Why do we believe autism is "hard-wired"?

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Where did this notion come from, exactly? Is it based on scientific studies? Is it an artifact from the neurodiversity movement? Is it something we tell ourselves to feel better?

You discover you are autistic by applying your traits to standard criteria (DSM-IV, for instance). Supposedly, once you are autistic, you are autistic for life. How can both of these hold true? What if the criteria were applied at two different times in your life and yielded two different results? This is often explained as learning to adapt, yet everyone in this world learns how to adapt to the world based on their traits. That's fundamental to growing up. So could someone "grow out" of being autistic? Maybe this explains why some people's autistic traits fade over time?

The brain is probably the most dynamic and adaptive organ in the entire body. If there is a localized anomaly in an autistic brain that isn't found in a neurotypical one, how do we know that the brain won't build an alternate path to achieve the same thing? Why is this alternate path any more autistic than the more typical one?

Is it autism so much that is "hard-wired" or is it our temperment, personality, and values? And is that different for someone with AS than it is for someone NT?

Lots of questions this morning...

Autism is "hard wired" because research has shown that our brains look different and act different, as well as process information differently. This is not a chemical thing that may be changed through medication.

We can learn adaptations, but we cannot get over the basic "wiring" of our brains.

It is based on CT and fMRI scans. The DSM-IV TR is Old and Busted. Neurobiology is The New Hotness. Explanation of the Neurobiologic Basis can be found here, just check out the first picture on the second page, read that caption for the highlights. This is a little shorty not too in depth article I was able to find, and it is still chock-full of medical crunchiness. The basic gist is we've got larger outer edges of the brain and asymmetrical middles of the brain, and a bunch of stuff that just never develops.

It is not just hard wired, it is so complexly hard wired really really smart people are looking at our brains and going "Whaaaaaa? I have no idea what this means......." Indications are the Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Personality, Obsessive-Compulsive, ADHD all share the same hard wired differences from gen. pop. but the study I linked doesn't go into that. I can try and track down a good one on that if anybody wants me to.

Functional MRIs show that autistic people use different parts of their brains for the same tasks for which NTs use other parts of their brains. One of the most interesting things I read was that some autistic people, when they see a new face, process that information in the amygdala (the part that does the fight or flight response when one is threatened). Temple Grandin had an fMRI and talks about the results in one of her books. It was interesting...can't remember which book now.

I suppose the brain might re-route itself with a lot of practice. That sounds like a belief that would support ABA as a "treatment" for autism. But I am sure if someone had proved it with fMRI we would know about it because the ABA people would never miss that opportunity to market their services to all of the parents who are afraid of the word autism.

That can be true. In another thread about filtering out noise, I wrote that I have learned to single out voices and filter disturbing noises away. It has taken years of practicing, but now I am better in it than many NTs. It is almost like visualizing a mixer board with many slides, and turning down one slide at a time, until I only hear the one signal I wanted to "tune into."

It only works with much concentration, so if the situation comes suddenly and catches me "off-guard" it does not work.

So I don't think that I do the filtering same way the NTs seem to do it, it is as if it all came to them automatically.

Crassus , re: " I can try and track down a good one on that if anybody wants me to. "

Yes plse, I would be interested in that article.

Thank you for the reference provided too.

It is not hard wired, that's rubbish.

"The Brain That Heals Itself" is not about Autism, but it points to the idea that there is brain plasticity, and if people suffering from damage inflicted by a stroke can re-wire their brains, then so can we.

Those who have had strokes in those instances had typical neurological structures -prior- to their injury; while I may adapt and learn, create new methods to respond to situations, it is still like a giraffe wearing a tuxedo... it might be tailored to the creature, but it still isn't innate or 'natural' for lack of a better word.


M.

Yet if i have a genetic deformity that reduces the functionality of my serotonin receptors by 80%, no amount of concious *thought is going to permanently fix this. Autism is mostly caused by genetics, this is known and prooven.

Last edited by Michjo on 14 Jul 2009, 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Evidence?

Because evidence to the contrary has already been posted.

In the book a computer program FastForWard is mentioned as helping Autistic children. The program was not designed for them, but it helped them. This is mentioned almost as an aside. Perhaps you don't realize what you are clinging to. When you say your brain is hard wired you're saying you are helpless to change it. Granted, we will never act and think just like NTs, but we can overcome a lot of our problems.

