Define 'Neurotypical'

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What is your definition of NT, or alternatively, what definition do you abide by?

For example:

Person 1: Anyone without autism
Person 2: Anybody without neurologically related medical diagnoses
Person 3: Anyone that has no neurologically related medical diagnoses, and does not diverge from a norm in relation to differing neurology (e.g. they are not homosexual)
Person 4: In terms of specific, but markedly typical functioning only (e.g. the person does not have executive dysfunction, therefore they have neurotypical executive functioning)
Person 5: Feta cheese

If you wish, explain why your definition is useful.

NT means 'normal' which means that most people are NT.

The real question is how to label the multitude of ABnormalities....

NT: A person born with the physical brain capability to effortlessly and intuitively link up to a larger system intelligence. The larger system intelligence is the "hive-mind" which is a connection made in the subconscious.

If you grew a schooling type of fish in a lab from an egg, and then introduced them back into nature with others of its species, and the fish was able to become synched up with the school, then that fish is neurotypical.

A fish with a physical brain/genetic difference that prevented this would then be somewhere on a spectrum of disorder. Being disconnected from the system intelligence, the fish still may have a great deal of individual intelligence. The fish may learn and deduce that it may be a good idea to try to mimic or simulate the behaviors of the fish in the school. They would always be a little different visibly because of delays in response and mistakes in predictions.

Fish do not likely possess a significant ability for conscious thought required to fabricate mental simulations to predict behaviors, so the fish unable to join the school would probably become separated and live a shorter life. But if they did have an extensive conscious thought ability, then it would become clear that the delays between behaviors resulting from conscious thought, and those behaviors that are intuitive (subconscious) are significant.

For one, the primary reality is tied to system intelligence.
For the other, the primary reality is tied to individual intelligence.

Claims that a member of a system is an individual are irrelevant and unfounded in reality.
A bee acting on intuition may "feel" that they are making their own decisions, but to an unbiased observer they would be carrying out the wishes of a larger system intelligence.

When tests are applied to humans in a lab setting, this is shown to be true without fail.
They will answer a questionnaire in a way that suggests individual control, but when later placed within a group, their behaviors completely follow the system control. The individuals normally seem shocked when viewing a video of the testing process and often claim that the events never happened that way.

Last edited by olympiadis on 07 Aug 2014, 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I discovered today - Sociopaths refer to non sociopaths as NT's or Nuerotypicals also. They also refer to non-sociopaths as "empaths"- meaning I presume people who have empathy. I think it may have been mentioned by someone in another discussion that there are Internet Communities of Sociopaths. - Now that is a group of people who truly creep me out. But my curiosity inspired me to look up such a forum and they really are there. I found it interesting how they used such terminology.

What type of questionnaire and what type of group event?

(Apologies to Norny--this is somewhat off-topic)

Huh? Homosexuality is a neurological condition?

I usually think of NT as referring to someone who is not autistic or not close enough in their cognitive style to autistic thinking (nope, I'm not gonna bother to define "autistic thinking" except to refer to certain patterns of behavior noted by parents, researchers, etc. and patterns of communication that may be recognizable, such as on forums like WP) to stand out from others or have difficulties in their life.

Technically, I suppose that people with neurological conditions such as Tourette's or certain kinds of brain damage are not NT, but I have a hard time thinking of them that way because those conditions are (as far as I know) non-pervasive. I don't see the point of classifying someone neurologically the way we do with NT/non-NT just because she has ticks or can no longer form new memories. Medically, neurological classification makes sense in those cases, but usually when someone is talking about NT vs. non-NT, they are talking about neurological differences with respect to behavior and cognitive style, not specific biological functions of the brain.

I define it as the majority, the dominant type (politically and numerically), typified by certain ways of thinking and related behaviors, which tend to be based on and conform to a set of normocentric attitudes, aspirations and values. A hallmark feature is a devaluation of any difference
from the normocentric view of the world and people (even amongst themselves). The dominant values of neurotypicals are status, power and money. They derive their sense of self-worth from this. Thus poor people (even if NT) are devalued even though they too belong to the dominant NT group in terms of neurology.

Conformity is valued over innovation by most NTs; this is why they are rarely paradigm changers or great inventors. Herd behaviour and social hypocrisy are other hallmarks of NT life and function.

I think of an NT, primarily, as #2: A person who does not have a diagnosable neurological condition. When a person suffers from a neurological disorder, the person's neurology is definitely not "typical."

Most frequently, within this site (and probably the definition the person who coined "NT" had in mind): A person who is not diagnosable as having an autistic spectrum disorder.

People who are "NT's" come in all shapes and sizes.

People who are neurologically atypical come in all shapes and sizes.

An autistic person could exhibit "NT" attitudes and opinions.

An NT could exhibit "autistic" attitudes and opinions; I've actually seen this.

NeuroTypical, when used in regards to Autism (and all Autism related) issues means: Everyone else.

Because, we're generally talking about the neuroAtypicalness of Autism spectrum and compare it to "Normal" functioning so very specifically, that Bi-Polar, Schizophrenia, Nymphomania (yay!), Depression, Anorexia etc may affect the outcome to a point but doesn't fundamentally affect the actual processing, nor the routing, nor the perceptual input, nor -most often- the output conclusions. Something may cause them to misinterpret their perceptions but, if the original postulate is taken as valid the line of reasoning and the amount of time it takes to reach a conclusion is appropriate and average.
With Autism the quantity of neurons processing something may be too slight to reach a conclusion (I don't know!) or too excessive and far reaching to make sense to others (Therefore "Absolute Power" actually Absolutely Purifies) - Or the time taken to process may take too long (Cashiering change with a long line of fidgety people and going mind-blank) or be excessively fast ("Boy you sure have given that a lot of thought!" over something trivial)

Most "Mental" Disorders are pretty much regular human behaviors taken further to the extreme than is normal.
For example: Across the street Person A looks angry:

Paranoid - "He planning to kill me." (if this is true he should protect himself)

Depressed - "I bet he wont even bother to kill me and I'll have to do it myself." (nobody cares so why would a stranger?)

