Mage wrote:
I used to think it was 100% genetic, but now I'm leaning more towards 80% genetic and that there is some "trigger" that happens prenatally, postnatally, or in early childhood that makes one autistic.
For me this comes from not only the twins study, but also the theory that schizophrenia and autism have many of the same genetic components, but the difference is autism comes early in life while schizophrenia comes later. It does make sense, I mean how many cases have you heard of people becoming autistic at like age 25 or 30? I think perhaps whatever triggers it at later ages, the brain is unable to repair itself the way it does when kids are younger and have autism, so the effects are slightly different (hearing voices) and there is less chance of recovery.
Just a thought.
It's genetic for good evolutionary reasons.
No autistc spectrum, no social hierarchy.
Everbody's on the spectrum, everyone's part of the hiearchy - the higher up the spectrum you are, the less pathological your symptomology will be.
Autism is not a fault, it's an evolutionary adaptation that unfortunately, happens to be disadvantageous to individuals at the Autie end of the spectrum.
But its benefits to the tribe as a whole are innumerable.
You have it in social, mammalian non-primates, too - dogs, meerkats and so on.