What is your theory of autism?

Post Reply New Topic

Most of the people who post on this form seem far more intelligent than me. I believe that intelligence is one of the characteristics of high functioning autism. I also believe that the ability to perceive subtle patterns and social independence are other characteristics of autism. Of course, many other characteristic exist.

Many contributers to this form have read several, dozens, and even hundreds of books about autism. Others have made thousands of posts on these forums. I have also read numerous interesting theories of autism on these forums. Many people on this forum seem gifted in the area of self-awareness. This self-awareness gives them excellent insights into autism.

What is your theory of autism? How would you explain the underlying reason for the characteristics of autism?

This thread is an obviously well-intentioned obvious mistake. I predict a flamewar.

For what it's worth, IMO, the central characteristics are:
Different (not inferior) social skills-- skill at communicating with autistics, not with NTs-- and differences in relating to people, asociality, asexuality and hypersexuality, parallel play (I like this one-- it's not inferior or a step on the way to "better" ways of interacting)
Hyperfocus on something-- special interests
Differences in sensory perception and movement

Why are people looking for one reason or explanation that will explain autism? I doubt there is one.

My theory: epigenesis forms a bewildering array of mechanisms that work together to create a functioning human intelligence.

Awareness of, sensitivity to, and communication with other human beings are all parts of that functioning.

I conjecture that there are a number of ways that the parts and the way they fit together can be dysfunctional without imperilling the viability of the organism. The only one of these with which I have experience is in the connection from seeing, and facial recognition, and gesture - facial or otherwise - that forms between ages one and two and forms the foundation for "theory of mind". In me, and in quite a few other aspies, that connection never formed. With the result that I grew up in a world that only really had one person in it.

To me autism is a way of processing the world differently and everyone with autism may not process it the same way, but they're much similar than non-autistics.
Our extreme linear thinking can actually help us get a good job or career if focused on the right things.
I think it's important to become obsessed with an interest and I have my own 'socially awkward scientist' theory. Where would we be without these men and women? We'd not know much about radioactive elements, electromagnetism, relativity and all those things Newton did.

Many areas of the brain are different in autism than NT brains. The frontal lobes have under connectivity which gives us higher thinking including the ability to juggle tasks and have social skills. The limbic system is disregulated which should make a person better control their emotions. I'm certain much of the temporal lobe plays a part in autism which manages speech, hearing, and vision. In fact many of the areas of the brain are affected by autism. Or many of the autistic behaviours and thinking processes are because of brain differences.

My theory is that something goes wrong in the womb probably by third trimester. It's not always apparent but for some people it's obvious because of trauma experienced in the womb. And if either one of the parents or someone in the family has autistic traits the more likely the child will have autism.

There are so many theories going through my mind that I've read about. Some sound a bit ridiculous so I'll not mention them. One is about environment triggers. Oh yes, it was in a neuroplasticity book I'm reading. I'll have to re-read it because I'm drawing a blank.

I also like peterd's description.

Degenerated aristocracy is a phrase I like.

I think we rewire our brains everyday, by thinking in certain ways, we create neural pathways which become habits. These solidify in time and are passed on. When recognised and rejected, with effort, even inherited characteristics can be weakened and the brain rewired again.

Its an ongoing process just like changes to generational gene codes in time

hi there,

i think there are two parts which need to be separated in "autism". First there are some fixed inborn things: the information processing in autistic persons brains is different. Each brain has some different levels, first sensation, then perceiving, pattern matching, and then more sophisticated thought processes, part of them a subconcious, others concious. This chain of processing is abit different in autistic people, e.g. they process more things conciously for example, have less instincts how to behave, think mor ethically, and that all to different degrees. The more processing is done in higher levels, the better the results of the quality of the decision, but the more is procesed in higher levels, the sooner the person will be exhausted and overwhelmed, the more likely will it get some meltdowns or shutdowns.

So according to my theory there are some innature differences in information processing, which have some advantages but also disadvantages, and they can't be changed alot. On the other side, due to that differences, the development of the autistic child also works differently. It may not engage as much as others in social interactions. It may not like to play with others or her mother as other childs do. Therefore, it may learn some social skills, like eye contact much later than the people with more common brains.

