Welcome to From the Spectrum Podcast. This is a podcast about autism. It is my goal to explain what is autism.
I plan to use a mixture of scientific literature, personal experience, and opinion.
With opinion, I will explain why I feel the way I do and give examples. I will provide links to various references for each episode.
For each episode, we will discuss various aspects of autism.
The biology that gives us autism allows us to be comfortable within ourselves.
For today's episode, we will cover an underrated and nearly unknown but of tremendous benefit of autism.
There are a few, recognized brain regions, autistic traits, and studies that connect us.
In addition, long before this so-called science and studies, these findings, my experience from 1983 and 1984, brings these findings to life.
Beyond scientific studies, beyond methodology, materials, data, and so forth, defining the autistic phenotypes is not difficult.
Understanding it and bringing real-life data and experiences can bring these autistic phenotypes into power.
A full understanding by the masses, a true shift into what society needs to do so the autistic phenotype can strive based off of who we are.
Some networks, also called brain connections, and some specific regions, also called nuclei.
These help determine the autistic phenotype.
Biology determines the sets of behaviors noticed, observed, and scored from an assessment perspective.
No, the DSM-5 criteria A and B, for autism, the unique biology that gives us the sets of behaviors.
First, then a sequela or downstream, we could add in some neuroplasticity, and we will cover that with the internal calculators.
Remember the 6 weeks old study at UCLA and the Salience Network.
This is a network, or sets of connections, that determine what are important to us.
Us, meaning all of us, it determines what is salient.
Two critical regions of interest of the Salience Network are the insula and the interior cingulate cortex, or ACC.
But zooming in, more specific to a subdivision, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.
The cingulate is fascinating and powerful. It wraps around white matter tracks.
The insula is also a fascinating meculae, involved in interoception, emotional processing, homeostasis, and self-awareness.
The insula processes internal states and environmental cues.
Our metabolic bank account will be heavily involved.
In addition, the dorsal ACC is involved in error detection, conflict monitoring, and motivation.
The dorsal ACC is part of the medial prefrontal cortex, a popular region for autism, and my personal second favorite.
Already, you can imagine the Salience Network for the Autistic Phenotype, Biasis, us to our insides.
The Salience Network is also thought to be a controller of task switching, from internal to external.
Yet, as we just learned, it is not equally distributed, equally weighted.
It's a seesaw. One side is the internal attention and states.
The other side consists of external stimuli, and the fulcrum, or what balances this, is the Salience Network.
We've learned in previous episodes the default mode network is an internal state for some, including autistic.
It is a deep and powerful state for autistics. It is our preference, our default.
The default mode network also heavily involves the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the prokinaeus,
inferior parietal, lobial, and retrosplenial cortex.
This can get tough to follow, but two areas of the medial, the ventral medial, sometimes called infralambic, in rats.
This area has the bi-directional connections to the neuromodulatory nuclei. Remember, a fetal choline, dopamine, nor epinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin.
All of them. Bi-directional connections to all of them.
This absolutely strengthens this internal state.
This is the nuclei, the ventral medial, is a preferred action item.
This existence, and another subdivision, the dorsal medial, which has roles in self-referential thinking, social cognition, and autobiographical memory.
The posterior cingulate, which includes roles with the self-referential and memory retrieval, and integrating information.
Sounds like autism. The prokinaeus is in the parietal lobe, visual spatial imagery, and episodic memory. This is huge in autism.
The parietal lobio has the angular gyri, which integrates information, language processing, attention, and memory.
Finally, the retrosplenial equals spatial navigation, memory, and integrating sensory information.
This will be huge in our internal calculations.
My interpretation of the default mode network and autism is, this is our default.
This is our preferred state. You can see the full episode on autism and the default mode network.
If you understand these two networks, the regions involved and the roles, you should easily see the B3.
What do I speak about frequently? The restricted, fixated interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus.
This captures the insistence on sameness, so strict schedules, and lack of environmental influences.
You can see why we spend time on a single topic.
Comfortably spend abnormal amounts of time on a single topic, or just a few limited topics,
which is in contrast with educational schedules and social norms.
Let's talk a favorite of mine, internal calculators.
We have many of these. The first one I want to cover. One calculator that involves essentially one nuclear, the Locus cerylius.
This releases energy, epinephrine and nor epinephrine.
That's right, it's adrenaline, but brain adrenaline. Adrenaline from the adrenals. Don't cross over into the brain.
