I am frustrated by the quality of discourse about autism from the official channels and forums like reddit. I want to read the takes of people paid to think deep thoughts.

Does anyone have essays from the field of science studies on autism?

  • Red_Eclipse [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    3 months ago

    Autism and the Predictive Brain: Absolute Thinking in a Relative World by Peter Vermeulen - it draws upon a lot of neurological studies to attempt to explain autism. I found it very fascinating. The theory is that the brain does not merely react to stimuli, but first predicts it. Since the brain is like a predictive model, autism is like having a model that is ‘context blind’ and prone to prediction errors - leading to the stereotypical symptoms of rigidity, anxiety, sensitivity to stimuli etc. Symptoms can be improved if given extra information and extra context. I found this to be true for myself, in social situations anyway.

    Another explanation I found enlightening was that the sensory issues are not like you have some ‘superpower’ where all noises are magnified 10000x. No, you hear noises the same but it’s like injected straight into your limbic system (emotions). This makes a lot of sense to me, because I personally experienced how my sensory volume never really changed, but more like my perception of it. Before burnout, my dog barking could get annoying, but during burnout, it was like I was raw, and the barking was like being ‘punched in the head’ and assaulted all day, leading to rage and meltdowns etc. Part of why this is, is because the predictive brain either fails to predict a sound properly (that’s louder than I thought omg!!) or it’s been reinforced by the negative reaction, and continues to predict that omg this sound is gonna be soooo loud and hurt omg !!! Because of this, if you were to use sensory deprivation as your only treatment, you might reinforce this and make it even worse. Not that you can simply ‘get over it’ like when they blast loud music at people in ABA, but there might actually be some way to gradually expose yourself and keep calm (maybe).

    Some interesting things to think about.

    • ufcwthrowaway [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Thats cool! I was initially looking for more meta-discursive work since I am deeply unsatisfied with how autism is conceptualized, diagnosed, treated, and then popularly represented and am looking for work that would help me think through that

      But also, I think theres value in looking at autism neurologically since I dont actually understand the mechanisms of what’s happening under the hood of the disorders and nuerotypes called “autism.”