1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Welcome to From the Spectrum Podcast. This is a podcast about autism. It is my goal to explain what is autism. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:23,000 I plan to use a mixture of scientific literature, personal experience, and opinion. 3 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:30,000 With opinion, I will explain why, I will fill the way I do and give examples. 4 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000 I will provide links to various references for each episode. 5 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:42,000 For each episode, we will discuss various aspects of autism. 6 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:55,000 For today, I want to highlight research beginning at UT Austin, University of Texas at Austin, led by Dr. Francisco Gonzalez Lima. 7 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:08,000 In the link, it is study number 2, Effects of Transcranial Infrared Light Stimulation on Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. 8 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Ages 4 through 60, with the diagnosis of autism. 9 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:29,000 There is a form listed at the bottom of the link provided, basic information, eligibility, and so forth, and or an email address and a phone number. 10 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:36,000 I do not have connections to this study or to the researchers or the university. 11 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:46,000 However, I do have interest. The podcast has hours of episodes discussing light and human biology. 12 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Artificial light predates autism and Alzheimer's and obesity and the CVD and cancer problems and all of these modern health conditions. 13 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:08,000 Childhood disorders. It is too common to hear children are attempting suicide at younger and younger ages now. 14 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:15,000 I think this is all connected here. Artificial light predates autism. 15 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:26,000 Autism predates all of these, at least most, I think of these environmental risk factors being considered and studied. 16 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Upstream in these problems mentioned is going to be how? Living organisms like humans, even humans, use light for life. 17 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Humans are the only species that will remove itself from its natural environment. 18 00:02:50,000 --> 00:03:02,000 You've heard during the cause of autism episode how humans use different wavelengths of light for different aspects in life. 19 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:12,000 And how our modern environments have replaced the full sun spectra with isolated artificial light. 20 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,000 And how rates of autism follows these changes. 21 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:28,000 How humans evolved under getting 20 to 30,000 lux in the morning sunrise and the sunset the evening sun. 22 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:36,000 The 100,000 to 120,000 lux in the midday sun. 23 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:52,000 To the 300 to 500 lux of this isolated artificial light and the 300 to 500 lux at night because humans can now extend the day. 24 00:03:52,000 --> 00:04:03,000 Remember the several mentions of melanopsin, this blue light chromophore that wasn't discovered in the human biology until 1998. 25 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:14,000 And fully understood how it is sequenced, raptomeric opsin in subsequent years, 2002, 2005 and such. 26 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:19,000 But over the last 20 years after that, we have found it everywhere. 27 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,000 Endothel, or organs and all over the brain. 28 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:31,000 And the monosomnaptic connections to the super-chiasmatic nucleus and the habinula. 29 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000 These are vital. 30 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:43,000 Remember the SCN being the master clock and everything in our body runs on clock operating procedures. 31 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:49,000 Artificial light at night is a region of interest too. 32 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:57,000 I suspect light, the various types of light is a missing link with autism research. 33 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:03,000 And why so many things in autism research is inconsistent. 34 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,000 The genetic studies being a dead end and so on. 35 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,000 Environmental signals are powerful. 36 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:19,000 And our biology receiving these such as mitochondria are very sensitive. 37 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Remember the two episodes on mitochondria, the solo episode and the wonderful Dr. Richard Fry explaining to us how sensitive these mitochondria are. 38 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:38,000 And remember the four red light chromophores within the mitochondria. 39 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:49,000 All of this is going to be very exciting as Dr. Francisco Gonzalez Lima and his team of researchers begin this work. 40 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:57,000 For today's episode, we will discuss autism and the default mode network. 41 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The default mode network is a buzzword. 42 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:07,000 With buzzwords, the podcast uses the trans from PubMed. 43 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:19,000 You can go to PubMed and type in default mode network or default network or default mode. 44 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000 And all will yield the same result. 45 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:31,000 The so-called default mode network has increased publications since 2008. 46 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:40,000 We've covered a meta-analysis, ALE meta-analysis of brain imaging. 