There is increasing research into structural neural connectivity in autism and how it may impact the “intense world” experiences of autistics.
One analogy is that babies are born preloaded with all possible apps. As the baby grows, about half the apps that aren’t applicable and don’t get used are uninstalled, allowing the baby’s memory and processor to focus on only the useful apps. In autistic brains, only 16% of the apps are removed. All the available apps slow down the system and causes the brain to overload more easily. However, having all the extra apps not only allows, but also compels, the brain to look at more possibilities and more perspectives. Temple Grandin speculates that 80% of the world’s innovations come from autistic persons.
References:
Bowling, H. & Klann, E. (2014). Shaping Dendritic Spines in Autism Spectrum Disorder: mTORC1-Dependent Macroautophagy. Neuron, 83 (5):994-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.021
Columbia University Irving Medical Center. (2014, August 21). Children have extra synapses in brain.
https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/children-autism-have-extra-synapses-brain
Kim, H.J., Cho, M.H., Shim, W. et al. (2017). Deficient autophagy in microglia impairs synaptic pruning and causes social behavioral defects. Molecular Psychiatry 22, 1576–1584.
https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2016.103
Sakai, J. (2020). How synaptic pruning shapes neural wiring during development and, possibly, in disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 117 (28):
16096-16099. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010281117
Tang, G., Gudsnuk, K., Kuo, S. H., Cotrina, M. L., Rosoklija, G., Sosunov, A., Sonders, M. S., Kanter, E., Castagna, C., Yamamoto, A., Yue, Z., Arancio, O., Peterson, B. S., Champagne, F., Dwork, A. J., Goldman, J., & Sulzer, D. (2014). Loss of mTOR-dependent macroautophagy causes autistic-like synaptic pruning deficits. Neuron, 83 (5), 1131–1143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.07.040
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