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Kitty4670
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26 Feb 2023, 9:22 pm

Silence23 wrote:
Maybe an aged brain is defined by increasing connectivity between different parts of the brain. If I remember correctly, the Default Mode Network (DMN) connectivity increases with age. DMN is the brain network which is active while you don't do anything specific. If I remember correctly, there are disruptions in the DMN of autists.

As far as I know, the global connectivity (between different parts of the brain) in the autistic brain is significantly reduced compared with neurotypical brains, while the local connectivity (within certain parts of the brain) is significantly increased. Seems the autistic brain fails to form long distance connections, and forms short distance connections instead.

So if an aged brain is defined by increased connectivity between different parts of the brain, then it would make sense that the autistic brain seems "younger", even childish. Yet it would still be significantly different from a child's brain.

I've had a look at my DNA and it shows there is a gene variation ( rs4307059(T;T) ) which leads to decreased adhesion between neurons in the brain. So maybe that's a possible reason why a brain could form less long distance connections and more short distance connections during development.



I wish I understood what you said, but I have a very very hard time understanding stuff, cuz of my Learning Disability I guess.



Kitty4670
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26 Feb 2023, 9:48 pm

skibum wrote:
Because Autism/Asperger's is a developmental disorder. That is what a developmental disorder means. It means that the brain does not develop evenly. Each part of our brains develop separately and independently from all the other parts. In a neurotypical brain all the parts develop at relatively the same rate like one unit. For us, the emotional part of the brain does not tend to develop as much as the analytical part and the social part does not tend to develop as much either. That is why so many of us are socially and emotionally much younger than our intellectual or actual ages.

Thanks :D I wish people would learn about Aspergers & Autism, especially people that worked for me when they were cleaning my apartment, they didn’t care that I have Aspergers, they wanted me to fake it, to be like a NT, they all at some point quit cuz they didn’t understand & they blamed me. Even my sister blames me for people not getting along with me, she blames me for everything, she thinks she knows stuff about me that is not true, I acted bad when I was younger, but it was because of my Cerebral Palsy & Aspergers, I’m not like that anymore, but she don’t care to listen to me.



Kitty4670
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26 Feb 2023, 10:14 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
That would explain why I have a good grasp on facts and such but can still end up throwing a fit like a 5 year old if something upsets me. yes it's embarrassing and not proud of it but it happens.



My mental age can be 5 years old, when I’m calm & relaxed, I can be an adult & think better, but I’m a very immature adult, I nowhere near my physical age.



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26 Feb 2023, 10:52 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:
Kitty4670 wrote:
Why Aspergers have a mental age problem & can REALLY act & think very very young?


ACTUALLY, AS requires that your mental age CAN'T be over 1SD below average! SO, AT LEAST ACCORDING TO THE LAST DSM Your IQ can't be below 85. So if you are 18, your MA can't be below 15.3. Of course this IS based on the COMPOSITE score. ON THE OTHER HAND, however, you can have AS and have a mental age of 36 or whatever, with your chronological age being 18. That would put your IQ at 200.

I never had an IQ test. Tell that to my brain, I don’t quite understand.



Kitty4670
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27 Feb 2023, 3:01 am

2ukenkerl wrote:
Aprilviolets wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:
That would explain why I have a good grasp on facts and such but can still end up throwing a fit like a 5 year old if something upsets me. yes it's embarrassing and not proud of it but it happens.


I do that too, I get frustrated and start getting upset and five minutes later I've calmed down and back to normal again.


Well, you can ACT like a little kid, or a baby, when you get upset, but that doesn't mean that your mental age is that of a little kid. Temperament and intelligence are two totally different things.


But I do feel like a 5 year old.



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27 Feb 2023, 8:00 am

my scumbag father said that I'm less than 10 years old. I'm 16.


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27 Feb 2023, 9:30 am

I had the wrong mental age when I was a teenager. When I was 14 my cousin said "you have the mental age of a 9-year-old", which kind of embarrassed me.
I wasn't very mature for my age. I know most 14-year-olds aren't mature but I mean I was immature in ways where my peers weren't. Although all adolescents go through a confused phase where they feel half-child and half-adult and aren't always sure which is which, I think they learn it from each other as they go along. Nobody wanted to let me be their friend when I was that age, so I didn't really have any peers to copy or learn from. My same-age cousins had abandoned me for their own friends, and so I only got to hang out with my younger cousins, which didn't help me mature at the same pace as my peers. So it does depend on who you socialise with.

I'm more mature now. I do feel 32. I'm with an older man, so sometimes I act like an older woman myself. In fact I sometimes see us as an elderly couple (even though he isn't elderly). I like to be old-fashioned and pretend I'm way too old for clubs and bars.

I used to have age dysphoria, but until I turned 30 I came to finally accept that I am an adult. Took 12 years but better late than never, as they say.


