[caption id="attachment_3540" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Cathy Brady"][/caption] Many readers have responded thoughtfully, and at length, to our post about  Jenn Power's reaction to news that Stanford University researchers had made headway toward a potential treatment for the cognitive impairment that is one feature of Down syndrome. I've received a wide range of views from parents and researchers, about both Down syndrome and autism. Thanks to all who contributed. Contrarian is on the road with limited Internet access. I'll be posting these as I can over the next few days, more or less in the order I received them. Several are quite long, and deserve to...

Jenn Power, Community Leader of L'Arche Cape Breton, mother of twin boys with Down syndrome, and—disclosure—Contrarian's daughter-in-law, had an interesting reaction to news that a Stanford University research team has made headway toward a potential treatment for the intellectual impairment that is one of Down's symptoms: She welled up with tears. The researchers probed the brains of mice genetically engineered to develop a rodent version of Down syndrome. They found that a region known as the hippocampus lacked a neurotransmitter that enables the brain to perform contextual learning. This is the process of gaining and applying knowledge in real-world situations—things like...