Mild Autism/Aspergers And Brain Damage?

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I know nothing about the human brain or brain damage or anything, but i was thinking about it,
if someone with mild Autism/Aspergers was in some kind of accident (for example a bad car crash) and got brain damage would they then be more severly autistic or would they still have aspergers but be brain damaged? or would their autism even still be there at all?

Last edited by turkey87953 on 23 Jan 2011, 4:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

I vote still autistic but with brain damage.

I'd say the symptoms could become more severe. My mom actually thinks my autism was caused by brain damage/birth trauma while I think it made the sensory symptoms more severe than they would have been.

What a question. If a dyslexic gets hit on the head and sustains brain damage, are they still dyslexic?

Of course.

Picture it like this. If a healthy autistic person's brain is a yellow and black polka-dotted square, and a healthy NT's brain is a purple circle... a brain injury is like cutting out a piece (or several pieces). It's not precisely a yellow and black polka-dotted square anymore, but it can best be described as a yellow and black polka-dotted square with pieces missing. It doesn't become a purple circle.

A brain-damaged autistic is a brain-damaged autistic.

While DF has the right idea, he or she didn't exactly answer the question of what happens when the brain of an Autie or Aspie is damaged.

An Autistic or Asperger's brain is wired very differently from a neurotypical brain. While they function the same in many ways, the difference in wiring causes the symptoms of our syndrome. If an Autie's or Aspie's brain is damaged, it is still wired in the different way. However, it will attempt to rewire itself to compensate for the part(s) of the brain that no longer function.

This rewiring will have unpredictable results depending on which part(s) of the brain is/are damaged and how the rewiring takes place. Autie or Aspie traits may be unchanged, improve or worsen, or one or more symptoms may disappear, or new symptoms may appear that didn't exist before.

We still know so little about the human brain, and still no one is completely sure how it even works, let alone the differences between the brains of an Autie/Aspie and a NT. In essence, no one can give an honest and factual answer to your question. Any answer that appears here would be precision guesswork at best. - LJS

I know it is childish, but I still can't get over being diverted by the title of the thread: ... Bran Damage.

I keep imagining an Aspie sitting down to breakfast only to find ... impaired cereal.

As for the serious question, basically what LongJohnSilver said. It all depends on what the damage is. So you would end up with a possibly altered autism spectrum disorder.

If you car was making a knocking sound, and you randomly struck the engine with a big hammer while your eyes were closed, would it fix the problem, make it worse, or leave it the same?

When I was a kid I was shot and I almost died. After I recovered, I had trouble running but I could walk just fine. I've wondered whether my occasional clumsiness might be the result of mild brain damage from almost dying. However, I was suspected of autism before all this.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp3307292.html&highlight=#3307292

I was severely oxygen deprived at birth. Up to 1/3 of Aspies are thought to be oxygen deprived.

OTOH my brother was oxygen deprived and is also autistic (specifically AS). I wasn't oxygen deprived and am also autistic. (And usually considered more severe than him.) Historically people have always blamed autism on events that they could take hold of. A divorce, a death in the family, a car accident (without physical injury -- autism being seen as a response to the trauma), etc. It's possible that oxygen deprivation could contribute. But what I mean is... like in our family it was always thought to be oxygen deprivation despite a long history of autism on both sides and then I was born autistic without oxygen deprivation. But I was less "strange" to my parents than my brother is considered, so they just figured the difference between us was oxygen deprivation. My guess is that the oxygen deprivation didn't cause his autism but may have caused his particular motor impairment which has some resemblance to very mild CP. (Whereas my motor impairment is a far more standard autistic type of impairment.)

It really depends what the brain damage does. Aggressive people have turned mild after brain damage. I know someone with short term memory loss and is a bit impulsive. Ok very impulsive. Nobody is just a bit impulsive.
It depends which area of the brain gets damaged.
I would say they are AS with brain damage. Even if it was serious brain damage like if they had a stroke.

I'd also be autistic with brain damage.

My parents have admitted that they accidentally dropped me on my head when I was a baby........Serious I am not joking....

Well, that's obviously not what the title refers to. Obviously, it's about Aspies being assaulted by bran and seriously injured. Run away! Fiber One is out to get you!

Oh and I'm autistic and have brain damage. I forgot about that. In my case it's at minimum tardive dyskinesia. (And I'm still autistic.) I can't imagine the amount of head banging I've done in my life (which has resulted in everything from temporary inability to see, to months and months of vertigo and nausea) has done me much good either.

Brain damage, and its effects are totally unpredictable. NOBODY can accurately answer this question.

The only way is for an Autistic to get brain damage and be studied. Chances are, ANY of the possibilities you mentioned might happen.

On a side note, this is a pretty macabre line of thought. I'd be more concerned about what brought you to this train of thought than the supposed answers to the question itself.

It could make one a cereal killer.