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27 Feb 2023, 9:42 am

Actually, this is a very interesting question. I am very young. I am like a child. You can see my actual picture to the left. (But I am 74 years old. My body has aged, but deep inside me I am still this child.) The reason for this is because I died when I was around 3 or 4 years old. I was struck by a large bull. It hit me on the dominant left side of my brain. It was like being attacked by a dinosaur. I came back but as a totally different person. It was the right side of my brain that recovered. And this brain never grows old. I am a child, like Peter Pan. And I like it that way.


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27 Feb 2023, 10:21 am

Joe90 wrote:
I had the wrong mental age when I was a teenager. When I was 14 my cousin said "you have the mental age of a 9-year-old", which kind of embarrassed me.
I wasn't very mature for my age. I know most 14-year-olds aren't mature but I mean I was immature in ways where my peers weren't. Although all adolescents go through a confused phase where they feel half-child and half-adult and aren't always sure which is which, I think they learn it from each other as they go along. Nobody wanted to let me be their friend when I was that age, so I didn't really have any peers to copy or learn from. My same-age cousins had abandoned me for their own friends, and so I only got to hang out with my younger cousins, which didn't help me mature at the same pace as my peers. So it does depend on who you socialise with.

I'm more mature now. I do feel 32. I'm with an older man, so sometimes I act like an older woman myself. In fact I sometimes see us as an elderly couple (even though he isn't elderly). I like to be old-fashioned and pretend I'm way too old for clubs and bars.

I used to have age dysphoria, but until I turned 30 I came to finally accept that I am an adult. Took 12 years but better late than never, as they say.


that's not my problem here. Sure, there are things I haven't developed properly with, that's just part of the territory and they probably will develop eventually maybe I hope. I've also been called an old soul, I talk in an old-fashioned manner, I like to read, I'm too philosophical for my own mental health. I don't have any age dysphoria. I'm not confused about which territory I belong in. my only friends are ND. However, I do get embarrassed when someone tells me something I did was childish. I do have trauma from my peers treating me differently due to the condition I did not know I had. The problem is that I'm treated unfairly in everything because I falter in a few ways. I'm NOT a 9-year-old. I CAN make proper decisions sometimes, even if it doesn't fit someone else's idea of 'common sense.' It's. so. frustrating. Either my autism is ignored and I'm told to just get over it, or I'm boxed in and controlled and told I can't do anything right.


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04 Mar 2023, 1:31 pm

skibum wrote:
Because Autism/Asperger's is a developmental disorder. That is what a developmental disorder means. It means that the brain does not develop evenly. Each part of our brains develop separately and independently from all the other parts. In a neurotypical brain all the parts develop at relatively the same rate like one unit. For us, the emotional part of the brain does not tend to develop as much as the analytical part and the social part does not tend to develop as much either. That is why so many of us are socially and emotionally much younger than our intellectual or actual ages.


I'm glad you make the distinction between intellectual age and emotional age.

A lot of us on the spectrum are highly intelligent; we're simply younger *emotionally*

I find it highly insulting how the outside world views us as mentally challenged. Not that there's anything wrong with being mentally challenged (mentally challenged people can't help it). But since we're, in many cases, SMARTER than the person judging us, how dare they view us as mentally challenged



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04 Mar 2023, 1:58 pm

MagicMeerkat wrote:
Mental age is a demeaning concept. It's always used to say someone is younger mentally than their physical age and deny them things. My mother wouldn't let me learn to drive at 16 or get a part time job because "You're younger mentally". I also was forced to basically babysit this bratty teenager girl because "you're autistic and can't make friends your own age". I also had to take swimming lessons at 13 specifically for autistic kids. I was 13 but all the other kids were 2, 3 and 4. Whenever I complained about this I always got, "You're younger mentally!"


I dealt with the same from my mom.

She would baby me (compared to how my peers' moms treated them)

It really became noticeable in high school (as that's when my peers ended up doing more adult things). My mom would tell me I couldn't do the things my peers did "because you're a young 14"

I lived at home until 23. Which means I even had to hear "You're a young 23." As well as "you're a young (every age between 14 and 23)"

The good news is it eventually tapers off. Now that I'm in my 30s, I don't hear it anymore.

Granted, I don't live at home anymore. But even if I lived at home, my mom's thing was always to tell me I was 6 years younger on the inside. It wouldn't serve any purpose for my mom to say "You're a young 31. You're 25 on the inside" (because 25 is still an adult). Yet when I was 21, my mom could say "You're 15 on the inside" to justify treating me like a kid.



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04 Mar 2023, 6:34 pm

I'm 32, but in my mind, I'm really 22, with a description of my mental age being on the same level as someone well into college years. When I turn 36, I'll behave like someone who is 24, so someone who may have graduated from college.


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