Monitropic mind

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Interests Compete for Attention
Attention is a limited resource —and a tool— that we use to model our environment. Interests continually compete for our attention. Our focus on, and processing of, these interests allow us to interaction with the world, while exercising our reasoning faculties.

If we continue with the optical metaphor (focus), a Montropic mind studies the world through an interest spotlight, or an attention tunnel. The Polytropic mind does its share of problem-solving by multi-tasking; optically, think fly eyes.

Inner Dialogue
Polytropic individuals sculpt their inner dialogues using their native language, which in turn, strengthens their social dialogue skills. The Monotropic thought process has been described as visually focused, image based even. As such, the Monotropic mind may have little talent for (or interest in) spoken-language.

Autism through Evolution
In our evolutionary past the Monotropic mind held great advantage.

“[The Monotropic mind is] optimised for searching for sustenance in a dangerous environment in which resources are scarce. The attention tunnel which links the unarmed hunter to the prey must be optimised for the immediate high gain high risk opportunity. It must have a propensity to accept what is seen, even when this contradicts what was formerly thought to be known. “

“Such a mind must have a propensity for actual rather than literal information. Such a mind seems to have the will to error, but is in fact the only sort of mind capable of discoveries that go beyond the known and transform situations. Only error making leads to metamorphic discovery.”

Is it any surprise that a large number of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are said to be “higher-functioning autistics”, (Asperger’s Syndrome)?

Immunity to Mind Viruses
A Meme consists of a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene (the unit of genetics). Examples might include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods in addition to concepts such as race. -Wikipedia Entry

In Andrew Walker’s paper What is the point of Autism? he hypothesizes that the Monotropic mind is immune to these mind viruses (Memes). He reasons that “Autistic phenotypes do not [communicate by means of memes], because they perceive their universe in terms of the strictly physical and thus memes are cognitively ‘invisible’.”

If this is true, the Monotropic mind lost its evolutionary advantage as we formed ever larger social units. Beginning with large packs of humans, and later with villages, and cities, the Monotropic attention tunnel proved too narrow to process all the nuances of social interactions: words strung into sentences; audible stress, accent, and tone; body language; situation specific cultural rules; &c. Thus, the Monotropic mind was “shut-out” of the social discourse, unable to process the Memes on which our societies/cultures are based.

Superficially, the description reminds me of Julian Jaynes' book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. I suppose I am skeptical of grand metanarratives which attempt to account for human diversity and experience by creating simple slogans or typologies.

For instance, as an aspie, I can't relate to the idea of a "monotropic mind." I am extremely verbal, a college professor, and my reflective process works largely through speaking and writing. The idea sounds like a gross over-generalization. Is there any empirical support in peer-reviewed journals?

Of course generalizations never apply to everyone. I was interested in this subject for two reasons, firstly, was the evolutionary theory behind it, and whether anyone thought it had any merit.

As a child my mother called me the absent minded professor.

When I am focused on something, I can become irritated when distracted. That just happened as I was writing this. I was asked to grab the baby wipes, as I was looking for them the phone was ringing, and it had not been put back on the hook. Meanwhile I was trying to maintain my train of thought, so I got snappy with my wife for no reason.

I was intrigued by the concept that monotropism could be genetic. I started looking for studies in peer reviewed journals earlier, but was interrupted. I started to find some, but you had to pay for them, and I didn't know whether they would have contained the information I was looking for. Generally, I do have trouble multitasking. I write, and work better alone when I am completely focused.