all the tests are subjective. A doctor diagnoses a person as autistic when a number of characteristics are displayed in the patient (Daldorf 1). The number of characteristics displayed that are inappropriate for a child that age determines the diagnoses the child receives. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is the tool that states the characteristics how to diagnose the patient. There are also numerous tests that rule out any other disorders to make sure that it is truly autism. An audiologic evaluation can be done to make sure there is no form of hearing loss, and the individual is having problems interpreting the noises as would an autistic person. If there is no way of observing if there is hearing loss, then an Auditory Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (ABR, BER) can be performed. This test does not require the cooperation of the patient, but they will need to be sedated. Doctors measure the activity along the auditory nerve to the brainstem to see how the person is hearing. Autistic people are known to have inconsistent responses and increased latency (Martin 189). A Computed Tomography of the Brain can be done which can detect many problems in the brain such as cysts, tumors, and many other abnormalities. Autistic children have a relatively low occurrence of abnormalities detected by the test. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can be performed which is similar to the CT but does not give off radiation. MRIs can detect abnormalities in the cerebellum and brainstem, and that is usually the case with autistic people. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) test can be performed in which radioactive glucose is injected intravenously. This test provide...
