Autism as the rigidity of subconscious skills.

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I have this weird theory... It's hard for me to express myself in words, so I tried to express it as logically as I can and put it in a form of a scientific article☺. Basically what I want to say, that from a functional point of view the root cause of ASD is general impairment (rigidity) in formation and transformation of automatic processes in our brains.
I would be glad to read any critique or support of this theory. I would also be glad if someone would help me edit it, as English is my second language.

Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder which is characterized by deficits in social and communicational areas, and unusually restrictive patterns of behavior. By looking at the nature of those deficits and other deficits commonly associated with ASD, and by comparing strong and weak points inside those areas of deficits, it can be concluded that most (if not all) of them are connected to the formation and transformation of subconscious (automatic) skills.

Socialization is the major area of defisits among people with ASD. According to diagnostic criteria it includes.
1.Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
As we can see all of those areas demand the development of complex subconcious skills, requiring high amount of intuition and contextual fluidity.As the "Sally Ann" false belief test (Baron-Cohen, Leslie , Frith) shows, children with ASD show the deficits in the so called 'Theory of Mind", which can be described as the ability "to put oneself in others shoes" , or monitor what other people might be thinking. On the other hand , Dot and Midge test shows that given enough incentive to concentrate children with ASD can consciously guess what the other person's beliefs might be.
Communication and Language acquisition is another problem area for people with ASD. As we now know(from works of Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker) language is acquired instinctually in childhood. And perhaps for those people with ASD who acquired language later than usual , the process was more akin to studying a second language by neurotypicals. And even to those people with ASD who didn't experience a delay in language acquisition more intuitive areas of language', like pragmatics, still causing problem. On the other hand, higher functioning autistics can have higher than average knowledge in more formal and explicit areas of language such as vocabulary, hence the term 'little professors' coined by Hans Asperger himself.
Intense interests and restricted patterns of behaviour might indicate that once certain skills and knowledge are acquired exercising them can be highly rewarding psychologically. Perhaps, the most extreme example of which will be stereotyped or repetitive motor movements (stimming). On the other hand , some people with ASD are well known for their innovative thinking. Temple Grandin's observation about specialized ways of thinking(visual, pattern, or verbal) might indicate that once preferred method of thinking is established, it can develop quite rapidly, sometimes to the point of preclusion of the development of other important skills. It's also well known that most people with ASD have difficulty coping with change which again requires complex re-routing of automatic processes.
Motor skills is yet another set of mostly automatic skills, which is also a common problem area for people with ASD. And yet again , we can find examples of excellence in the specific areas of motor skills among people with ASD (sports etc.)
Conclusion.
It might be presumed that the difficulties experienced by people with ASD can be explained by the impairment in the formation(and transformation, once they are formed) of wide spectrum of subconscious skills (learned automatic processes), which can be compensated for by similar skills , but more specific and demanding higher levels of attention and conscious effort. The need to use such skills, at least partially, can explain higher levels of stress among people with ASD and ASD most common comorbids : anxiety disorder, depression, and OCD. It can also be presumed that many cases of intellectual disability associated with ASD are mere consequence of those deficits in subconscious skills, and can be avoided if timely and adequate ways to solve or bypass those deficits are found.

Any support or criticism?
And another question , can I edit my original post?

I think you may want to write a white paper rather than a research paper on it. A white paper puts forth an idea and supporting facts that the idea was derived from and sometimes offers ways it could be tested/researched, but not always.

As it stands right now you have an idea so you’re halfway there.

Thank you. Could you give me links to information on syntax differences and publishing.

And here's a slightly edited version with reference and a bit added on motor skills.

Autism as the rigidity of subconscious.

Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder which is characterized by deficits in social and communicational areas, and unusually restrictive patterns of behavior. By looking at the nature of those deficits and other deficits commonly associated with ASD, and by comparing strong and weak points inside those areas of deficits, it can be concluded that most (if not all) of them are connected to the formation and transformation of subconscious (automatic) skills.

Socialization is the major area of defisits among people with ASD. According to diagnostic criteria it includes.
1.Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
As we can see all of those areas demand the development of complex subconcious skills, requiring high amount of intuition and contextual fluidity.As the “Sally Ann” false belief test (Baron-Cohen, Leslie , Frith, 1985)(1) shows, children with ASD show the deficits in the so called ‘Theory of Mind", which can be described as the ability “to put oneself in others shoes” , or monitor what other people might be thinking. On the other hand , Dot and Midge test (Peterson, Slaughter, Peterson, and Premack, 2013)(2) shows that given enough incentive to concentrate children with ASD can consciously guess what the other person’s beliefs might be.

