1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,000 Welcome to From the Spectrum Podcast. This is a podcast about autism. It is my goal to explain what is autism. 2 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:22,000 I plan to use a mixture of scientific literature, personal experience, and opinion. 3 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:35,000 With opinion, I will explain why, I fill the way I do, and give examples. I will provide links to various references for each episode. 4 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,000 For each episode, we will discuss various aspects of autism. 5 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Today's episode recaps the year. A few selected considerations from previous episodes. 6 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:57,000 Immediately, we must consider not comparing rates. 7 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:07,000 Comparing rates in any epoch. Unless the definitions of autism remain consistent. 8 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:17,000 Meaning the DSM-5 timeframes. You can normalize that data within that epoch. 9 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:35,000 Comparing rates of, for example, 1950 to today, or 1990 to today, or 1938 to 2024 is not getting us anything. 10 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:45,000 Autism was not even well known in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and so forth. 11 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Even in large cities. We ought to caution ourselves with the changes in definitions and grouping them. 12 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:07,000 This made it very confusing. And if this is by design to hide the vax injury autism. 13 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:18,000 I like timelines. The Baido Act of 1980. The acceptance of autism in the DSM in 1980. 14 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:26,000 The vax schedule following the Baido Act. Safety Act in 1986. 15 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:35,000 The additional autism and autism related definitions that followed. Multiple DSM revisions. 16 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000 And of course, opening up to the so-called spectrum. 17 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:51,000 You cannot compare rates through the history of autism. Caution yourself. Bias away from that. 18 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Because they have something. Some sort of an agenda. Some sort of a career. 19 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Okay, so what is autism? Remember B3. Remember the Kanner Kids episode. 20 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:14,000 And the Asperger episode. Similar phenotypes. Social withdrawal. 21 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,000 A lack of interaction. A lack of desiring the interaction. 22 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:26,000 Preferring objects. Topics and subjects. Over human relationships. 23 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:33,000 Poor communication skills. And a preference for schedules. 24 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:41,000 The preference for objects, topics and subjects governs the behavior. 25 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,000 Now we can think about some of the social problems. The super deficits. 26 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:57,000 And understand specific skills. And perfecting specific topics. Interest. Those superpowers. 27 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:02,000 Now think about education. The classroom. The school day. 28 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:12,000 At least for contrast to the autistic phenotype. The social dynamic. The speech and language dynamic. 29 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:19,000 The sensory processing dynamic. And restricted. Fixed-ed interest. 30 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:30,000 That are abnormal in intensity or focus. And the constant. Subject switching required throughout the school day. 31 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:44,000 45-50 minutes one subject. Switch classes. 45-50 minutes on a different subject. And it is repeating all day long. 32 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:52,000 And remember the comparison to a beginning scene of B movie. The animated movie about bees. 33 00:04:52,000 --> 00:05:00,000 When the camera zooms out. Showing thousands and thousands of bees swarming. Around imperfect synchrony. 34 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:10,000 And at high rates of speed. Very efficiently. With known roles and goals. 35 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:17,000 This shows our sensory processing. That high rate of data stream. 36 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:24,000 A couple of things here. One. That helps explain what keeps us to ourselves. 37 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:36,000 And two. It's entertaining. It's safe. It allows us to accelerate our understanding of that salient topic. 38 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:47,000 Whatever we're drawn to in that moment. We can fixate on these things. With remember abnormal intensity or focus. 39 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:53,000 This is autism. This sounds like autism. 40 00:05:53,000 --> 00:06:03,000 Imagine this phenomenon in social settings. Especially the classroom. And around lots of people. 41 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:11,000 This phenomenon keeps us on a single topic. In interest and so forth. 42 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:19,000 A major problem for us is. Being forced into social norms. 43 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:30,000 Who decides social norms? Society says switch. Do this. Then do this. And then this. 44 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:40,000 And if this is not you. Or if you simply don't understand or accept this. It frustrates you. 45 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Maybe even double down and force more contrast to the autistic phenotype. 