Why do we believe autism is "hard-wired"?

Post Reply New Topic

Over time, using my logical mind and years of observation and research, I have come up with ways to appear more social, or handle those situations better. I did not learn those the same way as the rest of the world. I may be different due to experience and learning, but when it comes down to it, I am still hard-wired to think the same way when new situations arise. The test will generally not yield different results, it is not a test of experience and knowledge, it is a test of things much deeper.

I haven't read over the results of the two I took (DSM-IV, and one of the more modern ones I can't recall the name of) to give any examples.

As I understand it, there are differences in the brains of autistic and non-autistic people. However, I also understand that there are also differences in the brains of London black-cab drivers who have to do "the Knowledge", which means learning a huge amount of streets and places in London. Those cab drivers start out with normal brains, physically expand the bit that deals with geography, and then shrink it again when they retire. This effect is mentioned in the article linked below:

www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227111 ... enius.html

What is clear to me is that there is very little formal training available to people with Aspergers, especially those of us who are high-functioning. What there is seems to be limited to social skills. It seems that most if not all of us have cognitive difficulties with memory, attention, and perception which either exacerbate our social difficulties or might even be the root cause of some.

Either way, maybe with training we could alter the architecture of our brains just as London taxi drivers do. And I wonder how many people with fundamentally autistic brains do alter them at least enough to put them outside the diagnostic criteria - what exactly does "clinically significant" mean in the context of social difficulties?

Are there babies who are born with autistic brains but whose parents "train" them to be normal before they even reach the age at which anyone would be diagnosed? Conversely do AS parents "train" their children to be autistic to some extent?

Most speech therapists won't even assess babies for delay until they are at least two years old. Most speech assessment methods would not pick up high-functioning autistics at all. Yet the brain is at its most plastic in the first three years of life. Maybe intervention beginning at birth could develop the autistic brain to grow more normal architecture.

My environment was extremely supportive from both parents and teachers. I was always allowed, and in fact encouraged, to be myself. My guess is that contributed to my high self-confidence.

The only "outside" factor I can think of which caused the "switch flipping" was adolescence. Perhaps by adolescence, I intrinsically felt ready to make friends and be more social. Before that, I really had little to no desire to interact with my peers.

I'm highly skeptical that this would work. Maybe in the absolute mildest of cases, but even then I doubt it. How many anecdotes have we heard here on WP where parents have more-or-less tried to make their child "normal," only to fail miserably?

The idea that parents can be "brain architects" of their children has never been proven to be effective. It only servers as fuel for companies to sell parents junk like Baby Einstein CDs, flash cards, and other forms of static learning.

I tend to think not. Why? Because of the many parents who have kids who are both AS and NT. On WP alone there are NT parents who have both AS and NT kids and AS parents who have AS and NT kids. If the parents were able to influence the architecture that much, one way or the other, it stands to reason that families with multiple kids wouldn't have a mix of AS and NT because even though parents adapt their style to suit the kid (or ought to), no parent changes their style so much from one kid to the next in a way that could explain having kids who are both AS and NT. There is one parent I read on the parenting forum who has a kid who is pretty low functioning and one who is Aspergers. I can't imagine any parenting style that would change so drastically between kids.

Speech therapists can't catch a speech delay until a kid is past the age when most kids talk (2). This happened with my daughter and it's when her interventions started (only speech, at that young age- since her diagnosis was "speech delay"). There are attempts to find diagnostic criteria for babies but it's so iffy at that young age. I have 20/20 hindsight now but what set my daughter apart from other kids is that she screamed constantly. In retrospect she was overstimulated by things that don't overstimulate other babies- too much sensory input to process. That would be the big clue if...if...if constant crying was unique to autistic babies. But it isn't. The thing about babies is they have so few behaviours that behaviours can't be diagnostic. My daughter cried constanly. But so do babies with acid reflux disease, with any number of diseases, really. There are myriad reasons for babies to cry constantly. And some babies are utterly NT and have no health problems like acid reflux yet scream inconsolably until suddenly they don't. (me, I'm told.) And even then, many babies who will be diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum don't cry much at all.