Communication and Language acquisition is another problem area for people with ASD. As we now know(Chomsky, 1965, Pinker, 1994)(3,4) language is acquired instinctually in childhood. And perhaps for those people with ASD who acquired language later than usual , the process was more akin to studying a second language by neurotypicals. And even to those people with ASD who didn’t experience a delay in language acquisition more intuitive areas of language’, like pragmatics, still causing problem. On the other hand, higher functioning autistics can have higher than average knowledge in more formal and explicit areas of language such as vocabulary, hence the term 'little professors’ coined by Hans Asperger himself.
Intense interests and restricted patterns of behaviour might indicate that once certain skills and knowledge are acquired exercising them can be highly rewarding psychologically. Perhaps, the most extreme example of which will be stereotyped or repetitive motor movements (stimming). On the other hand , some people with ASD are well known for their innovative thinking. Temple Grandin’s observation (Grandin, T. 2006)(5)about specialized ways of thinking(visual, pattern, or verbal) might indicate that once preferred method of thinking is established, it can develop quite rapidly, sometimes to the point of preclusion of the development of other important skills. It’s also well known that most people with ASD have difficulty coping with change which again requires complex re-routing of automatic processes.
Motor skills is yet another set of mostly automatic skills, which is also a common problem area for people with ASD. The study by Mostofsky et al. (2009)(6) suggested that the decreased cerebellar activation in the HFA group may reflect difficulty shifting motor execution from cortical regions associated with effortful control to regions associated with habitual execution. Additionally, diffusely decreased connectivity may reflect poor coordination within the circuit necessary for automating patterned motor behaviour. And yet again , we can find examples of excellence in the specific areas of motor skills among people with ASD (sports etc.)
Conclusion.
It might be presumed that the symptoms experienced by people with ASD can be explained by the general impairment in the formation(and transformation, once they are formed) of wide spectrum of subconscious skills (automatic processes) and by consequences of this impairement. Those subconscious skills can be compensated for by similar skills , but more specific and demanding higher levels of attention and conscious effort. The need to use such skills, at least partially, can explain higher levels of stress among people with ASD and ASD most common comorbids : anxiety disorder, depression, and OCD. It can also be presumed that many cases of intellectual disability associated with ASD are mere consequence of those deficits in subconscious skills, and can be avoided if timely and adequate ways to solve or bypass those deficits are found.

1.Baron-Cohen, Simon; Leslie, Alan M.; Frith, Uta (October 1985). “Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind”?“. Cognition. Elsevier. 21 (1): 37–46. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8. PMID 2934210.

2.Peterson CC, Slaughter V, Peterson J, (May 2013) Children with autism can track others’ beliefs in a competitive game.” Dev Sci PMID:23587041 DOI:10.1111/desc.12040

3.Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press.

4.Pinker, S. (2007). The Language Instinct (1994/2007) . New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

5.Grandin, T. (2006)Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism. Vintage;

6.Mostofsky S. H., Powell S. K., Simmonds D. J., Goldberg M. C., Caffo B., Pekar J. J. (2009). Decreased connectivity and cerebellar activity in autism during motor task performance. Brain 132, 2413–2425. 10.1093/brain/awp088

Here are links to what a white paper is and it’s format. However you need to decide who you want to view your paper and where it gets published for yourself. I would look at psychology journals that accept public non academic (as in you don’t need a PhD or university affiliation) based papers.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/546/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.wikihow. ... rs%3famp=1

You can also do a simple search for templates for MS word et al. Just make sure you find one for “academic” not business needs.

You could also contact your local college/university and speak with a professor who would be in the same field you believe your idea fits and ask them if they would like to collaborate with you to add some credit behind your work. Most are willing if you can “sell” them the idea. A white paper will help do that. Good luck.

Thank you . What do you think about riojournal? It's the first thing google gave me. I'm completely dumb in this things.

That looks like a great outlet for you to utilize when you feel that your idea has been exhaustingly outlined in writing.

Actually, from what I read, your ideas have been corroborated by researchers already.

I would purport that what you presented is quite in the mainstream as far as recent innovations in notions of autism are concerned.

The only trouble: many autistic people do have "theory of mind"---only it is not automatically "imprinted" like it is in "neurotypicals." Rather, it is learned.

Could you please refer me to articles that state that impairment of in the formation(and transformation, once they are formed) of wide spectrum of subconscious skills (learned automatic processes) is the main cause of autism or something similar?



That's what I tried to express.
Do you see any contradiction with what I wrote here?

I feel the “rigidity” you speak of is the cause of SOME autism. I feel like this most prominent within "high-functioning" people.

Other times, there are deeper neurological issues at play.

Courchesne (2001) has some interesting ideas pertaining to how brain growth is, apparently, accelerated within the first two years of life. And that there is difficulty in what I would term "getting rid of irrelevant and redundant neural connections." There is a relative lack of a sieve which separates "irrelevant" stimuli from "irrelevant" stimuli, according to this theory.

This is allied, loosely, with theories of language acquisition. It is stated, for example, that four-month-old children are able to discern many more phonemes (sounds) than year-old children. By the time the child is a year old, according to this theory, he/she is only able to discern the relevant phonemes within his/her language of acquisition, the other phonemes being "irrelevant."

I believe what you are saying is quite plausible....and has been corroborated previously.

It's not some "snake-oil" theory.

I believe there is a relationship between what you say and the "intense world" theory, too.

In the "intense world" theory, much stimuli is felt and experienced by the autistic person. There is a certain amount of inability to sift the "relevant" from the "irrelevant," thereby increasing the total quantity of the stimuli experienced. This leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed. One "rigidly interprets" the stimuli, and is not flexible in his/her response to it. There is difficulty in adjusting to various changes in the nature of stimuli. I have experienced this sort of thing for myself.

Here is Courchesne's article:

Neurology. 2001 Jul 24;57(2):245-54. Unusual brain growth patterns in early life in patients with autistic disorder: an MRI study. Courchesne E(1), Karns CM, Davis HR, Ziccardi R, Carper RA, Tigue ZD, Chisum HJ, Moses P, Pierce K, Lord C, Lincoln AJ, Pizzo S, Schreibman L, Haas RH, Akshoomoff NA, Courchesne RY.

I'm not sure how to post links.

But is there any paper on impairment of in the formation of subconscious skills (habitual, automatic processes) is the main cause of autism?

I would also be very interested in papers on the neurological differences of learning in people with ASD, especially on the role of synaptic pruning and lesser long distance connectivity in learning. I might corroborate what I'm trying to say.

I believe Courchesne writes about the lack of “synaptic pruning” as one of the reasons why the brain grows so rapidly. The redundant synapses remain, instead of being “pruned.”

Maybe there isn’t actual research into what you have stated. Maybe it has to be started.