47 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:54,000 ALE is activation likelihood estimation that provides voxel wide, formal estimations of probability of activation. 48 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,000 This is huge for brain imaging. 49 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:07,000 This, the ALE, gives better spatial resolution and reduces errors. 50 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,000 However, that is not important for today's topic. 51 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:20,000 What is important is understanding the origins of the so-called default mode network. 52 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Okay, the default mode network. 53 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:44,000 Remember, the brain is a prediction machine and it uses the central nervous system in a feed-forward, feedback communication to move the living organism while involving the peripheral and the enteric nervous system. 54 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:52,000 Remember the enteric nervous system in the autism and gastrointestinal problems episode. 55 00:07:52,000 --> 00:08:01,000 Now, with prediction or predicting, the autistic brain stays inward. 56 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Remember, interoception. 57 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:10,000 Canner, initially called autism innate disorder. 58 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:39,000 Whether it's the sensation, perception and sensory processing phenomena and or connectivity that provides more pleasure or reward to stay within oneself and or the lack of social understanding, social cognition, learning and experiences of socialness or anything else that is true. 59 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:44,000 And indeed, all of those are true with autism. 60 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:49,000 However, the timeline isn't clear. 61 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,000 What comes first? 62 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Which implications are a sequela and so forth? 63 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:05,000 But the biology that gives us autism allows us to be comfortable within ourselves. 64 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Remember the distinct paths of oxytocin and the distinct roles of the magnosecellular and parvocellular oxytocin. 65 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:28,000 Remember the huge role oxytocin and vasopressin has for complex living organisms like humans. 66 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:36,000 There isn't much controversy about any of that. 67 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:42,000 The default mode network can get questionable. 68 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,000 So the so-called default mode network. 69 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:51,000 Maybe the first name was task negative network. 70 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:58,000 Regardless, it is anti-correlated with task related networks. 71 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:04,000 I should say typically anti resting state. 72 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,000 More on that later. 73 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:15,000 However, for now, I will bring in Lisa Feldman Barrett's comments on this mental phenomena. 74 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:25,000 She claims it has been discovered, named and rediscovered and renamed several times. 75 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000 One, scientists are career driven. 76 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:35,000 They want to solidify their presence in the field and recognition. 77 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:39,000 They want to bring in funds. 78 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Scientists can lump or split different areas of our biology, make slight changes and attempt to define it. 79 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:56,000 Other names of the default mode network and you will recognize these. 80 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:08,000 The mentalizing network, the theory of mind network, the memory network, the prospecting network, 81 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:19,000 the empathy network, the morality network, the context network, the self network. 82 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:29,000 Those are all familiar and you can better understand why I highlighted our previous conversation on oxytocin. 83 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:38,000 Also, you can see why this topic is solidified with autism discussion. 84 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:46,000 We cover and autism is known to have aspects to everything mentioned so far. 85 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:59,000 Feldman Barrett calls these situations core systems, which are one too many or they have diverse roles. 86 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:10,000 Some areas in the so-called default mode network, the medial prefrontal cortex, our old friend. 87 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:25,000 Now you can better understand adaptive responses and of course adaptive responses or adaptive responding is a problem for autistics. 88 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:37,000 The medial prefrontal cortex and this information is taken from our previous episode from autism and adaptive responses. 89 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:47,000 The medial prefrontal cortex is 80 to 90% excitatory and 10 to 20% inhibitory. 90 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:52,000 Remember glutamate is excitatory. 91 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,000 Gabba is inhibitory. 92 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:03,000 Remember the medial prefrontal cortex connects to the basal lateral amygdala. 93 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:16,000 The roles of p10, phosphorus, Tinson, pTEN, the roles of long range oxytocin, projections, 94 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:28,000 the roles of mentalizing and processing social information regarding the self and others in the environment. 