46 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:55,000 But if you think about a surgeon. A Navy SEAL. A specialist of some sort. 47 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:01,000 An Olympic athlete. Whatever has an elite specialized role. 48 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,000 This is similar to how they dedicate their time. 49 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:12,000 Think Temple Grandin and her animal studies. 50 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:22,000 It's understood that autistics spend extended times on a topic or object. And then moves on. 51 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:32,000 This leads us to our catalogs. Our expertise. Our episodic memory. Etc. 52 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:37,000 Remember the default mode network. And the JD Barker episode. 53 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,000 And remember Temple Grandin. Autistics. 54 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:48,000 Build up an abstraction. And conceptualizing building catalogs of data. 55 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:54,000 Similar to how AI processes. We are AI. 56 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:04,000 We build up details to general. Most people look at general. And then zoom into the detail. 57 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Now let's consider thinking in pictures. And seeing movies. More data on what keeps us within ourselves. 58 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:25,000 More data on what gives us an ability to perfect and accelerate specific learning skills and data. 59 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:40,000 I hope you are also considering the classroom. And still considering some harms of people forcing us out of our phenotype. 60 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:48,000 The biology that gives us autism. Allows us to be comfortable within ourselves. 61 00:08:48,000 --> 00:09:01,000 The problem is. Can you fit in or not. Are you like the so called normal people. Or not. 62 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:09,000 Apply this information. Not only to education. But to employment. 63 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Also consider how frequent anxiety tracks with us. 64 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:27,000 More from being forced into social norms. And more of operating with others. With our sensory processing. 65 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:38,000 Operating with others that are different than us. Don't understand us. Enforcing us. 66 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,000 Remember rules are rules. 67 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:55,000 Episodes on criteria a covers this. Episodes 2 and 6. And some others on the topics of relationships. Our phenotypes and so forth. 68 00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:10,000 A huge factor to consider. And this is not a popular consideration. Autism and ADHD should not coexist. This. 69 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:25,000 Our DHD is pseudo. If you have the tentative phenotype. Okay. And ADHD. This was the first trait noticed in autistics. 70 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:33,000 Why is this not just autism. Suddenly. It's both. 71 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:44,000 The impulsivity criteria. See above. See being forced into social norms. See being forced into social interaction. 72 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:51,000 It's not ADHD. It's just the autism. 73 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:59,000 Hyperactivity criteria. Okay. See the comments about being forced into those social norms. 74 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:10,000 See the episodes on excitation and inhibition imbalance. Stereotypy. Stimming. Repetitive restricted behaviors. 75 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:18,000 It is not both. It is either one. Or the other. 76 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:30,000 The criteria for ADHD is centered around the living organism being in environments that do not fit the living organism. 77 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:44,000 I hope that's understood for humans. We have created these sets of norms and defined them. And they are all new for human evolution. 78 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:54,000 This stuff is madness. A huge similarity is that excitation and inhibition imbalance with autism and ADHD. 79 00:11:54,000 --> 00:12:11,000 And to fully compare. It's also seen in schizophrenia. OCD. Tics and Tourettes. These are typically mutations or deletions within the basal ganglia. 80 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:22,000 And altered neuroclaim activity are consistent with these disorders. The basal ganglia is our go no go area. 81 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:37,000 Where motivation and movements converge. And be careful defining motivation here. Define it from the perspective of the nervous system. 82 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:49,000 If it is structured like autism, the nervous system that is or schizophrenia or OCD and so forth. It does that. 83 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:58,000 The central nervous system just wants to respond. It doesn't like to work. 84 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:09,000 This is why people can accept changes hard. Changes hard. Because you have to restructure your nervous system. 85 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:20,000 It prefers what it knows. That is the definition of motivation here. The basal ganglia and the striatum. 86 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:30,000 It's where motivation and movements converge. Remember autism and adaptive responses. 87 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:41,000 The medial prefrontal cortex, including the ACC, are inputs to the basal ganglia that explains this. 88 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Autistics lack adaptive responses that connect down into the basal ganglia's dorsal striatum. 89 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:58,000 Which is the caudate nucleus and purtamen. Sometimes pudamen. 90 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:06,000 Dr. Hannah Stevens has a wonderful review on the dorsal striatum and autism. 