And this is true with other neuromodulators, such as serotonin and dopamine, are the two easy ones.
See autism and gastrointestinal problems. We cover these neuromodulators in the gut, in the peripheral, which are where most of these are made.
Okay, so the Locus cerylius connects from the brainstem to the entire brain. It releases epinephrine and nor epinephrine, essentially at all times when we were up.
Of course, more during the sympathetic side of the autonomic nervous system that get up and go, sometimes loosely called fight and flight, which is a bit of a misnomer.
It's just a lay example, a catchphrase.
You can think of this as being released like on a Y axis, it's going up and down on a graph.
The effort, our actions release different levels of these neuromodulators.
Strenuous effort, learning bouts or physical bouts, or both, will generate more epinephrine from this nuclei on the brainstem.
Also occurring here is an internal calculator monitoring how much are we releasing.
And within this calculation is what is the effort providing the outcome.
If you are a runner, you release these neuromodulators and you ambulate forward and simultaneously you are calculating how well you are doing, how you are feeling, what are your goals here.
If specific, consider the metabolic bank account and allocating and withdrawing energy based on internal states, based on your goal.
There is a crossover, a moment in time, you register, you are using lots of effort, lots of energy.
Remember this is an example using running, but this applies to anything.
Gleeous cells, more specifically involved a type of Gleeous cell, astrocytes, are calculating this effort to outcome ratio.
Consider runner's high too, you've heard of runner's high, since we mentioned these chemicals, outcomes, effort and internal states.
Internal states are huge, it is a significant part of how we allocate our attention and more relevant what we send our attention to.
Always remember the biology that gives us autism allows us to be comfortable within ourselves.
Also the biology that gives us autism considers the outside world chaotic.
We are biased to our inner world, however humans are social creatures and this is a autistic conundrum.
Once those Gleeous cells register outcome and effort don't match, Gleeous shuts down the epinephrine from the locus suruleus, it shuts the locus suruleus off.
No more brain energy, no effort or energy.
Now understand why autistics can persist to objects, topics and subjects, not so much to others, to socialness.
Remember our biology and those traits that make up our phenotype and remember neuroplasticity, which is huge here.
What we do makes us more of that.
This stuff is so simple.
So what drives humans?
Chemically and behaviorally.
Dopamine, yes.
Dopamine synthesizes epinephrine and nor epinephrine and also a favorite of mine melanin.
Anyway, dopamine is about our drive, what we want and like, our motivation.
Dopamine is also constantly released and it fluctuates based on the stimuli.
On that Y axis, the amount released is constantly changing.
Those constant pulses, a little release and then drop, release and then drop.
If something is pleasurable to us, if something we want and gives us drive, the delta of release versus the drop, the release will be more greater than the drop.
Conversely, if something is painful to us or for craving something, we're massively wanting something and we cannot have it.
The pulse, the drop will be greater than the release and this will take us below baseline.
Now, if you think about autism, let's think about something easy, something that we can all make sense of and that is socialness.
Now, think about the epinephrine and glia, that calculation there, how those are working hand to hand.
Socialness requires a lot of energy for the autistic phenotype.
There's a lot of energy and demand, a lot of effort to undergo this.
And if you think about the reward, the outcome of this effort and energy, we're going to shut down fast because it's not pleasurable.
It's very complicated, it's very difficult.
So the glia will shut it off, will shut us off.
And this is common, this happens to everybody based off of whatever it is we're taking on, whatever effort, whatever task.
Now you can understand why all of that effort that exhausts us, then you can hear about the autistic burnout.
You understand this, everybody experiences burnout, it's just the frequency of it or the intensity of it as well.
But what if it is something that we enjoy, whatever it is specific to that living organism?
How can a task, a topic, whatever is salient to the living organism, how can we exert so much effort and enjoyment?
Well, that's dopamine.
Dopamine is the fulcrum here that's balancing effort and time with the outcome, the reward, the enjoyment.
Now with a topic, a subject or an object, whatever the case, when we are focused in on something that has us very curious, that we very much enjoy,
dopamine is being released and dopamine keeps us attached to whatever it is.
For us, it's more the object, topic and subject.
For somebody that's so-called extroverted, loves to socialize, their dopamine will be released more and greater amounts than those drops during these social environments.
We are all unique.
This is the big point here.
We are all unique.
But these neuromudulators and these brain regions and these networks, they all work the same.
