Autism (high functioning) root cause?

Stuart333 said:

I have come to the conclusion that high functioning ASD is fundamentally an overly sensitive nervous system, which causes mode changes in the brain and inhibits social development, because people are unpredictable and a threat

I can’t comment on your experience of ASD but I am surprised that you are suggesting “ASD is fundamentally an overly sensitive nervous system”. I don’t believe it’s an accurate way to describe the neuro developmental difference in autistic brains compared to non-autistic brains. You may have an “overly sensitive nervous system” but that does not define ASD.

I am autistic and have low support needs. The consensus among neuroscientists, microbiologists and other experts is that multiple genes are responsible for autism and other factors likely have a role too. I would rather trust the scientists on this one. 

DazeAndConfused posted this video earlier which gives a very good overview of the current state of what is known of the cause of autism. 

https://youtu.be/E-yaxqDsfgY

Stuart333 said:

I have come to the conclusion that high functioning ASD is fundamentally an overly sensitive nervous system, which causes mode changes in the brain and inhibits social development, because people are unpredictable and a threat

I can’t comment on your experience of ASD but I am surprised that you are suggesting “ASD is fundamentally an overly sensitive nervous system”. I don’t believe it’s an accurate way to describe the neuro developmental difference in autistic brains compared to non-autistic brains. You may have an “overly sensitive nervous system” but that does not define ASD.

I am autistic and have low support needs. The consensus among neuroscientists, microbiologists and other experts is that multiple genes are responsible for autism and other factors likely have a role too. I would rather trust the scientists on this one. 

DazeAndConfused posted this video earlier which gives a very good overview of the current state of what is known of the cause of autism. 

https://youtu.be/E-yaxqDsfgY

Ok, a clarification

A nervous system with higher gain which is more prone to overloading, plus differences in:

• predictive processing (how the brain models what will happen next)
• social signal weighting (which cues are treated as important)
• integration of multiple ambiguous inputs

My people related behaviours are influenced by previous experiences and may slightly cloud my judgement.

But burnout is caused by prolonged nervous system activation that occurs in a different way to NT burnout.

I think the overload or higher gain is the problem. It is why quiet spaces or nature are fine, animals are fine, objects are ok (mostly). It is the additional sensory input that causes the problems. Without that you likely be quirky and learn and adapt. You would have less drive to be avoidant. Perhaps the social problems would still exist.

But alcohol calms the system and functioning can become much better. Sane for tranquillisers I expect (I have not tried them.

With less input gain, or just less input, you remain calmer and function better. Functioning in isolation can be ok, which is where other people come in. Tine pressure comes from expectations, normally from other people.

A lot of the fear of making a mistake, or being seen, or talking about yourself is related to nervous system response to other people.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting idea. You don't need to agree.