95 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:42,000 The medial prefrontal cortex processes conflict monitoring, air detection, executive control, reward guided learning, 96 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:50,000 decision making about risk and rewards and adaptive responses. 97 00:13:50,000 --> 00:14:07,000 There are connections to the medial prefrontal cortex to and from the hypothalamus regarding homeostatic functions such as hunger and thirst and autonomic control 98 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:13,000 and providing inputs for endocrine control. 99 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,000 The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in recent memory. 100 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:29,000 The ventral part of the medial prefrontal cortex connects to neuromodulatory nuclei, all of them. 101 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:41,000 These powerful neuromodulators such as dopamine and serotonin, acetylcholine, epinephrine and norepinephrine, 102 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,000 they are powerful molecules for the nervous system. 103 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:53,000 A second region for the default mode network is the posterior cingulate cortex. 104 00:14:53,000 --> 00:15:08,000 This region is involved with self-referential thinking, which is essentially an overarching way to describe the default mode network. 105 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:20,000 Memory retrieval. Remember we are constantly considering our history and experience as we navigate the world. 106 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Our internal calculators and our metabolic bank accounts is calculating if we have enough metabolic resources for whatever we are navigating or thinking about navigating. 107 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:45,000 This is a hard stop. Socialness is the most unpredictable thing humans do. 108 00:15:45,000 --> 00:16:00,000 And earlier in the episode we considered these autistic phenotypes. That makes us more innate, makes us keep to ourselves, makes us satisfied within ourselves. 109 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:08,000 Remember Donald Triplett's father's first sentence written to Leo Kanner in 1938. 110 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:15,000 He, meaning Donald Triplett, he seems to be self-satisfied. 111 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:22,000 Donald was even uninterested to Santa Claus as a child. 112 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:38,000 The PCC, the posterior cingulate cortex, is involved in social cognition, which we've explained by really dissecting it, but social cognition with empathy too. 113 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:45,000 And finally, more executive functioning with attention and task switching. 114 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:53,000 Another hard stop here. Many people will test this and it is a misnomer. 115 00:16:53,000 --> 00:17:00,000 They test this with ADHD tasks and often give ADHD. 116 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,000 The problem is for autistics. 117 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:18,000 Their attention and task switching are skewed because of the lack of stake or lack of interest or care into the material. 118 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:23,000 Material and context is neglected. 119 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:28,000 And this is an unfortunate miss from other humans. 120 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:39,000 Human thought, human creation like this, this is lacking critical thinking by others from the outside. 121 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,000 Questions about that? Let's discuss it. 122 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:52,000 This is one of our few reasons why autism and the default mode network is confusing to me. 123 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,000 It doesn't seem abnormal to me. 124 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:04,000 It seems like a superpower. It seems mostly comfortable to me. 125 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:15,000 Another region in the default mode network is the angular gyrus and language is huge here. 126 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:27,000 We are integrating visual information including text, text reading, writing and the comprehension aspects. 127 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:33,000 For me, here is an abnormal part. This is a struggle. 128 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:38,000 This might be an area with the thinking and pictures. 129 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:46,000 Visual processing integration is a vital phenotype in my autism. 130 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:52,000 I see things. This accelerates my learning. I can see it. 131 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:58,000 And auditory can be, it can be involved. 132 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:05,000 Plus speaking to myself, playing out these mental images are powerful. 133 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:14,000 This includes previous experiences, hypothetical situations or thoughts. 134 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:22,000 Remember the prediction machine. Remember my curiosity and autobiographical information. 135 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,000 So fiction and nonfiction consideration. 136 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:42,000 These are vivid. Remember the similarities to schizophrenia. But remember, autism doesn't have the psychotic features, those auditory or visual hallucinations. 137 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:47,000 But these pictures and movies are powerful. 138 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,000 Providing narrative is huge too. 139 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:57,000 Remember emotional empathy. Being present and feeling what others are feeling. 140 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:04,000 But doing it in a context that is different from cognitive empathy. 141 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:14,000 Or just looking at someone and expecting to know what they are doing or what they are going through, etc. 142 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:23,000 This is very different. Emotional empathy and the cognitive empathy are very different. 