Then there's the other conundrum. What intervention do you give a baby to grow NT brain architecture. You can give toddlers speech therapy (my daughter had her share). I've heard you can start ABA therapy for some things in toddlerhood. But nobody really understands the architecture of the brain well enough to even have a clue what the intervention would be. When I was pregnant my Mom gave me a book about helping babies brains develop which gave some reasonable advice- talk to the baby, play with the baby, take the baby places, plunk the baby down amongst other people and let them talk to and play with the baby. That does sound like a recipe for raising a very typical, mentally healthy baby. I did all that (it actually does come pretty intuitively) but it didn't seem to work out as well in practice as it looked on paper. (I hadn't heard of autism at that point, nor did any doctor say anything other than "colic".) In retrospect, that would be because of sensory issues.

Bruno Bettleheim (may he burn in Hell) certainly did believe that NT mothers could convert NT children into AS children by not loving them. In fact, he was of the opinion that it ALWAYS happened that way. So naturally I'm pretty leary of the whole "it's how you raise them" idea in general.

The confusion raised by many of the questions you raise is perhaps rooted in the fact that autism is a neurological condition, whereas the DSM IV provides behavioral-based criteria rather than neurological examination. This is no doubt a result of the lack of tools to undertake accurate neurological examinations, but nonetheless leaves diagnoses open to imprecision and error.

If physical conditions were based on behavior we would run into similar issues. Imagine, for example, that the diagnosis for people lacking an arm was based on behavior rather than examination of the arms. One of the behavioral criteria might be the inability to tie shoes. If a few dexterous one-armed individuals, after years of practice, learned to tie shoes with one hand, it would be absurd to maintain that they then had two arms because they no longer met the behavioral criteria for one-armed individuals. In any event, I expect many autists adapt in the same way that a one-armed individual adapts to his/her condition.

You wonder why you suddenly fit in better at some point during high school. I have a feeling that many AS problems are a result of a lack of confidence and low self-esteem and you seem to indicate that you started feeling better about yourself at some point during high school. I believe that I am rather autistic in many ways but I have no confidence problems, a thick skin, and am quick to make comments. People have generally found me at least somewhat amusing/appealing and I was able to have a successful career. I also had an extremely supportive up-bringing.

I'm starting to believe this, but I'm not entirely there yet. Is it generally agreed that autism is, in fact, a neurological condition? Is it possible for someone to exhibit traits of autism / AS without being fundamentally neurologically different? Would or should their developmental disorder be applied any differently?


Actually, I never felt badly about myself. Even through horrible bullying in seventh grade, I was never down on myself at all. I think what happened is that I had assumed that no one really wanted to be friends with me, and in fact that was perfectly acceptable in my mind.

In high school, there were a couple of people who I suspect were intrigued by me and reached out the arm of friendship. I think them coming to me on my terms was some sort of validation for me. Suddenly, it was okay to share myself with the rest of the world, so I did. And out came my extraverted side.

I still wonder how much I am hardwired to be autistic and how much was just unusual circumstance. There's no doubt that I still have AS related traits (executive function issues, seeing parts of the whole, gut problems, etc) but I just feel... I dunno, normal?

If you are suggesting that you don't have a devepmental disorder, I agree completely. I would postulate that you never had a development disorder, but that you are at least somewhat autistic. Notice that in my post I called autism a "condition", but the DSM unfortunately labels it a disorder. I am not an expert on autism, but my understanding is that there is little general agreement on what autism fundamentally is and what causes it, although I suppose it is accepted that it is neurological. Personally, I think that Dr. Henry Markram is on the right track. Click here to read: Markram's Paper



That's how you are supposed to feel. When I was your age AS hadn't yet been invented, so I felt normal (although a bit eccentric) and I still do. People come in many sizes, shapes, colors etc. Why should an autist feel any less normal than someone with red hair or an unusually muscular build? I actually advocate not telling young people that they have AS unless it is necessary to solve serious problems. Telling a young person that they have a disorder has a serious downside, although I am sure that negative effects can be mitigated with a positive approach.

i'd never heard of AS till i was a teenager but i never once felt normal before then and i wasn't diagnosed until recently. my family probably should have caught the signs earlier, it seems like there was obviously something off.

i didn't cry for the first 3 years of my life. i mean never. not when i was hungry, tired, or in pain. i didn't even cry after birth when the doctor walloped me on the rear. i was completely silent for months. the doctors suggested then that something might be wrong, but my family didn't want to hear it.

by the time i was 1 i spoke in full and complex sentences, though i only spoke about 2-3 times a week. by the time i was 3 i had outdistanced my much older siblings in terms of reading.

i can't speak for others but i don't think of autism as an illness, something that showed up one day. near as i can tell it came with me into the world and will leave with me when i go. i try to deal with being different the best i can but i don't think of it as something i can change. i can modify my external behavior but that doesn't change who i am on the inside. i consider it very much a part of who i am.

