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Anyone figure out what the fundamental difference between autistic and NT brains is? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world to c/autism@lemmy.world
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We know that we behave and think differently. We generally have more difficulty with social situation and are hypersensitive to sensory input. But to me, these seem like impacts of a fundamental difference. For example, we have social difficulties in NT environments because something with our neurotype is different. What is that fundamental difference that manifests into the symptoms of autism?

So far, my best guess is that we don't have the filter that NTs have with sensory input. They can decide what sensory information to focus on, allowing them to process information they see as important in real time. Additionally, they seem to be better able to multitask. For us, since we don't have that filter and multi-core processor, it takes us longer to process sensory input.

The other thing is that since we are more sensitive to sensory stimuli, we can get overwhelmed much easier, which limits our ability to process the info.

These two together make it so that social situations are difficult to navigate. There's wayy to much information to process in real time for us, so we end up missing a lot of the communication that is going on. For example, a person will send a nonverbal cue of some sort, but since we're still focused on what they said and processing all the other surrounding stimuli, we miss it. Maybe much later, when alone and reviewing the interaction or discussing it with a friend, we might finally get to the nonverbal cue and realize we missed it.

What do you guys think? Am I on track? Are there other fundamental differences between neurotypes?

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[-] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 58 points 2 months ago

Windows NT is a proprietary kernel developed by Microsoft. Autism is free and open source brainware.

[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago

Also, Windows NT is no longer supported while the support for brains running autism has only grown over the last few years and no general end-of-life date has been announced for that support.

[-] Metype@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Unless you are referring to the first version of NT released, then I'm sorry but Windows NT is still in active development

[-] 018118055@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

NT is (was?) a trademark of Canada's Northern Telecom.

[-] orac@feddit.nl 36 points 2 months ago

Are you familiar with the theory of predictive processing? If not, look it up esp. In relation to autism. Tldr: human brains do not process information to form an image of the world, but we predict what the world may look like at any given moment. We use our sensory input only to correct errors in our prediction. There are two thing at play with autism here. 1. We are aware of more errors than NTs (inability to sift critical errors from non-critical ones) 2. When human brains detect an error it can choose to believe the input or the prediction. NT brains assign higher value to normative rules (sometimes they value input more and other times the prediction (internalized belief)) While autistic brains give more value to sensory input. Anyway, this is what I know of the current state of neurological difference, but I'm no scientist.

[-] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 months ago

This one is interesting:

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/me-and-monotropism-unified-theory-autism

[-] naonintendois@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago

I really like the idea of thoughts having inertia. It fits so well

[-] bigboig@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

Thoughts having too much inertia? Or maybe my thoughts run on a surface without enough friction. Like an ice rink, my brain is smooth and I have no ice cleats

[-] carbon_based@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Idea could be intresting but execution is very pathologizing. If they only could stop this.

[-] nikaaa@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Yes, I believe that you are on track. It is mostly sensitivity that makes us overwhelmed a lot, which can cause the symptom of freezing (like, standing still completely) or panicking.

The upside of it is that it makes it possible to go much more into depth with complicated topics than NT people, the downside is not performing well in crowded areas.

[-] guriinii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Our brains are hyperconnected, theirs aren't.

[-] Pm_me_girl_dick@lemmyf.uk 1 points 2 months ago

Were all horse-hung gigachads?

[-] retrolasered@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Theres an idea at the moment that what happens for adhd with dopamine, happens for autism but with seratonin

this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
40 points (90.0% liked)

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