143 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:30,000 The sensory processing here can be both efficient and fast. 144 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,000 Remember a beginning scene to be movie. 145 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:44,000 Remember that animated movie about bees. Many bees are swimming around at high rates of speed with great efficiency. 146 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,000 Now consider how this can stamp our memory. 147 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:57,000 Get it? See how artistic phenotypes are doing what they are doing? 148 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:06,000 These concepts at that neural and synaptic level provide great efficiency. 149 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Now consider how we are restricted and fixated. 150 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:19,000 In addition, and this is huge, maybe the most interesting things on the podcast. 151 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:24,000 And that is supplementing relationships. 152 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:31,000 It seems that I can supplement relationships therein by having these experiences. 153 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:37,000 Individual thinking. Those hypothetical experiences. 154 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:43,000 The little social need that I have can be satisfied here. 155 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:50,000 Seeing others and this can involve me or not, I am not required. 156 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:58,000 I can process life of others in a way that supplements that social interaction. 157 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,000 Plus my intense curiosity for human life. 158 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:13,000 These things allow me to counter socialness at my pace, at my time. 159 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:19,000 You know socialness is challenging for the autistic phenotype. 160 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Simple things like beginning and ending conversations. 161 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:29,000 It should be getting easier to understand autism. 162 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:39,000 Remember the cell called self-referential and memory retrieval and information integration. 163 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:49,000 Externally, this sensation processing and integrating the self with the outside world is delayed. 164 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000 It is hard to keep up. 165 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:59,000 Remember autism and education. Remember over stimulation. Being overwhelmed. 166 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:13,000 There is a lot going on. It is hard for others to speak to us and they have all of these external body movements and processing and conveying information to us. 167 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:22,000 And we are supposed to keep up in this situation that I described with you with this visual imaging processing. 168 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:33,000 And these functions are vastly different when we are within ourselves with little to zero environmental factors. 169 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000 Versus the social setting. 170 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:43,000 Sensation processing. Sensation to perception. 171 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:48,000 Is a complicated process at times. 172 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,000 It is highly dependent on the environment. 173 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:58,000 Probably. To no surprise. Shouldn't be a surprise. 174 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:04,000 Internal thought processes. Canors innate disorder. 175 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:13,000 And understanding B3. Restricted. Fixated interest. And Asperger's little professors. 176 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:22,000 This is what autism is. This is why society and others. That's not like this. 177 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:32,000 Have a hard time understanding and integrating this type of phenotype into the social world. 178 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:40,000 Okay. Another area. One that Dr. Leanna Hernandez mentioned. The Precuneus. 179 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:47,000 Mostly this nuclei involves in self awareness and thoughts about others. 180 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:53,000 The Precuneus is an area with a high resting metabolic rate. 181 00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:02,000 So some more of that metabolic bank account. And what is tied to this area, this region. 182 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:10,000 It is also involved with episodic memory and imaging future orientations. 183 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:16,000 Future encounters. Involved in future strategies. 184 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:22,000 This is a large part of executive functioning and planning with the human being. 185 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:32,000 This ability that human beings have is a large benefit for how we sustain our species. 186 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:42,000 So this is involved here. But remember nothing singular in our biology is responsible for a specific outcome. 187 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:51,000 A single outcome. Many regions or nuclei are involved to create something. 188 00:25:51,000 --> 00:26:02,000 Okay. So social cognition is a repeated mention and some consideration of social cognition could include 189 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:12,000 those theory of mind aspects. Which is defining a definition with a similar definition to me. 190 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:22,000 It doesn't define it. Meaning if you call social cognition theory of mind. It's just defining one thing. 