Bi-Polar (manic) - "Hey Buddy! Let's turn that frown upside down! YAY!" (he just needs cheering up and he'll be fine)

Bi-Polar (depressed) - At home, in bed, never sees Person A. (Stay out of the way so as to not trip others up)

Anorexia - "I'm going to hide behind this stick so he doesn't see how fat I am." (diet if you're fat)

Schizophrenia - "I don't wanna kill him!" "You must, he's clearly evil." (Evil flourishes when good men do nothing)

Nymphomania - "He's such a hottie!! (Natural Selection recommends breeding with the best)

Aspie - "Who? Oh, yeah, what's his name again? Oh I thought it was Ralph. Hey did you know it's the male seahorse ... Actually "Seahorse" is the title given to 54 species of marine fishes in the genus Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning "sea monster"... bet you just thought it was part of the brain right? Anyway it's the male seahorse that... crap.. what was I going to say about the male seahorse... yes, yes, everyone knows it's the one that gives birth...What? Who's Bob? Oh, yeah that guy... I dunno what he's feeling, maybe he's bored, maybe a little happy, and pissed off probably about that damn street light it's buzzing and blinking like crazy doesn't this town have ANY maintenance people? There's one on 14th doing the same damn thing... oh yeah the seahorse! I just remembered... well fine, if you don't wanna know but it's pretty interesting, it's the only animal that does this... I dunno maybe they guy's constipated I should go tell him about my prune, mega A vitamin, and 7-up cure for constipation, I bet that's it... I'm NOT wiggling my knee I stopped doing that! Yes I did! Was I?...God doesn't ANYBODY with a car own a MUFFLER!! Why didn't you TELL me you had to Pee all this time... you weren't crossing your legs!... were you? geez I'm sorry I didn't even notice -hey that guy's hood is open an inch, when he gets to this block wave him down and tell him 'coz it's not safe... Pee? Oh, did you know that birds don't actually ... did you know the dinosaurs didn't really go extinct per se- they just evolved into birds... Dude, Seriously, there IS no God they evolved... There's not one that's paying attention to us... What guy? Oh Bob? He left 20 minutes ago. God, it was probably something I said, I always screw that up! I bet he hates me like hell! Do you think he overheard my seahorse thing? Maybe he's an animal rights activist and thought I dissected seahorses! I'd better go find him and explain what I meant. crap crap crap! I hope he's not too mad! I hope I didn't hurt his feelings! Why do I always do such stupid stuff like that! I hope he doesn't hit me before I can explain I didn't mean it like that... What? Does he have cancer!! no?... He is NOT going to die of old age before I can explain what I meant... what, are you saying that I don't admit when I'm wrong!?? oh.. What?? I don't take THAT long to explain things! That's not even funny. Do I? I'm sorry!! !! !! I'm shutting my mouth right now... Oh crap that's right! OMG I'm so sorry! You still have to Pee! Come on! let's find a bathroom right now, Why do you always walk so slow? I don't walk fast! I walk normal!... Do I? Do I walk very fast? I'm sorry! I'll slow down... Are you all right? Are you going to make it?... Oh hey! Look at this weird crack in these bricks... I wonder what kinda pressures would cause it to crack that way... foundational settling usually causes cracks to taper the other way... Hey come back here look at this! Oh yeah the bathroom... Did you know that technically birds don't Pee, yeah, that's what I was going to say way back when I mentioned birds... You know there IS proof there is no God right? Well, pretty conclusive proof anyway...I'll show you when we get back... by the way why were you asking me about that guy? What was his name. Crap. What was it? It's right here stuck in my skull... what the HELL was his NAME!! Ralph? No... BOB!! !! Yes! Thank you! yes, Bob that's right... It's Bob. See what I'm talking about!?"

Notice the difference?



(Disclaimer: Yes, I know that Nymphomania isn't a disease but it just sounds too fun to leave out.)

Frogs pee, and birds don't pee, but did the dinosaurs pee?

I'm going to spend some time exploring this.


edit ==>
...mother of god.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com ... osaur-pee/

But were the bathtub-like depressions made by urine or from rain falling from the dinosaurs' bodies?

I think this is relevant.

Last edited by olympiadis on 07 Aug 2014, 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Don't forget Ass pee.

I'm a feta cheese advocate myself.

Hard to say, because some supposed "neurotypical" people I know have stuff like Tourettes and depression, so...

mine use of it is to mean people who have no neurological conditions.

They are also hallmarks of this very message board, which is curiously populated mostly by folks with Asperger's (either officially diagnosed or self-diagnosed). What was that adage again that Matthew attributed to Jesus about the splinter and the log?

Pretty much ALL of them.
If you're curious about the particular ones I had in mind while writing that, then pm me please.

For a more general answer I would say for you to read about the Eichmann experiment performed by Stanley Milgram.
That is just one, but a very revealing example of what I'm talking about.


-after the test:
...but I was only doing it because I was told to.
...uuh, I thought you said you were in control of your decisions and actions before the test?