Autism and the Brain

For years, the typical presentation of autism—the developmental delays, the social and linguistic deficits—has been well known. Despite great variation among children with this condition, certain symptoms are considered hallmarks of the disorder. Less understood is why these symptoms come together to construct autism. And as autism rates continue to rise, this information is ever more vital to accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Autism and the Brain offers answers by showing a new neuropsychology of the autistic spectrum, reviewing general brain organization, and relating specific regions and structures to specific clinical symptoms. The author identifies deficiencies in areas of the left-hemisphere associated with the self and identity as central to autism. From this primary damage, the brain further reorganizes to compensate, explaining the diverse behaviors among low- and high-functioning individuals as well as autistic savants. The result is a unique three-dimensional view of brain structure, function, and pathology, with in-depth focus on how the autistic brain:

Perceives the world.
Understands and uses words.
Perceives faces.
Understands spatial relations and numbers.
Understands feelings and registers emotions.
Perceives the self as separate from others.
Acts in the world.

Challenging readers to re-think their assumptions, Autism and the Brain is breakthrough reading for researchers, clinicians, and graduate students in fields as varied as child and adolescent psychiatry; clinical child, school, and developmental psychology; neuroscience/neurobiology; special education and educational psychology; social work; communication disorders; and public health and policy.

Upon receiving her MD/PhD (1966/1970) from Kursk State Medical Institute, Dr. Glezerman worked as assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Medical Genetics. She then worked at the Moscow Psychiatric Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Health (RSFSR) for fifteen years, first as clinical researcher in the laboratory of psychiatric genetics (1974-1980) and later as head of the neuropsychological section in the Department of Child Psychiatry (1980-1989). After immigrating to the U.S., she completed her residency in psychiatry at Albany Medical College (1993-1997). For the past fifteen years, Dr. Glezerman has served as an attending psychiatrist at Albany Medical Center, attending psychiatrist and clinical associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine, attending psychiatrist and unit chief at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and consulting psychiatrist at Albany Medical Center. She is currently in private practice.

While there is a growing expression of concern in psychiatric journals’ editorials over the dramatic simplification of psychopathology that has taken place over the last decades as well as the steady decline in the teaching of psychopathology, and while many psychiatrists today lament the ‘lost generation’ of psychiatric knowledge and practice in the years following the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM I-IV), Dr. Glezerman was dedicated to teaching residents and medical students comprehensive psychopathology steeped in insights from classical psychiatrists, both in her clinical rounds and didactics. She developed a lecture course where she attempted to integrate insights from the great psychopathologists of the past with our current knowledge in functional neuroanatomy and brain mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. For these efforts, Dr. Glezerman received the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Teacher of the Year Award (2005) and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Residency Education Recognition Award (2009), for contribution to the education and professional development of residents in psychiatry.

During her career, Dr. Glezerman worked extensively in the field of developmental disorders and published numerous articles on several topics including the neuropsychological differentiation of learning disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, genealogical and neuropsychological analysis of dyslexia, developmental neuropsychological syndromes, as well as theoretical issues, such as hemispheric specialization, cerebral organization of language, and the hypothesis that the phylogenetic roots of each supramodal cortical region determines its specific contribution to thought process and a particular language code.

Dr. Glezerman’s current interest is in the brain mechanism of subjective experience with specific focus on the neurophenomenology of autism and schizophrenia.

Dr. Glezerman is the author of four books:

Glezerman, T.B. (2013). Autism and the Brain: Neurophenomenological Interpretation, New York: Springer.

Glezerman, T.B. and Balkoski, V.I. (1999). Language, Thought and the Brain, New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Glezerman, T.B. (1986). Psychophysiological Grounds for Intellect Deterioration in Aphasia: Aphasia and Intellect, Moscow: “Nauka”, USSR Academy of Sciences.

Glezerman T.B. (1983). Brain Dysfunctions in Children. Moscow: “Nauka”, USSR Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Glezerman’s presentations include:

The Right Hemisphere and Autistic Talent: a special state of consciousness. VIII Conference of the Association of Scientific Study of Consciousness (Poster, with A.Lucero), Antwerp, Belgium, June 2004.

Cerebral Organization of the Self and Schizophrenia (a theoretical model), NYU School of Medicine, Dept of Psychiatry Grand Round, December 7, 2000.

Neuropsychiatric Model of Self and Schizophrenia , Schizophrenia Research Committee of New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, October 7, 1996.

Neuropsychiatric Model of Self. X World Congress of Psychiatry. Madrid, Spain, August 28,1996.

About Cerebral Organization of Word Meaning, Center for Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, June 12, 1990.