The explanation in the last paragraph can also be found in Olga Bogdashinas books.

Does this make sense to you too?

byebye,
Anton

I think autism is a ragbag of issues and characteristics that might - or might not - be directly connected, other than being the co-effects of "random" changes in genes and gene expression. Random changes can have good and bad effects - that's how the species varies and develops new traits. Mild, higher-functioning autism appears to be useful in human society (e.g. Einstein, perhaps), while sensory sensitivity, gastro-intestinal problems, epilepsy, and intellectual disability - all of which are possible co-morbid conditions with autism - might cause either suffering or reduced survival potential (although that can be mitigated in contemporary society). In short, autism is a mixed bag of characteristics with mixed benefits and drawbacks.

Sometimes autism is a known series of effects from a known cause - e.g. Fragile X Syndrome or Tuberous Sclerosis. More often it is a widely varying range of effects of relatively unknown causes. The word spectrum suggest that there isn't a single cause, or a single dimension of personality characteristics, at work in autism. Even sensory sensitivity, which is a very common condition for people with autism, is not the sole single explanation or cause of autistic behaviour, and the same applies to those beloved theories of the psychologists, such as "weak central coherence".

In any population there are unusual characteristics. Often those characteristics appear on their own, but (by known laws of chance) occasionally a whole bunch of such characteristics will occur in the same individual - resulting in a very untypical person. This is a statistical theory of autism. I am not even convinced that it is the explanation, although it probably explains some part of the incidence of autism. This theory appears to lie behind the idea that autism is a continuum from the typical population through to highly autistic people. In some ways, it is a necessary part of the ragbag theory - if the various characteristics of autism are unconnected, then their co-incidence (i.e. their distribution in the total population) is really a statistical issue.

Another issue is the "difference theory". The world is designed around the majority of the population (neuro-typicals), and so those with unusual characteristics are at a disadvantage. For example, if most people preferred sounds in the range 60-100 Db, and a minority referred sounds in the range of 20-60 Db, then the minority are going to experience a lot of uncomfortable noise and be seen by the majority as over-sensitive. If the numbers were reversed, then the noisy minority would be regarded by the quiet majority as disruptive and careless (sounds almost like ADHD!). So - to some extent - autistic people are paying the price of being unusual - living in a world that was not designed for them - which is also another consequence of the statistical theory mentioned above.

So yeah, a ragbag of characteristics (I think Donna WIlliams uses a similar metaphor).

Evolution takes thousands of years for small changes to come about in a population, right? Not so. In the 1950's, in Soviet Russia, a researcher bred fur foxes (red foxes with a silver morph) to be more tame so that they'd be easier to handle. Within a few generations, he had foxes that were almost completely removed from their wild counterparts. In fact, he realized something: The foxes that he was working with now were different from their wild counterparts in much the same way that dogs were different than wolves. This all happened in about five generations.

Now, the foxes that he bred do not necessarily have an evolutionary advantage over wild foxes... just that they branched off from them. You can still breed a domesticated fox with a wild one, but they're so much different than each other.

It's my opinion that this is what autistics are like. We are the same species as neurotypicals, but we're also apart. As far as an evolutionary advantage? Well, to be honest, in my experience with other autistics, we're not nearly as much at a disadvantage as people think.

I think one of the major reasons why autism is seen as a disability, even to autistics, is that everywhere we go, we're a minority. In fact, we're a pretty minor minority. Just 1% of the population.

This is why I'm a supporter of what I like to call autistic Zion (or perhaps Autsanc would be a better name for it, because then there wouldn't be a problem with people who only know Zion through conspiracy theorists or the religious reference). I believe that a lot of the (Edit: non-religious) arguments that made sense for the (edit: early) Zionist movement makes sense for autistics today. We're a minority everywhere we go, and we need to change that.

Autistics are like a kind of tribe. We are in our element when we're with other autistics, but we're suffocated when surrounded by neurotypicals.

Basically, my theory is this: We're different. That's... pretty much it.

Excellent Theories!

I will copy and paste this thread to my email account.

Thank you.

I think autism means you have to be aware of how your brain is processing social information. So my theory is kind of like we are just at a different level of consciousness than most people, or our consiousness is more detailed than others.