It's just they are a little bit different based off of the context.
Now you can dissect the language used, the wording used in B3, restricted, fixated interest that are abnormal.
In intensity or focus, our dopamine is being released and keeps us attentive, keeps us attached to the interest.
And that gives us intensity or focus.
This is autism.
This is the core of autism.
This implicates our socialness.
This explains the criteria A, regarding the lack of social communication and interaction.
What is salient to the living organism?
Determin' this, a popular internal calculator is the so-called reward prediction error.
A value-based calculator specific to the living organism, largely based on reinforcement learning.
This is expected versus actual outcomes.
If more outcome than expected, the stimuli can strengthen.
If lower actual versus expected, then we get disappointment, frustration, pain, etc.
This occurs.
Dopamine is central to both pleasure and pain.
And this will include reward prediction error and its counterpart, aversion prediction error.
Brain regions for both are similar.
The delta is the salience, the expectation, pleasure, or pain.
Similarly, risk-reward is an internal calculator, assessing potential benefits versus potential harms.
This estimates values.
Here, and what we are considering, is the human prefrontal guidance.
The area of the brain that allows us to sustain our species.
The area that is responsible for most of our metabolic bank accountant, future planning, the flexible rule-setting machine.
The brain, as a large organ, predicts.
It allocates energy and determines metabolic expenditure, metabolic withdrawals.
The task in our internal state is a big influence.
All of this is modulating our attention.
What is salient to us?
The purpose of the brief introduction of these internal calculators are, which, remember, are not limited to autism, is to remind people.
We are who we are.
Our nervous systems plural.
Create our uniqueness.
And the brain works as a prediction machine.
That allocates energy as this metabolic bank accountant.
Do I have enough resources to cover this task?
In real time, and in thought.
In other words, our so-called executive planning, executive functioning.
In addition, in unexpected circumstances.
For humans, the social world, the outside world, is very unpredictable.
You understand the social struggles of autism.
One, the biology that makes it difficult.
And two, neuroplasticity that makes us more of what we are.
Two huge factors.
The social withdrawal and the attachment and preference to objects and topics or subjects.
Are the main reasons parents and educators pursued Canner and Asperger.
But the biggest takeaway is not about the why or the how of the autistic phenotype.
It is important because humans love to first make sense of something.
Accepting something is paramount for us.
We easily get to an answer.
Get to something that we can make sense of or that does make sense to us.
And we can think that must be it.
Or that is it.
The takeaway is nurturing the so-called neural differences.
Problems with the autistic phenotype comes from others forcing us into social norms.
Into situations or whatever that are in complete contrast of our ability.
Our construction, our biology.
Put numbers to that and measure that delta.
If you need numerical data.
Please do. This would be wonderful data to show.
And we put numbers and values to behaviors all of the time in neuroscience.
It's not difficult.
Society that understands our phenotype will allow us to achieve.
We have curiosity and special connections to objects, topics and subjects.
We explore the environment and interest with great intensity and focus.
And here we go again with B3 and autistic intelligence and little professors.
Two other known problems, so-called problems with the autistic phenotype are the insistence on sameness.
That strict schedule.
Now you can understand maybe that the strict schedule branches off of everything we just discussed today.
Preferring our own intensity and focus on interest.
Our own ability to spend time on that and not be forced into the social norms.
And also the relationships.
This also implicates relationships.
Our ability being able to just make sense of the environment around one person or multiple people.
This is very complicated and based off of everything with those brain regions and networks and our interest.
And how unpredictable and how much energy and effort are involved.
And the lack of social skills built up over time based off of these networks and regions.
We are who we are.
And it's very complicated when we mix in with other people.
The relationship, a successful relationship often will cause one person to give up something about themselves.
And provide it to the other person or other people.
And in turn they do the same.
They give up something about themselves and give it to the other person or other people.
And together they form this bond, this connection.
This being compatible.
We are giving and taking and the delta there, what is considered is, does this person make things easier, better, more pleasurable and vice versa?
Does it make it a better situation?
I'm not saying that autistics don't want the relationships.
I'm saying a lot of times they're complicated, difficult and the skills to undergo these demanding tasks are often lacking.
You can see the episode on autism and relationships.
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You can contact me on X at RPS 47586 and we can have comfortable conversations about autism.
You can check out the hop link for all the links to the shows and my contact information.
You can email me info.fromthespectrum at gmail.com.
Thank you for listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.