Today in "Neuroscientists in Two Minutes" we talk about the discovery of autism spectrum disorders: for many years it was believed that the first published descriptions of cases that we would now diagnose as autism spectrum disorders were those published by the American Leo Kanner in 1943, and the Austrian Hans Asperger in 1944. However, in 1925 the Ukrainian psychiatrist Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva published an article in Russia detailing the clinical follow-up of six children for two years. These clinical cases are mostly similar to the cases that Asperger would later describe, and many of the features that she points out in the publication are very important diagnostic features of autism spectrum disorders detailed in medical guidelines.
Despite this, Grunya is practically unknown until a publication in 1996 where her 1926 work was translated into English. Even so, today even in neuroscience Grunya Efimovna is almost a complete stranger.
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About Neuropills:
Created, directed and presented by Pablo Barrecheguren (@pjbarrecheguren), Neuropíldoras (2018) is a scientific dissemination project made by Big Van Ciencia in collaboration with Muy Interesante and carried out with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FECYT).
