New Autism Theory: "The boy whose brain could unlock autism"

The article "The boy whose brain could unlock autism" from https://medium.com/ is beautiful. It is beautifully written. It is hosted on a beautifully designed site. And most importantly, the non-judgmental theory of autism presented is beautiful.  This theory is also pretty brilliant.

The article presents a theory that reconceptualizes autism as an "intense world syndrome."  This theory suggests that autism is not best thought of as a disorder characterized by a lack of empathy or intelligence, but by the existence of an overload of emotion plus a great capacity to learn.  Further, intense world syndrome suggests that people with autism experience sensations differently.  What an awe-inspiring idea.

There are so many different issues to discuss now!

Let's start with empathy.  Just because it may appear that people with autism lack empathy, doesn't mean this interpretation is correct.  It could be that a person's mind with autism is so overloaded that focusing on someone else is next to impossible.  Over time, this could result in lacking empathy for others.  Further, if people with autism are constantly bombarded with not only intense emotions (e.g. anxiety), but aversive sensory experiences as well (e.g. the act of brushing your teeth produces the internal sensations that nails on a chalkboard would typically evoke), certain consequences can be expected.  We know that spikes in anxiety result in increased calcium release and the encoding of memories.  This process could result in really rigid thinking.  Not to mention, one's focus is really narrowed in those moments.  So if there is constant anxiety, the brain is in a state of rapid-fire learning...on one hand.  On the other hand, it may be difficult to focus on anything but a particular target.  This combination of increased anxiety and rapid fire learning may carve out some pretty "strange" observable behavior patterns over time.  For instance, perhaps a hyper focus on learning calendar dates could result.  Also, the manner of brain processing could leave very little left over for attention on others, hence our current/previous perception of lack of empathy in people on the spectrum.

Speaking of the "spectrum," as a field we are very comfortable examining autism on this spectrum.  But it seems to me that there is still the perception of a dichotomous cutoff whereby some people have autism and others don't.  Right now, once a diagnosis of autism is made, then you are examined on the spectrum as compared to others with this diagnosis.  But what if we viewed every single person as representing a different degree of autism on a full spectrum?  What if the spectrum was thought to encompass all humans?  Well, I think that'd do us a huge service when conceptualizing cases.

Eating disorders, OCD, and self-injury are all jumping into my mind as relevant to this new theory of autism.

Let's take eating disorders for starters.  I'm too invested in writing this blog post right now to look it up, but I remember learning at this year's International Conference on Eating Disorders in Montreal that autism and eating disorders are related.  This was an internal hypothesis of mine for ages.  When I saw the data, I literally scribbled "I knew it!!!" in my notes.  [P.S. Even though I'm not going to look up the exact presentation I saw, here's a Medical News Today article on the relationship between eating disorders and autism from August 2013.]

Similar to what this new theory of autism posits, people with eating disorders are also in a state of anxiety, which results in rigid thoughts (e.g. "fat is bad"), compulsive behaviors (e.g. calorie counting), and a self-centered focus.  There's also usually an increased level of intelligence in people with eating disorders... or perhaps it's better conceptualized as "fast learners."   Sounds a bit like high-functioning autism, huh?  

Unlike autism though, many times people with eating disorders report desperately wanting the approval of others.  So, even if the behavior is seemingly self-centered (e.g. wanting to look good), I maintain that the function of the behavior is not completely egocentric.  But reconciling this seemingly self-centered focus and a desire to please others is usually not easy for family members of people with eating disorders.  The idea is difficult to grasp that intense anxiety about other's approval ironically results in a "self-centered" disorder. In short, I think it could be really useful to use intense world syndrome concepts in fostering understanding about eating disorders. 

Here are a few last notes before I move on with my Sunday: I think eating disorders relate to autism in the same way OCD is related to autism.  In fact, I conceptualize eating disorders as a specific subtype of OCD.  It appears to me that the process is the same in both disorders, but the content of the worry differs.  And as such, slightly different treatments are needed... but not too different.  I'll publish more on what I've written about this in the future.

And lastly, there is the example of how self-injury may relate to autism.  I've blogged here before about my hypothesis on self-injury's relation to sensory integration issues.  To read, click this link.  The idea that intense emotions can create perceptual disturbances (auditory hallucinations such as hearing voices) is not new in psychology.  But the idea that intense emotions can also lead to sensory disturbances remains an area where we need work.  Taking that a step further, exploring exactly how emotions are moderated with sensory acts like self-injury (or even doing things like soothing oneself with lavender hand lotion) is worth researching.

We need to know the following: is there a dose response relationship between intense anxiety/emotion and 1) sensory disturbances, 2) learning, 3) rigid thinking, 4) compulsive/repetitive behaviors, and 5) a self-centered focus?  If not, is there some relationship?  What mediates/moderates that relationship?

This new idea of conceptualizing autism as "intense world syndrome" clicked a few pieces into place of an enormous puzzle that I have been kicking around in my brain for years.  I very much look forward to learning from research on this theory in the coming years.