The Simple Neuroscience of Autism
By: Natalie Wilcox and Brandon Slade - Founder of Untapped Learning
Autism is often used as a condition descriptor, but in reality, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encompasses a variety of conditions and symptom presentations that all share a few common traits. Many people with autism spectrum disorder have some difficulties with social situations, executive functions, and often have repetitive interests or behaviors, but that is where the similarities between individuals end. Autism is a genetic condition, but the exact related genes are not fully known. This is likely because different manifestations may have different genetic causes. There is also little known about the neuroscience behind the condition, but current research suggests the difference occurs at the cellular level. When we grow up, our brains produce many many neurons that each connect to many more neurons. However, this isn’t very efficient and is why young children have very high creativity but lower self-control and higher thinking skills. Through adolescence, dominant neuron tracks tend to form and unnecessary connections are eliminated. This makes us able to focus better and have greater concentration and emotional understanding. However, for people with autism spectrum disorder — they may not lose neurons and form dominant tracks the same way others do. This can occur at different extents and may explain why people with ASD struggle with some skills but also often have extraordinary creativity and out-of-the-box thinking because their brains are simply wired in a more connected way.
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