Identifying the area(s) of brain damage

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Can you say how you made that determination ?

Motor dysfunction/balance impairment are a documented trait of autism. Earlier someone related this to a "stroke". It seems some ASD traits are "damage" in other contexts, however, if the trait occurs with ASD, then it is not "damage". And most people here don't want to commit to non-functional brain cells/non-functioning regions as "damage" either. So, this would appear to make determination of co-occuring brain damage impossible to distinguish?

I have motor/balance issue. After a first meeting , the autism specialist watched me walk down the hallway as I left, and I always felt this was part of identifying autism. I am a bit self-conscious, so perhaps that is why it stuck in my mind. Walking/running feels like a forced movement of putting forward one leg , then the next. I don't know if I have balance problems, but anyone with this trait, in my opinion, feels like something is wrong in the brain to cause it.

because they see functional problems ...
-one boss said my brain is like swiss cheese
-one boss told me "you need a new brain"
-one boss said "you are lost in the sauce"
-,my neighbor called the police and said I am ret*d
- the police called me ret*d
- so many times have I heard the oh-so-unintentionally-condescending, "Are you OK ?"

I am sure if I got a MRI, then the doctors would see regions not functioning. Perhaps, for sports injury they would call those regions, "damaged" , yet, somehow with autism , they are just "different". Or perhaps I have co-occurring "brain damage", but then how could I distinguish it from autism ? Or maybe I don't have autism at all, and just have brain damage, but then how would I know ?

I admit deep down I would want a cure.

Last edited by LoveNotHate on 07 May 2014, 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, if that's what you want, why not go and get an MRI then?

I plan to. I was inquiring here first though, because it has been nagging in my mind.

I have been thinking about it for a long time.

I've thought about asking for a brain scan, to see if there is something other than ADHD or autism causing my neurological problems. I've suspected that I have something wrong with my brain since I was 7.

I haven't even had a proper physical exam in over 15 years...I don't have a regular doctor much less anyone I could talk to about getting an MRI. So I'm not even sure how to approach getting it done.

OP, could you explain a little bit more about what you mean by "non-functioning and/or non-connected areas of the brain?" I've just never heard of these things happening before. By saying that I don't mean to imply that there is no such thing, I am just not familiar with it and I'd just like to know what it is.

As for Alzheimer's and traumatic physical injury to the brain, yes those are brain damage. However the key is that there is some sort of injury to areas of the brain that were already there and so could sustain damage. As for autism, the areas that are different we're different from the start and so damage could not have made them that way.

Dyslexia is a neurological disorder that makes areas of the brain function differently and it causes impairments that affect reading, spelling, knowing right and left, etc. 40 or 50 years ago some people thought that dyslexia was caused by damage to the brain, but we now know that this is not true and that it is purely neurological.


Just because two conditions have similar, or even the same, symptoms does not necessarily mean that they are actually the same disorder, or that they have any relationship with each other. For example, I know a baby who is going through a lot of tests right now because she has stopped growing. There are so many different conditions that could be causing it ranging from a digestive problem preventing intake/absorption of sufficient nutrients, to primordial dwarfism which have no relation to each other despite having the same outwardly visible symptoms.

You can babble on about it 'til the cows come home but all it really comes down to is, we are what we are. Damaged vs Different. Who cares?!
All I know is, if my brain is damaged, I'd rather my damaged brain than some of those undamaged NT brains 'cause they sure can't program, hyperfocus/flow, problem solve or many more of the gifts I have supposedly attributable to AS!

In the 1960s and before, most people who are now "Aspergian" would have been diagnosed with "brain damage," or "minimal brain dysfunction." This is before neuroscience was in its infancy.

I doubt it if brain scans/MRI's will discover the cause of anybody's Asperger's/Autism.

It's more subtle than that.

MRI is an expensive and slow imaging technique. It's structural, not functional, so it can't show parts that are not working because "they are not connected".
It's possible that it will not show great abnormalities if you're purely autistic.

I have said this before, but I still only see Autism/Asperger's as a group of symptoms that you find in a person, such as sensory processing differences, social issues etc.

So the idea that people who have brain damage from birth or from accidents can and are diagnosed with autism/Asperger's does not seem unreasonable to me. I also think that there are people who have Asperger's/autism that did develop in the womb and have different neurology from birth but I can't see why people cannot acquire the same different neurology from brain damage. Autism/Asperger's is diagnosed from looking at symptoms in terms of characteristics that people have so why does it matter how the person has become that way unless you are looking at improving autism/Asperger's.

Damaged or different, its complicated and I would say they are one in the same really, some aspects of Asperger's/autism are negative I don't think anyone denies that, social problems and sensory difficulties can prove difficult to deal with, so does the word damage only work if its causing negative effects?

But then again I suppose the diagnosis criteria means that a person needs to have shown symptoms from a young age, so someone who has brain damage from the age of like 12 or something then they would not be diagnosed, also there would probably be a marked difference between what the person was like before and after the brain damage.

When it comes to birth brain damage then I would have thought that there are many people out there who had brain damage at birth who go on to be diagnosed with autism/Asperger's.

I personally think that brain damage at birth caused my problems but it does not really matter, I think that I have Asperger's and I would also be interested to see if my brain looks different although I am told that its not always possible to see any damage especially when it happened at birth

Its also possible that the brain bleed I acquired as a small baby could have made my brain grow differently which then would be a neurological difference and not an acquired brain damage.

sorry for the long post I am really just writing all my thoughts down so its probably not even structured coherently

I’m thinking that people are having a problem with the word “damage” because we often think when something is damaged, it means it is no longer “good for use”----like damaged produce in the grocery store that needs to be thrown away. No one wants to feel like they are of NO USE, AT ALL. The word “damage” does not always mean “irreparable”, however. I have heard many people say that when someone experiences some type of trauma----say, for instance, when a woman is raped----that she has suffered “psychological damage” because of it; but, more often than not, however, she recovers. She may not ever be 100%----because she’ll never forget it----but, she learns to cope. Isn’t that what we all are trying to do everyday……?

I don't care what anybody calls it----cuz, let's face it, no one knows, FOR FACT, how we got this way----and I just keep-on, keepin'-on-----NOT that I don't have days where I feel like a total loser, but....

maybe "wounded" is a more helpful word than damaged. Wounds heal.

Can fMRI show brain function?

Damage can heal too. I didn't wound my liver with alcohol. I "significantly damaged" it, but it healed. As I said. Who cares. We quibble over terms that in the end of the day don't really matter. Some damaged people are brilliant and some 'undamaged' people are hopeless. What's the point?

Autism is likely different at the neuron level and below, so it is not like brain damage that damages certain parts of the brain with normal neurons, and those neurons are dead, and those connections are gone.

Yes, but is mainly used for research.

PET scan has more clinical applications and there is a guide (in Medscape) about the findings in people with ASD.