I recently watched a documentary that mentioned "neanderthal minibrains" ( https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-neanderthal-minibrains-grown-dish )
which seems to confirm (partically or speculatively) a connection to an earlier theory : http://franklludwig.com/neanderthal.html
and https://newsroom.uw.edu/story/human-neanderthal-gene-variance-involved-autism
but we know neanderthals were social, at least enough to care for one another in a harsh world: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t7T9N4X7S-0
Which even on basic reasoning would also seem to prove what we knew all along, being autistic doesn't equate to a lack of empathy in the same way that water is wet. Also it produces issues not just in tackling ableism for neurotypicals but necessitates a rethink on the normative idea of homo sapiens supremacy (on the level of species let alone race) in popular myth and culture over other (so closely related their hybrid offspring were fertile) human lineages. And presents the possibility that yes we autists are potentially "the next stage" in homosapiens evolution (as Tony Attwood would suggest ), afterall overall we've generally been succesful enough to exist for nearly 100,000 years.
Also what does this mean for NTs if there can be "super" autists https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/27/genetic-risk-autism-spectrum-disorder-linked-evolutionary-brain-benefit (those on the spectrum with primarily benefits from this neurodivergence, that remain invisibly autistic to the NT eye since we ar eonly dagnosesd when "there is something wrong" and they can class us as having a "disorder") does this impy that intellectual disability is a seperate thing that also shows up on an otherwise NT spectrum?
As a lot of autism research is focussed on genetics perhaps it is time we started to conduct our own research. Until then what are your thoughts after reading these findings?