91 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:14,000 It is a fun area and an area of my personal dissertation and research. 92 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:26,000 Connectivity of the salience network, which includes the insula and the so-called default mode network are different in autistics. 93 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:38,000 Remember the study from UCLA published earlier this year on 6 weeks old. 6 weeks old. And the altered salience network. 94 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:45,000 And these 6 weeks old were later diagnosed as autistics as they grew older. 95 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:49,000 Point is this. It comes early. 96 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:59,000 Likely in the womb. The womb ought to be our biggest region of interest. 97 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:14,000 Autism is underdeveloped cells. A loss of energy from the environment used by living organisms, including humans. 98 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:25,000 To shape life. Abnormal cells. The paradigm calls it neurodevelopmental disorders. 99 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:37,000 This is underdeveloped and or abnormal developed. Which we are just describing the same thing using different words. 100 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:53,000 And this is common practice. Because of this phenomena of abnormal cells, it explains something well accepted in medicine and research and delay public. 101 00:15:53,000 --> 00:16:03,000 All of the comorbid conditions. Autism and XYZ problems. 102 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:13,000 Remember the proteins implicated that are vastly responsible for developing the living organism in utero. 103 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Remember the imaging and the machine learning used to identify these abnormal regions of interest. 104 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:31,000 So we have the UCLA study on the salience network. And the study from UCSD, University of California at San Diego. 105 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:37,000 Study on two months old. Predicting severity of autism. 106 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:47,000 And then the Ben Ari machine learning. As early as two days of life. This was released in scientific reports. 107 00:16:47,000 --> 00:17:00,000 A very good journal. Cellular proliferation, differentiation and migration is happening in the womb for these areas. 108 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:07,000 The light story. How living organisms are created on earth. 109 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:20,000 Light is electromagnetic. If we go to the electrons and protons or what drives our energy within biochemistry. 110 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:33,000 And the photoelectric effect. Those electromagnetic fields hitting matter. Creating massive amounts of energy. 111 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:41,000 Now we can consider mitochondria. A buzzword in medicine. And properly so. 112 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:54,000 See the episodes, plural episodes on the mitochondria. And covered in the cause of autism episode as well. 113 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:05,000 If we are discussing in light. Gives life to other organisms. It is not controversial at all. 114 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:15,000 I don't understand. Humans can complicate so much. A human's capacity to think and create. 115 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:24,000 Is not just fantastic and helps sustain our species. And provides us great benefits. 116 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:30,000 It's also the source of holding us back and harm. 117 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:40,000 Another cool molecule is oxytocin. This is a region of interest. Not as an identified aspect of our biology. 118 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:50,000 That is abnormal. More so the two different pathways. Magnosecular and parvocellular. 119 00:18:50,000 --> 00:19:02,000 Magnosecular oxytocin are both peripheral and central nervous system. The peripheral release is endocrine. 120 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:18,000 So hormone. Via the posterior pituitary. The magnosecular is parental attachment. Parvocellular is more peer to peer attachment. 121 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:32,000 Sounds like autism. Magnosecular is emotional. Sometimes called effective empathy. Parvocellular is cognitive empathy. 122 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:42,000 Sounds like autism. Effective empathy is empathy after. You know of the situation after being told. 123 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:51,000 Cognitive empathy sometimes called theory of mind is empathy from seeing others. 124 00:19:51,000 --> 00:20:01,000 Oxytocin is a dynamic molecule. A small peptide with phylogeny of millions and millions of years. 125 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:18,000 In living organisms. A 9 protein peptide and a hormone. It shares 7 of the 9 proteins with vasopressin. Also shown to be abnormal in autism. 126 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:29,000 This originates from vasotocin. In smaller, less complex organisms. These peptides are very fascinating. 127 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:45,000 In socialness it is shown that for socialness to be rewarding. Oxytocin in the central nervous system and serotonin must converge in an area of the ventral striatum. 128 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:58,000 A very popular area in neuroscience. The nucleus accumbens. When oxytocin and serotonin converge in this little nikeli. Or big nikeli I should say. 129 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:11,000 And it allows socialness to be considered rewarding. And autistics lack this. Not only from the oxytocin side but also it's shown to have abnormal serotonin. 