How long does research evidence last?
		What research survives, and what gets forgotten?
		My dissertation research was on the long-term effects of neonatal asphyxia in the rat, and it was published in part in the Journal of Neurochemistry (Simon & Volicer 1976).  Brain monoamines were affected, but most dramatic and probably most significant was the male-female difference in postnatal weight gain.
				That the asphyxiated rat pups were not gaining weight as quickly as control pups was immediately evident, especially in male rats.
					Males outnumber females by a ratio of about 4:1 in developmental disabilities like autism.  Males are more likely also to develop psychiatric problems later during development (according to descriptions of several diagnostic categories in DSM IV).
			Our paper was cited, though almost in passing, for a few years.  Now it is forgotten, and new research revealing many of the same findings.  Lab work did not fit in well with schedules of the day-care and after-school programs my children were in, so I gave it up in favor of a long career in software development.
			My research for many years was working weekends in our huge laboratory of networked computers at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC - at that time was second only to IBM in manufacturing computers).  My systems view of brain components responding to internal and external events stems in large part from my long career in computer science.