[autismo-biologia] attenti al RECENTISMO!!!

[daniela marianicerati]

________________________________
 Da: Pier Luigi Fortini <fortini a fe.infn.it>
A: lista autismo-biologia <autismo-biologia a autismo33.it> 
Inviato: Giovedì 23 Febbraio 2012 23:19
Oggetto: [autismo-biologia] attenti al RECENTISMO!!!
 
Vi invito a prendere visione dell' articolo di Wikipedia:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Recentismo

in cui si discute il neologismo, cioe' il RECENTISMO. Ovvero dice
l' articolo di Wikipedia:

``Con recentismo si indica l'aggiunta di informazioni su una voce senza valutare approfonditamente una prospettiva storica di lungo termine, o il creare nuove voci per la sola ragione che un fatto ha ottenuto una recente e forte attenzione da parte dei media.''.  
 
Un
esempio di quanto sia vero ciò che dice il Professor Pierluigi Fortini a proposito di notizie che rimbalzano in quanto hanno ottenuto una recente e forte attenzione da parte dei media

Nel
gennaio 2009 il Gurdian pubblicò una notizia shock che rimbalzò sui giornali di
tutto il mondo e anche in Italia.
Copio
da “La stampa “ del 12 gennaio 2009
  

12/1/2009 (17:11) - LA RICERCA E' STATA
PUBBLICATA SUL QUOTIDIANO INGLESE GUARDIAN
Autismo, scoperto il test prenatale
In Inghilterra è scontro sull'esame
  
  
 
   
Il
livello di testosterone nell'utero
può aiutare a prevedere il disturbo
 
Sui
giornali di tutto il mondo titoli a caratteri cubitali annunciavano che era
possibile fare diagnosi prenatale di autismo e quindi interrompere le gravidanze
a scopo eugenetico. 
In
realtà gli autori del lavoro originale, guidati da Simon Baron Cohen, avevano
esaminato il testosterone nel  liquido
amniotico di bambini che poi sono risultati tutti a sviluppo normale. Hanno
avuto l’idea infelice di usare il termine “autistico” per tratti del carattere
nell’ambito della normalità. E da questo grossolano malinteso da parte forse di
un solo giornalista a cui hanno fatto eco altri giornalisti in tutto il mondo è
nata questa notizia assolutamente falsa, basata su un grossolano malinteso.
Baron
Cohen ha scritto al Guardian il seguente articolo per precisare il contenuto vero
della sua ricerca
  

Our research was not about
prenatal screening for autism
We merely aimed to understand what causes
differences in autistic traits
Comments
(…) 
	* Simon Baron Cohen 
	* The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009 
Your front-page article on 12 January was given the headline "New research brings autismscreening closer to reality" and the strapline "Call for
ethics debate as tests in the womb could allow termination of
pregnancies". It showed a photo of a foetus, which was given the caption,
"The discovery of a high level of testosterone in prenatal tests is an
indicator of autism."
And inside the paper a double-page spread was devoted to the details of the
study, and given the headline "Disorder linked to high levels of
testosterone in the womb".
All four of these statements are inaccurate. The new research was not
about autism screening; the new research has not discovered that a high level of
testosterone in prenatal tests is an indicator of autism; autism spectrum disorder has not been linked to high levels
of testosterone in the womb; and tests (of autism) in the womb do not allow termination of
pregnancies.
To be fair to the reporter, Sarah Boseley, the content of her articles
was mostly correct. But the headlines and photo captions have led to emails
from hundreds of worried parents of children with autism erroneously believing that our research
is being conducted with a view to wanting to terminate children with autism in the womb - a nasty
and sinister example of eugenics that my co-authors and I oppose.
The Guardian was reporting on our new study in the British Journal of Psychologythat found a correlation between levels of foetal testosterone (FT) and
the number of autistic traits a child shows at the age of eight. The study was not about prenatal
screening for autism,
and indeed did not even test children with autism.
What it did was to test 235 typically developing children, measuring
their FT (we all have some) and later measuring their autistic traits. Autistic traits are also
normal - it is just a matter of how many of these you have. Children with autism have a high number of autistic traits, but our 235
children were all typically developing children. The aim of the study was
simply to understand the basic mechanisms causing individual differences in autistic traits in an
otherwise typical sample.
Your article covered two very different issues: our new research, which
aims to study the causes of individual differences in children; and prenatal
screening for autism.
The two should have been kept distinct. Indeed, a prenatal screening study of autism would have needed an
entirely different design. 
Such a study would have had to look at autism, which ours did not; and it would have
had to look at issues to do with how sensitive the test was to detect autism, which kind of autism, how specific it was,
or whether it also picked up other outcomes.
For the record, on prenatal screening, I believe that if there was a
test for autism (and
there is none yet), while some parents may exercise their legal right to opt
for a termination, I am not in favour of discriminating against a foetus purely
because it might develop the condition.
• Professor Simon Baron-Cohen is director of the Autism Research Centre, CambridgeUniversitysb205 a cam.ac.uk
 
 
Mentre però il primo
articolo, sensazionale e basato su una notizia falsa, ha avuto una eco enorme
sui mass media di tutto il mondo, la replica di Baron Cohen non ha avuto
nessuna eco.

Alla prossima
   DMC
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