191 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:32,000 The social cognition with another thing. Theory of mind. Theory of mind or mentalizing, etc. 192 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:42,000 How you can understand the world around. This is social cognition. Social cues are huge. 193 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:51,000 Huge for all people. But with different reasons. Artistics have deficits in this. 194 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:59,000 To me, deficits and being able to do it. And caring to do it. 195 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:10,000 Social cues could be nonverbal. Conveyance. Facial expressions. Body language. Tone. Procity. 196 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:20,000 And in large part, these social cues can provide understanding and human interaction. Or conveyance. 197 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:29,000 For some, it can complicate the interaction. That's complicate the environment. 198 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:40,000 Now you know why. Some, especially younger autistic children, have a hard time understanding and integrate the social environment. 199 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:50,000 And they don't know how to express it. And this is also true with adults. How we just tend to learn to avoid. 200 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:59,000 Now with everything you know about autism and anxiety, you can start to piece together some reasons why. 201 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:05,000 Anxiety, remember, gives us three distinct features. Avoidance. 202 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:16,000 Shift in physiology. Remember that shifts in breathing. Both the rate and the depth during highly anxious moments. 203 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:21,000 And valence. How we feel about the situation. 204 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:28,000 Remember the autism and anxiety episode. And these three regions. 205 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:40,000 The amygdala. The bad nucleus of the street of Terminalis. Projecting out two regions responsible for these three distinct characteristics. 206 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:49,000 The hypothalamus. The praeorobacchal nucleus. And the ventral-tagmental area. 207 00:28:49,000 --> 00:29:01,000 Now remember those internal calculators and everything that I've described here with planning and imaging and sensation, perception, sensory processing. 208 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:11,000 Those calculators include this. That accountant for our metabolism and metabolic demands. 209 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:26,000 They include this. What are we going to have to provide to navigate that social world? Or even if it's not a social world, that specific task demand. 210 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:32,000 So here is something. Defining the default mode network. 211 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:41,000 The default mode network is a misnomer. It cannot be a default to all. 212 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:54,000 Default refers to a tendency, a phenotype, a preference. Something that comes automatic. Something that is automatic. 213 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:09,000 For autistics, indeed, this is a default. But often, people in science, the so-called science will say, autistics have an abnormal default mode network. 214 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:20,000 I think default mode network is comfort. It is. It is a default. 215 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:27,000 As in a typical state. A mode of being. 216 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:37,000 Remember these regions that make up the default mode network are active during a so-called resting state. 217 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:52,000 It doesn't exactly make sense, unless you consider others. From the outside, determining what and when someone else is in a resting state. 218 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:59,000 For an autistic, someone from the outside, you cannot determine this. 219 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:07,000 More examples of others complicating reality, complicating the autism science. 220 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:16,000 Humans are bad at this. We get to something that makes sense to us. And that's it. We get hitched on it. 221 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:25,000 This settles our slight conflict. Settles our, it answers our questions, either incorrectly or correctly. 222 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:36,000 But it provides an answer. Even the slightest conflict within our nervous system. That is typically hard to detect. 223 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:47,000 Whenever I say conflict, it's not something necessarily that you can feel or you can attach memory to. 224 00:31:47,000 --> 00:32:01,000 It is hard to detect because the body, the brain, the nervous system has quickly or immediately began to kind of settle it on its own. 225 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:15,000 The nervous system just wants to respond. It's feelings, those conflicts, thoughts and emotions, it's work, it's job, it's to settle those. 226 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:30,000 Whatever is needed for those simple actions to make that unique individual return to comfort, their baseline, their default, their unique homeostasis. 227 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:45,000 This to me is a confusion along the scientific literature and so-called professionals defining the default mode network and applying it to the autistic phenotype. 228 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:59,000 Our default is this mode, is this network, is this tendency to be everything that we described today. 229 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:04,000 This is the autistic default. 230 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:12,000 If you're listening to the episode or listening to the podcast, please feel free to leave a review or rating. 231 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:22,000 In podcasting, reviews, ratings and downloads are huge and I very much appreciate your feedback. 232 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:36,000 You can contact me on X at RPS 47586 or you can find me on using the hop link. 233 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:54,000 Thank you for listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.