130 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:21,000 Now serotonin is a very fascinating neuromodulator. Sometimes a hormone. As well. 131 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:33,000 Remember the episode on autism and gastrointestinal problems. And we have serotonin in the peripheral and in the GI tract. Which is synthesized through TPH1. 132 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:45,000 Tryptophan hydroxylase 1. And that provides us with those enterochromathin cells. 95% of our serotonin in the human body is in the GI. 133 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:59,000 This is produced here. From the outside of the skin. Light hitting skin. And synthesizing this protein. And enzyme. This is huge in development. 134 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:09,000 Also the same is true for the central nervous system. The serotonin released in the brain from the RAFE. More specifically the dorsal RAFE. 135 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:25,000 This is the serotonin we're talking about when we talk about it converges in the nucleus accumbens. This is TPH2. Tryptophan hydroxylase 2. Which is only brain serotonin. 136 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:34,000 These don't travel across the blood brain barrier. And remember serotonin is synthesized through this tryptophan. 137 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:48,000 And tryptophan has a very special protein. Has one codon. But even more so. It's an aromatic amino acid. Has a benzene ring. These are UV light antennas. 138 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:58,000 From 200 nanometer to 400 nanometer light. So now we're talking a little bit about bio photons. Which are produced in our mitochondria. 139 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:14,000 And whenever they are synthesizing. Whenever they are operating correctly and efficiently. We release the bio photons. And this is. This signifies life. Our energy and health. 140 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:33,000 So with serotonin and the oxytocin. Let's consider relationships. These are challenging of course. I want to highlight supplementing relationships. Mostly by the visual thinking and movies. 141 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:49,000 Remember that effective empathy too. Supplementing our human interaction. And the lack of relationships. Can be accomplished. With the visual thinking and the movies. 142 00:23:49,000 --> 00:24:07,000 This is in reality. An interaction. It's just different. Than what you might experience. If this is not you. You will not likely understand it at all. This is complicated. 143 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:27,000 And that's fine. But this is safe for us. We know the end. Remember the simple challenges. Beginning and ending conversations. Luckily. For the podcast. I have a standard beginning. 144 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:44,000 However. Ending the podcast is quite awkward. Whenever there's a guest on. There are many goodbyes. And these so called common gestures. The common back and forth that people undertake to end conversations. 145 00:24:44,000 --> 00:25:07,000 I never know if it's enough or too much. These visual thinking and movies come automatic. And at times. Things I don't want to think about. It takes a shake of the head. And deliberate effort at times to stop. 146 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:17,000 Seeing what I'm seeing. About other people. Stop these movies. Running through my head. 147 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:31,000 However. With all thinking and pictures and movies. This is a form of accelerated learning. Asperger's little professors. Or autistic intelligence. 148 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:49,000 Instead of human relationships. I love objects. Topics. And subjects. I can see people. Or observe people. Or even the interaction. The common back and forth. 149 00:25:49,000 --> 00:26:07,000 And I can take that little data set. And create things in my head. About them. And follow them. Almost like I'm living their life from their perspective. And I can do this pretty accurately. As I get more data inputs. 150 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:17,000 With future conversations and interactions or observations about them. I can just update this in real time. 151 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:32,000 This is all very strange. Instead of the human relationships. It's the relationships with objects. Topics. And subjects and so forth. This is mostly the case. 152 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:52,000 At times. I can have desires of human interaction. Not frequent. But it does happen. Romantic relationships don't happen. This is in large part. The time involvement. 153 00:26:52,000 --> 00:27:06,000 And how to integrate my phenotypes into something that's largely different. That's largely exhausting. Maybe. Remember the metabolic bank account. 154 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:28,000 This is the first trait observed in autism. The whole history of autism in human. Remember the first diagnosed autistic. Donald triplet and his father wrote a 33 page letter to Leo canner to describe Donald's strange phenotype. 155 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:47,000 His father said Donald seems to be happiest when left alone. Drawing a shell and living within himself. Later saying oblivious to everything around him. 156 00:27:47,000 --> 00:28:10,000 Remember the biology that gives us autism. Allows us to be comfortable within ourself. I want to caution you. It's a big takeaway here. Don't force the autistic phenotype into things that you think it needs. What you think we need. 157 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:26,000 If you are listening to the episode or listening to the podcast. Please feel free to leave a review or rating. In podcasting reviews ratings and downloads are huge. And I very much appreciate your feedback. 158 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:45,000 You can contact me on X at RPS 47586 or YouTube. We can check out shorts and all the videos. Please feel free to leave a comment and I will interact. You can check out the hop link. 159 00:28:45,000 --> 00:29:07,000 For links to all of the shows or most of the shows. And the platforms. You can email me info. From the spectrum at gmail.com. And thank you for listening to From the Spectrum podcast.