Question about the "spectrum"

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In conversations with people about autism, I typically run in to one of two ways that people think about the concept of a spectrum.

1. The spectrum ranges from neurotypical to "very" autistic. Diagnosis is based on what is considered clinically disabling with regards to functioning within society, and there's some fuzziness/subjectivity at the margins of where that boundary is drawn.

2. Being on the spectrum is binary, and only autistic people are on the autism spectrum. The spectrum is only descriptive of the range of ways in which different autistic people are affected by their autism.

I've also seen it described as more like the color spectrum, where different values of red, green, and blue combine to determine every possible color. Only replace RGB with about a dozen or so different autistic traits. But I think even that model could fit into either of the two above categories.

So my question is, is there any research that supports either concept of the spectrum over the other? I see both explanations given frequently, often times with a lot of confidence that the given concept is the "correct" concept. But I never see anything that actually backs up either assertion with any sort of supporting evidence or research.

The research supports (1) only.
Research shows that non-autistic parents and/or siblings of autistic children have some autistic traits similar to their relatives.
Genetic variants linked to autism have been found in autistic people and their close, non-autistic relatives.
These indicate that most autism is linked to common genes, common traits found in human population.
How many genes/traits and which ones lead to different individuals.
Whether these individuals are on autism spectrum is highly subjective and depends on whether parents or individuals get assessed for autism, seek diagnosis, have particular trouble in life that takes them to a psychologist, etc.
There are also plenty of people in the general population who have individual autistic traits detected by objective measurements.
On certain tests, they may show similar results to autistic people, despite not being diagnosed with autism and not diagnosable with autism.
Within the autism group, some individuals are clearly different from neurotypical, while others may be indistinguishable from neurotypical.
There is indeed a spectrum of autism severity that can be quantified.

I think it should be on a 1-10 scale.

1 Very mild
10 Severe.

On a scale like that am probably a 7.

Thanks btbnnyr. Do you have any links to the research you referenced? It could be useful for me the next time the topic comes up.

There are many references on google scholar to studies on this topic.
Search "broad autism phenotype".

There are issues of definition. ASD is defined by symptoms. Many people think that oversensitivity typically causes the other symptoms of autism. It seems likely that, below a certain threshold, oversensitivity doesn't cause other symptoms to any extent. This would mean that only a small percentage of people has autistic symptoms of this etiology to any extent.

There is probably a full range from none to severe for every specific symptom. But if autism is typically caused by oversensitivity, then when its symptoms are present without oversensitivity, it's etiologically a different thing.
What do you think?

typically, it's OPs (1) indeed, but i have seen extended scales: A broad spectrum ranging from psycopathy to autism, with neurotypicals right in the middle of the 'line'.

which one is the 'real' one is debatable, but it is quite well accepted that so-called neurotypicals are also on the spectrum, regardless of its size

I once saw autism described succinctly as:

An increased number of synaptic connections in the brain that has an unpredictable impact on sensory response, cognition, and communication abilities.

To me, that seemed a pretty solid explanation that allowed for variation in both the types of traits that people have as well as the degree to which the traits impact them. It also seems that common comorbid diagnoses, like SPD and ADHD, could be attributable to the same phenomenon. So such an explanation allows for sensitivity problems without cognition issues, and cognition issues without sensitivity problems while still attributing the same cause, as well as explaining why prevalence of one symptom gets more likely as the severity of other symptoms increase.

Of course, there was no citation of any references (and I can't actually even remember where I read it now), so who knows if it's actually accurate, or just sounds good.

With that scale, I'd say I'm between a six and a four. My autism varies depending on my mood and what I'm dealing with. Sometimes it can even be a two as well. It's barely noticeable at times, and people don't even realize I have it. At the same time, it's gotten better, but it's also gotten worse. My social skills have improved little by little. My sensory issues aren't nearly as bad as they should be, but I do have very severe meltdowns that result in hard crying that it's hard for me to breathe. D: My routines are rather mild, and I don't really get upset with them. I do freak out of the internet dies though. It's a daily part of my routine, and I find that hard to cope with. I also don't really like change. I also HATE when plans are changed at the last minute. For example, if you decided to take me out for ice cream this Saturday, I get overly excited about it. My mind starts planning everything and preparing for the outing. However, if you wait till the last minute to tell me you can't go, that ALWAYS has a way of upsetting me. Mainly, because my mind didn't have time to prepare.

However, if you tell me ahead of time, it gives my mind a chance of overcoming the disappointment. Kind of like how my psychiatrist told me how he was leaving to a new place. It gave me a chance to prepare for that change, and to get ready for my new female therapist I can FINALLY get.

I think in some cases, my autism can be mild. I don't have problems functioning because of it, unless you consider my developmental delays as part of my condition though. I do have severe anxiety that my psychiatrists and therapists have said is part of my autism as well. I think even my ADHD is just my autism too because I came upon a recent discovery that the only way for someone to have poor social skills with ADHD is due to self-esteem issues. I never had issues with my self-esteem growing up. I just didn't really feel the need to socialize with others and preferred to pick at rocks instead.

So yeah. If you are interested in learning about autism though. I recommend reading someone of Temple Grandin's books. One in particular is called The Autistic Brain. It goes into detail about her autism and how others may or may not perceive certain things. She's also on the autistic spectrum and diagnosed with high functioning autism. She's one of my greatest inspirations, and my parents tell me I'm a lot like her.

There is great difficulty with that- and it is actually one of the issues that I personally run into with the whole "High Functioning Autistic" thing.

"High Functioning" puts me into a category that I frequently can not measure up to- depending on who is defining the term "high functioning". There is a concept of "uneven profile of abilities" which is frequently found in those with autism.

Examples may be, for example: ability to do complex math in ones head, figure out a complicated travel route, organize files more efficiently than most people, do well in a lanaguage or many other subjects. However, while the individual may be able to figure out a public transit schedule very quickly and also be able to match up several routes without needing to look at the schedules, actually physically navigating the public transportation system could be very difficult. Doing landry or cooking could be very challenging as well. Spacial issues and simply navigating walking down town or in a city center with unpredictable walking patterns or unpredictable crossing lights equally as difficult. Tansactions at stores- also difficult because of the unspoken expectations from all the other people involved.

So while a person might excel in certain areas, they may not in others. This means that it is very difficult to give them a number on a scale of "how autistic" are they.

Given the above individual... i mean how autistic are they?

could you tell if you met them on the street versus in their living room?
At their desk versus in their kitchen?

I'm not certain.
There is actually a huge move to make everything classified and diagnosed by dimensions of symptom categories, rather than discrete disorders- given there are so many overlapping genetic markers and risk factors for several major disorders this seems to be the way to go in treating many issues.


In regards to the specific first post: option one seems to fit most with the current understanding.

This news puts the kybosh on that idea GamerDaddy

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/09/2 ... zophrenia/

Far as I know high functioning means not intellectually disabled and able to care for yourself. I'm moderate functioning because I'm not intellectually disabled, but not able to care for myself; have to be taken care of like a 5 year old.

I guess that's what it means. That's why I like the 1/10 scale personally. Everything else seems too complected.

On the same topic what does the levels of ASD mean Like for me I have Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 How many levels are there what does each level mean?

The OP is making up his own scale here, but are you saying that some medical person officially diagnosed you as something called "ASD Level 1"?

Never heard of THAT system before.

The DSM-V appears to specify 3 levels.

There is no spectrum from autism to neurotypical to psychopathy, or from autism to neurotypical to schizophrenia.
There are autisitc behavioral traits, some of which have been linked to brain function, some of which have been linked to genetics.