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Is Autism brain damage

NAS75657

There’s a forum/ vlog on Facebook by a parent of a child who is Autistic., They have a mixture of people who comment some who are Autistic themselves, some who know someone who is Autistic and others who have no experience of Autism atall.  One person commented Autism is brain damage but I never thought it was, I thought it was the brain processing the world differently? 

Parents

  • I am speaking about the form of autism, the form that affects the majority of autistics, which is caused by having more than the average number of autism-associated alleles (variations of genes), that are found throughout the general population. Some of these alleles have been found to be individually associated with beneficial traits, like higher than average academic attainment. Also it has been suggested, by Sir Simon Baron Cohen amongst others, that this type of autism, even in its clinically diagnosable form, may have been, and still be, of evolutionary benefit. For example, if a group of hunter-gatherers had people within it who had superior abilities in spotting things that others missed (prey animals or predators) they would be more successful and the autistic traits that give this ability would be passed on. Nowadays, the abilities in pattern recognition, hyper focus and 'thinking outside the box', associated with autism, are still advantageous. It is no coincidence that the three greatest scientific thinkers of the past, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, all showed marked autistic traits.

    To characterise this majority form of autism as 'brain damage' is just plain wrong.

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  • I am speaking about the form of autism, the form that affects the majority of autistics, which is caused by having more than the average number of autism-associated alleles (variations of genes), that are found throughout the general population. Some of these alleles have been found to be individually associated with beneficial traits, like higher than average academic attainment. Also it has been suggested, by Sir Simon Baron Cohen amongst others, that this type of autism, even in its clinically diagnosable form, may have been, and still be, of evolutionary benefit. For example, if a group of hunter-gatherers had people within it who had superior abilities in spotting things that others missed (prey animals or predators) they would be more successful and the autistic traits that give this ability would be passed on. Nowadays, the abilities in pattern recognition, hyper focus and 'thinking outside the box', associated with autism, are still advantageous. It is no coincidence that the three greatest scientific thinkers of the past, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, all showed marked autistic traits.

    To characterise this majority form of autism as 'brain damage' is just plain wrong.

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