My experience in the real world has been that just when you think you've 'overcome' an autistic issue, you're eventually faced with the realization that it's still present (and still obvious to those around you), its just presenting in a different form. Like people who preach rabidly and obsessively that they've overcome their AS, to an audience that can clearly see they're obsessed with believing they've overcome it. This is what it must feel like to be trapped in The Twilight Zone.

And so I must come down firmly in the hardwiring camp. The brain may have amazing abilities to reroute certain established patterns when necessary due to damage - but if patterns were never established because of a different base architecture, willing oneself to be 'healed' of a set of resultant behaviors is pissing into the wind. Apples & Oranges, so to speak.

I got this off the Internet somewhere, can't remember where (not cool to quote something without a reference, I know...):

One form of Asperger syndrome (ASPG1) has been mapped to chromosome 3q, and another, ASPG2 (608631), has been mapped to chromosome 17p. Two X-linked forms, ASPGX1 (300494) and ASPGX2 (300497), are associated with mutation in the NLGN3 gene (300336) and the NLGN4 gene (300427), respectively.

I guess that's as "hard-wired" as it gets.

Knowing that I am hard-wired to be an Aspie makes it a lot easier for me to deal with things like anxiety and meltdowns. I am no longer afraid of going insane, as I was before I was diagnosed. I am no longer afraid that my more weird and private stims are a sign that I am going mad, but rather see them as a tool to stay sane. I also no longer hold a grudge against most of my school peers as I did for many years for not including me in their socialising all those years ago. I understand that they are hard-wired too.

Crassus, thank you for that insightful article.

You are implying that DSM-IV TR criteria for autism is a bad tool to use for diagnosis, calling it "Old and Busted." Regardless, there needs to be a way to determine a diagnosis so that people who need help can get it. Are you proposing that a CT or fMRI scan is (or at least could be) a more reliable diagnostic tool? If there really are fundamental differences in brain architecture between autistics and non-autistics, how does this explain people with milder symptoms, or people whose sensory hypersensitivities fade or disappear completely? Is it only a product of successful adaptation, or are there other factors at play?

That article discusses brain developments in the second decade of life. The implication is that there can be a second wave of issues due to autism as the brain more-or-less "finalizes" in these areas. But could there also be self-remedy in this second decade instead? That certainly would explain me a bit better. My childhood AS traits were very noticeable and pronounced. Somewhere in high school, though, it's as if someone flipped a switch. My sensory issues went away, and I became this social, outgoing (albeit quirky) person. I think I somehow became able to use my naivete as a positive trait, disarming and charming people at the same time. Is this a form of adaptation?

What do you mean by "autistic issue"? Do you mean a fundamental way that your brain processes information, or do you mean outward traits that are a result of the fundamental way your brain processes information? For instance, you could call depression an autistic issue, but if said depression is primarily the result of not being able to "fit in" effectively or of diet, variables could be altered in ways that make you less prone to depression in the future.

Because not every case of autism is hard-wired, autism is also environmental. Environmental toxins, infections of the brain, treatable-channelopathy disorders and auto-immune disorders can all cause autism. Environmental toxins and infections are a one-off cause that will not be prevailent as a child grows, and if a treatable-disorder has caused autism then said autism can be reversed (to an extent). Physical brain-damage can also cause a delay and autistic like symptoms, but as soon as the brain has transferred/developed said functions in a healthy part of the brain, the autistic symptoms may diminish or dissapear.

The truth is, autism is 100's of difference diseases grouped under the same heading and the diagnostic criteria is used because genetic and fMRI testing is expensive. Only lower-functioning indivduals will recieve such testing.

I've personally wondered this myself...I'm very similar to you, Fiddlerpianist. My AS as a child was much more pronounced and noticable. Now, I just have a problem with obsessing over Autism. I still have urges to headband or bite myself but I've learned to control them. I've learned to adapt to many situations but I think the difference is I really REALLY tried my hardest to change. You could even say I was obsessed with popularity and studied all the traits of famous people and regular people who were well liked. My enviroment had a lot to do with it also. I hated my parents and did everything in my power to move out of the house, no matter how scary that seemed. I also changed schools very often growing up, forcing me to learn to adapt. I am now by no means popular, but I am fitting in much better than I used to. I often sit and wonder whether or not I still have Asperger's and then realize I've been thinking about it everyday for about 4 months now and there I have my answer. I am definetley still autistic.


My question for you Fiddlerpianist, is what was your enviroment like growing up? Do you think there was an outside factor in your "switch" that made you change so much?