The boy whose brain could unlock autism

[Geordie]

https://medium.com/matter/70c3d64ff221

The behavior that results is not due to cognitive deficits—the prevailing view in autism research circles today—but the opposite, they say. Rather than being oblivious, autistic people take in too much and learn too fast. While they may appear bereft of emotion, the Markrams insist they are actually overwhelmed not only by their own emotions, but by the emotions of others.

Consequently, the brain architecture of autism is not just defined by its weaknesses, but also by its inherent strengths. The developmental disorder now believed to affect around 1 percent of the population is not characterized by lack of empathy, the Markrams claim. Social difficulties and odd behavior result from trying to cope with a world that’s just too much.

 

[tryingtoregister]

It would be nice to believe but I don't think its true.. I oftentimes find myself oblivious to other peoples emotions (not necessarily that I don't care, just that I really don't know). It would be nice to think of myself as some super-learning brain furnace of fury but I don't feel like it represents me. Not saying its not what the kid is doing though he is obviously a unique individual just like anyone else.

 

[Ste11aeres]

It would be nice to believe but I don't think its true.. I oftentimes find myself oblivious to other peoples emotions (not necessarily that I don't care, just that I really don't know). It would be nice to think of myself as some super-learning brain furnace of fury but I don't feel like it represents me. Not saying its not what the kid is doing though he is obviously a unique individual just like anyone else.

I think you misunderstood the article.
It wasn't saying that ASD people actually learn better than others.
It did say our brains might be more connected and there might be a form of hyper connectivity. But that would not necessarily make us better learners or smarter. It could interfere with it. The article did say, for instance, that ASD babies (as a result of trying to block out a super intense world) might miss critical periods of social growth and social learning.

 

[Geordie]

if I am too overloaded with information, do you think I care about how you feel?

 

[tryingtoregister]

Maybe not, but I don't feel like thats how it works, at least not for me personally. I can get overloaded by things that don't overload other people.. I don't think thats hyper connectivity just hyper sensitivity, which I guess in my mind feels like two different things. Plus, and again I'm speaking for myself, I don't walk around with a "You think I give a crap how you feel" attitude, I'm usually struggling to figure it out. I am oftentimes guilty of blocking it out but I do that more to just stay functional in social situations so I don't get that overloaded feeling. But this article feels like a father trying to make sense of his son's autism by giving it some kind of air of superiority.. and it also makes it seem like I'm powerless to work on it to improve myself. I guess I just don't see what you guys are seeing.

 

[Ylva]

Speaking for myself, I'm on the Perceiving end of the Myers-Briggs spectrum.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Maybe not, but I don't feel like thats how it works, at least not for me personally. I can get overloaded by things that don't overload other people.. I don't think thats hyper connectivity just hyper sensitivity,

Actually, what you are describing is exactly what the article was talking about.

One has to understand what the article meant when it talked about hyper connectivity.
It did not mean that we see extra connections between things.
It did not mean that we experience some thing called "hyperconnectivity." I have no idea what such an experience would feel like.
The article meant that if someone cut open our brains and examined them, they would see extra connectivity.
But this would translate into our experience as hypersensitivity.
We would not experience "hyperconnectivity", we would experience hypersensitivity.

Go to the article and read the caption that is on top of the picture of colored wires.

 

[tryingtoregister]

Ste I actually did read the whole article. I saw that in a very literal sense they meant that certain cells could have more activity, possibly double what a normal persons was, which was why autistic persons could get overloaded by things that other people don't. However I'm unsure that I agree with the research on a fundamental level, for two reasons. One was that the article (in a somewhat glossed over manner) mentioned numerous researchers who had been involved in autism research there whole lives who did not agree with his research and didn't feel it actually explained anything, especially since non of his tests had been done on humans and instead he may have been viewing a narrow chemical imbalance that did not have anything really to do with autism.. note that most of the researchers pointed out that VPA hyper-connectivity is not considered a cause of autism. Secondly, if you noted at the end of the article they had put their son on anti-psychotic meds. This makes me uneasy, since it was never mentioned that Kai had any other issues beyond autism. I don't feel like I need anti-psyche meds in order to be functioning in the real world, and I don't think we should be supporting that rallying cry (now if Kai has other unmentioned disorders I would feel differently). Thats just my personal two-cents.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Ste I actually did read the whole article. I saw that in a very literal sense they meant that certain cells could have more activity, possibly double what a normal persons was, which was why autistic persons could get overloaded by things that other people don't. However I'm unsure that I agree with the research on a fundamental level, for two reasons. One was that the article (in a somewhat glossed over manner) mentioned numerous researchers who had been involved in autism research there whole lives who did not agree with his research and didn't feel it actually explained anything, especially since non of his tests had been done on humans and instead he may have been viewing a narrow chemical imbalance that did not have anything really to do with autism.. note that most of the researchers pointed out that VPA hyper-connectivity is not considered a cause of autism. Secondly, if you noted at the end of the article they had put their son on anti-psychotic meds. This makes me uneasy, since it was never mentioned that Kai had any other issues beyond autism. I don't feel like I need anti-psyche meds in order to be functioning in the real world, and I don't think we should be supporting that rallying cry (now if Kai has other unmentioned disorders I would feel differently). Thats just my personal two-cents.

I think the important thing is to understand that we (meaning not you and I, but experts) still do not understand ASD, nor do they yet understand its causes.
I read the article with that in mind. So I interpreted it as being about ongoing research that was attempting to come closer to discoveries. Rather than interpreting it as being about a final answer.

I don't think that this guy has found a key to perfect understanding of this, but I think that he is working towards greater and greater understanding, and that his theories are better than a lot of the other stuff said by other people.

He is working within limitations. the research mentioned had to do with the brains of guillotined rats. Obviously, they can't guilotine you or I to examine our brains. SO these are neuroscientists working with what they've got (rats exposed to a medicine)

 

[Daniel]

Practically speaking, what I relate to is this -- "They were quicker to get frightened, and faster at learning what to fear, but slower to discover that a once-threatening situation was now safe."

I have been working through my issues these past few months--my psychological wounds--and this excess fear has been a common pattern throughout my life. I can look back at things I used to think were really scary and see how my fears were unfounded, and definitely over-generalized. Same with anger, frustration, jealousy, bitterness, etc. All held in place by guilt and shame.

I noticed that the emotions I attached to people/things/ideas/issues weren't an absolute, and in many cases they were way out of whack, downright crazy in some instances. When I got away from those issues, took a few weeks to myself to work on myself, and then revisited them--I saw how out of proportion those emotions were.

Also... I feel that the "Theory of Mind" perspective (Uta Frith, Alan Leslie, and Simon Baron-Cohen) is misguided. I think it's more likely that Neurotypicals are better able to project themselves onto others, because it's usually not that hard to judge a Neurotypical book by its cover. I would guess that most Neurotypicals don't actually empathize as much as they think they do.

 

[Ylva]

Neurotypicals definitely lack most of the empathy they boast. In fact, they mostly only empathise with people or characters who are as similar to themselves (or at least how they think of themselves) as possible.

I'm currently down with the theory that says it's neurological damage during the first trimester that makes us this way. Of course, if that gets out, conservatives will be all like, "Look! It's the mothers' fault after all!" even though no one chooses to be ill, most could not have predicted that consequence and being harassed by conservatives is far more stressful than most generic illnesses, but there you go.