Is it possible to be half aspie?

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Many neuroscience people have never heard of BAP, so they don't use the term for that reason, not because they think that it should be restricted to family members. The term originated with studies of family members, but broadened in recent years.

I've seen quite a few studies about it in non-relatives while keeping up with stuff on pubmed over the past 2-3 years. I don't really care about use of the term BAP or not, as I am more interested in autistic traits in general population than in just family members, and researchers can call it what they want. We call it high AQ in our lab, and there is a joke that machines stop working when someone with low AQ walks into the room.

Fascinating stuff.

-looks to corner in posh manner with pipe in mouth

_________________
Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

^^^Don't forget to blow the smoke rings.

Tony Atrtwood about subclinical Aspergers/BAP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUG3wOggA0g

Yes he´s terriffic at explaining, how AS can take all sorts of forms with all mixtures of strengths and weaknesses. He´s important to adults, who have lived a long life believing, that they were low-quality NT, when, in fact they are aspies.It can be hard to recognize descriptions, especially as a female.
T.A is coming to my village in June: I do wish, I could afford it.

you sound like an aspie. Being affectionate has nothing to do with it. Many aspies are affectionate. making eye contact and reading body language - some aspies can do that. maybe your asperger is mild.

Broad Autism Phenotype is quite a fascinating concept. I don't see why researchers, especially genetic/epigenetic researchers, haven't run with it.

It's not as simple, I believe, than a hypothetical situation where some people have the "trait" for autism, like people have the "trait" for Sickle Cell Anemia; don't you wish it were that simple?

I also believe there are people who are "subclinical" most of the time who could become "clinical" under stress. I believe I am one of those people. I have gotten into trouble many times because of my "clinical" manifestations under stress. There have been times when I growled and meowed on the train in the presence of cops! A couple of times, I was taken off the train for a "talking to" by cops. I calmed down sufficiently, by then, to not be taken to a psych ward (yep...I became aware of the potential pitfalls of that after I calmed down a bit!).

Then there are the people who are "subclinical" all the time--they just have "nerdy" interests and are introverted. They might not make eye contact too well--but it's seen as being "shyness" rather than a disorder.

It's quite a subjective concept, really, at this point--but, if there are people willing to be subjects for genetic/epigenetic research, I believe we could come up with interesting findings pertaining to people who are on the "cusp" of autism.

BAP just means continuous distribution of autistic traits into non-autistic people.
The trait set that defines autism can be fractionated, such that some BAP has some set, and other BAP has other set.
In family studies, the focus is usually on the endophenotype that is some specific autistic trait that seems genetically transmitted in family members.
I think that BAP is useful idea for people to recognize that they have autistic traits without getting diagnosed with autism or having any need to be diagnosed with autism. They might adjust their behaviors and environment to fit themselves better if they recognize that they are BAP/have autistic traits.

I sometimes wonder if aspergers is an interaction of different things, like people can share the same underlying pathology but it interacts with their temperaments and only in certain combinations does it cause enough problems to have been recognised. Or that people are made up of a range of dimensions, and that aspergers is just an uncommon but completely normal combination of strengths/weaknesses on various dimensions (maybe some dimensions can compensate for each other but if we are weak in both it causes problems), that is just my speculation.

To me it seems obvious BAP exists, aspergers is defined by the problems it causes rather than un understanding of the underlying causes, seems logical that it therefore will not map onto exactly whatever the underlying pathology really is and the cut off is somewhat arbitrary based on some idea of need. And it must be possible to have it without being a relative as someone would have it before they have a diagnosed child. Whether it can be sufficiently isolated from other things to be diagnosable (and whether it is needed) is another question.

I'm idiopathic. There's no autism traits in any of my family dating from my grandparents' generation.