I’ve been writing some posts about Autism in a few other places lately, and I’ve been referencing the notion that Autistics brains neuronal connections are more structured and “fewer” than the “denser” more chaotic neuronal connections in a Neurotypical brain.
This notion came from this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16440-z specifically the below image.
(Some notes and caveats: I talk frankly about the defecits of the neurotypical brain (as well as the Autistic brain). I do say it further down in the post but I thought to reiterate it here that I’m not seeking to criticise NTs while raising Autistics up as superior, that’s not a viewpoint I support at all. Also my underlying assumption about brain structure may have been misinterpretated from the study and/or it’s methodology might be flawed, and/or future studies since this one might contradict this one. But I’m going to operate that this assumption is correct going forward, so everything I’ve written is from that perspective. I’ve tried not to make universal statements that all NTs or all Autistics act or do certain things, but if I have made such statements I am only intending to generalise and am aware that there are always exceptions)
Someone I know brought up the idea that Autistics have trouble ‘putting themselves in someone else’s shoes’, or rather understanding or predicting how other might think or feel in a given situation.
I wrote that Neurotypical people can put themselves in other people’s shoes because they make assumptions about other people’s feelings, and motivations. That is to say their denser neuronal connections and their brain’s natural filtering of extraneous information mean that their brains are geared heavily toward quick snap judgements based on little immediate information. The neurotypical brain with its denser neuronal connections is able to sift through a myriad of possible permutations of a given scenario and come up with a likely outcome.
They’re driven to make quick assumptions and judgements about people, situations and emotions, and their brain’s equip them to do it with some degree of accuracy, though they are not always correct.
Autistic brains aren’t so equipped. Their neuronal connections are fewer and more ordered often with short quick paths between commonly used skills. So assumptions of the level of a neurotypical just isn’t ordinarily possible. Typically it seems that Autistics prefer to know as much as they can about something before they can predict anything about it. Typically people’s actions and feelings are difficult to predict and without knowing that person well enough how can anyone ever truly know how they would feel or react to something? Though with the right kind of information an Autistic can make pretty accurate predictions and can put themselves into the perspectives of another person Neurotypical or Autistic and make accurate assumptions about their feelings and motivations.
These clear differences in how neurotypical and Autistic brains function, and the resultant congitive processes mean that it would be very difficult for either one to make any sort of accurate prediction of the other with no information. They’re just too different
It’s kind of hilarious, a neurotypical, typically, will assume that they know the mind of other neurotypicals. while an Autistic typically won’t make that assumption, they can’t know what that person does or doesn’t know.
The hilarious part is that neurotypicals will often assume they know an Autistic mind too, and when Tue Autistic doesn’t respond as expected the neurotypical is flummoxed. They’re mind blind to Autistics. And yet neurotypicals will accuse Autistics of that very kind of mind blindness because Autistics can’t assume what neurotypicals are thinking.
This is why we have have situations where neurotypicals complain that Autistics are fearful of change but they themselves won’t change for Autistics, and often struggle to deal with seemigly sudden Autistic behaviours.
And we have situations, that I’ve talked about before, where neurotypicals accuse Autistics of lacking empathy, while neurotypicals lack empathy of Autistics.
Now don’t be mistaken, I’m not trying to rag in neurotypicals, and claim Autistics are superior or any bullshit like that. What I am saying is that neurotypical and Autistic brains are so different that situations like I just listed are almost inevitable.
Neurotypicals can not help but assume Autistics are like them, we look like then, sound like them. But then we don’t act like them, we don’t fit their expectations and it all goes wrong. And Autistics can not help but not make assumptions, getting into a stranger’s perspective is difficult, getting into an entirely different neurotype’s perspective? That’s like hardcore mode on Dark Souls (video gaming reference, it’s really hard).
So we end up with this crisis of miscommunication.