Autism in animals?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been thinking about it for a while. We humans have so many different possible disorders, so why shouldn't other species of mammals? Is it possible that some animals can develop autism?

possibly, but I doubt it because scientists (while they aren't always accurate, I think they're right here) don't believe that animals communicate on the same level that humans do so therefore can't have the misunderstandings, or the advantages, that aspies or auties have.

Maybe the lone wolf if we consider the inability to fit in a group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_wolf_%28trait%29

RAAAWR!

Autism is seen as a problem because we have only one available choice of communication in our human society. For species with strong distinct roles, I think autism would be a role (with a different way of communication) among the others.

Last edited by SuperApsie on 10 Nov 2010, 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The way my dog's attention works reminds me of my own.

I firmly believe anything is possible. We haven't even been able to figure out how a cat purrs, so how in the Hell are we going to know what is going on in their brains yet.

I think there is the possibility of Asperger like qualities in social animals. I know that I have a very hard time understanding body language as well as facial expressions. Many social animals main use of communication is through body language, if a social animal in the wild is not able to understand that, then they will most likely end up dead, or at the very least on the very bottom of the social rung.

There's actually a real book called "All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome".

I believe animals can have autism, or at least autism like actions. Most animals are social, and communicate with other animals, so why would they NOT be able to have a social deficit?

i read an article last week about horses with post traumatic stress disorder...

Like I said earlier, anything is possible. However, I would caution against too much personification. If we really want to answer these question, then we need to find a way to approach this where we are not placing our own intellectual and personality predilections on animals. I do not know if there is a truly objective way of doing this. However, be aware we are placing our mind and personality on other animals is a step in the right direction. But this issue is much deeper and a simple answer could never do it justice.