How do you suppose AS and autism are different from NT's?

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Are our brains organized functionally different in some way, or do we just produce slightly different proteins or levels of proteins? Discounting socialization as a factor, or god or a soul as factors. Are our brains physically wired differently, and the production of proteins is about the same(meaning the DNA that deals with the development of the organization of the brain is the somehow different, but proteins regularly produced after development are the same as NT's), or do you think that our brains are physically wired the same as NT's, but behave differently because of the proteins regularly made? (DNA that deals with brain development is the same as NT's but the DNA that determines the proteins made and the level is different.)

And please don't answer with both, yeah, i have no doubt that both play some role, but i'm looking for the major cause here. I also know that any knowledge about the brain is scarce, but i was kind of hoping that anyone who has a strong feeling it is mainly one or the other might have some good reasons why the think that besides guessing.

i found a few links that might help or awnser your question:
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1244691.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 151153.htm
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlser ... io.0020267
http://staff.washington.edu/chudler/asp.html

hope that helps

I know there's a strong genetic link.

The studies I've seen seem to indicate that the chances of twins>siblings>adopted siblings both having an autism spectrum disorder are progressively lower.

What, exactly, those genes do to one's brain... My theory is that there's a very strong left-brain dominance, especially in the case of Asperger's syndrome. There should be changes in the way that the brain processes sensory information, as well; and perhaps changes in sensory memory.

I believe it's probably more a matter of brain structure than a matter of brain chemistry; drugs don't seem to get at the "root cause" of Autism spectrum disorders. They'll prescribe pills to help you sleep or help you concentrate or decrease anxiety; but there isn't any pill for the actual condition itself. So I would tend towards the physical structure of the neurons and the connections they make.

This makes me wonder: If Einstein's brain is still available for study, will we in the near future be able to find out whether he was an Aspie?

is there a defining line between a neurological condition and simply strong personality traits? also, if "normal" people are called neurotypicals does that imply there are several different "neurotypes", like there are blood types?

This is a different one, but I think some of the differences have to do with the brain's blood flow.
I had a SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scan, where some sort of dye or isotopes (can't remember what) were injected into my bloodstream, then my brain got scanned. This was to see if I had ADHD.
I know that this is for ADHD, but if more research was done on blood flow in the brain of people with autism/Asperger's, well maybe there could be some answers there.

Then again, this has probably already been done and I don't know anything about it, heh. :?

The blood flow in the brain can be as much the result of something as the cause of it, so I'm not even convinced that's the "cause" of ADHD. (I also am highly skeptical of Dr. Amen, who's one of the pioneering SPECT researchers. He scanned an autistic guy I knew and insisted the guy had been abusing drugs, when he'd never used either prescription or street drugs of the kind that would do that to someone. He scanned me and prescribed drugs that pretty much incapacitated me, on no more basis than the scan. I have heard many stories like this from others, he thinks that you can just add or subtract things from the brain and get it working like a "normal" brain and that this should be the goal, rather than that if blood flow is different maybe it is supposed to be that way for that person and messing with it makes someone more dysfunctional. He seems to believe much too heavily in the meaningfulness of his interpretations of the SPECT results, too.)

As for what makes autistic brain different on a functional level (whatever causes it), this might be interesting if you can dig up the full article and then plow through the jargon:

Enhanced Perceptual Functioning in Autism: An Update, and Eight Principles of Autistic Perception.

Medications seem to affect autistics differently than they do non-autistics.
I am lucky, my doctor takes this into account and has adjusted doses of medications accordingly. When I was in hospital, I felt I was treated as an experiment, not a patient. I guess this is what happens when doctors are trying out new methods of treating people. I am sorry that you were treated badly, anbuend, I thought Dr. Amen was better than that.