I always felt something was wrong with me. I already felt paranoid most of my life, I literally thought I was 'mentally ret*d', and everyone was just being nice to me. I really enjoyed the Grandin/Barron book 'Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships' where they both talk about their childhoods with autism, and how they were aware of it from a very early age. It appears that knowing it, their parents were able to help them communicate better, and raise them appropriately.

Having this known, and withheld for so long by someone who is supposed to be trusted, would be a life changing event for me. I don't know if I could trust those people ever again.

Crassus, that was such an interesting article! Thank you so much for sharing it. It surprised me--I always thought our brains were hyper-connected, but I see that this is not the case. Please do track down the other study you mentioned--I love this stuff.

I was once thought to be lacking in general social intelligence but through years of meditation and practice I'm learning that my mind has the power to slowly adapt towards normal. I'm still have not met my long term goals for extroversion, flirting or reading complex social cues, but I can assure you I'm advancing and might be within a few years before I am virtually indistinguishable from even above average NT individuals. I have pretty much met my goals for optimism and confidence. I can also assure people that there are ways to rewire their brains, it just takes an incredible amount of effort over a very long period of time.

ddunkin:

You omitted from your quote an obviously pertinent sentence, I hope unintentionally. The sentence read:



If you were feeling paranoid and thinking yourself mentally ret*d, it is clear that it would be appropriate to explain your autism to you in detail. My comment was directed to the original poster and related to his apparent condition. I am convinced that I was much better off growing up without being told that I had a disorder. I concede, however, that some autists who are affected differently would greatly benefit from being told. In fact, I have two first cousins, also raised before AS was invented, whose autism was such that they surely would have benefitted from today's knowledge and approach.

Since you mention Temple Grandin, I note that she has also said that she believes that many young people with AS might be better off if they were merely labelled gifted, as would have been the case in the past.

I actually meant to say: "Would or should treatment for their developmental disorder..." Also, I often call it a "condition" though this time I just didn't call it that.


I couldn't agree more. Wow, it sounds like we were cut from the same cloth, both autistically and philosophically, just 25 years apart.

Blimey ! !!

Google "brain plasticity" ! !!

We are NOT helpless, we are not at the mercy of bloody society ! !!

We CAM change our behaviors and our lives ! !! !! !

Plasticity only goes so far, especially past age two or so. That's why they're preaching early intervention. It's easier to learn a skill like speech if you learn it early--presuming, of course, that you are ready to learn it when it's taught.

For another example, think of what happens to people who have strokes. Generally, they recover significant skills--but only up to a point. They're running up against the degree to which the brain can repair itself after an injury. For example, they may regain the ability to walk, but always have one weak side; or they may regain the ability to talk, but always have problems finding the right words.

Remodeling the brain is similar. You can affect it to some degree, but nowhere near a complete change. The most common way to change the brain is not through changing its overall structure but by forming new neural connections and strengthening often-used ones: that is, learning. Stroke patients, for the most part, don't actually repair damaged brain tissue; they re-train other parts of their brains to take over for what they lost. While autistic people obviously haven't lost any brain tissue, the principle is similar: In general, we don't re-train basic skills that we happen to have a large deficiency in; we tend to re-apply strengths instead. Typical example: Asperger's individual who uses analytical skills and detail-oriented thinking to analyze social situations.

Autistic and non-autistic brains are different--on brain scans and even in their macroscopic dimensions. There are physical differences in brain-stem size, for example, suggesting different processing of sensory information at a very fundamental level.

Considering that NT children improve their bothersome traits as they grow up, it is not at all unusual that autistic children do, too. When they are young, NT children are impulsive, have temper tantrums, don't understand how to live in society... they can't plan ahead, can't follow rules, can't think critically... When they grow out of those things, we don't call it "recovery", but just "normal development". It is overwhelmingly more common to "grow out of" childhood autistic traits than not, so I'd assume that just like it is normal for NT children to learn and grow, it is also common for autistic children.