1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Defining the Autistic Phenotypes is not difficult. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Understanding it and bringing real-life data and experiences can bring these Autistic Phenotypes into power. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:31,000 For today's episode, we will explore the basal ganglia and the specific subdivision within the basal ganglia, the dorsal striatum. 4 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:40,000 Already, lots of biology here and may be confusing and even uninteresting to the listener. 5 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:55,000 However, it is my goal to explain this in a way that connects the Autistic Phenotypes, explain the behaviors and implications from these regions. 6 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,000 And I can do that. We will do that today. 7 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:21,000 The basal ganglia is a collection of subcortical regions, which means they are ancient and below the cortex, the area that gives humans our higher functioning and abilities to be dominant species. 8 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:32,000 If you draw a line from the eyes to the back of our head, our head extends up and like any other species. 9 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:50,000 In addition, for the ratio relatively speaking, our eye diameter in relationship to the size of the brain, our eyes are likely to have a larger ratio than any other species. 10 00:01:50,000 --> 00:02:10,000 Now this is quite fascinating because of the eye development, predicts the brain development. At least it helps it. Remember the eyes are a highway and interstate to the brain and very crucial for development. 11 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Evolutionary. You can think about the lower areas of the brain or older. 12 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Loosely and generally speaking, the basal ganglia are where motivation and movements converge. 13 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:39,000 Motivation in no way should be defined as actions we want to do. 14 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:56,000 Don't define motivation from your perspective, such as I'm motivated to do better. I'm motivated to lose weight. I'm motivated to read this book, etc. 15 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:02,000 Define it from the nervous system's perspective. 16 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Remember the nervous system does not like to work. It wants to conserve energy and respond to what and how it knows. 17 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:24,000 And it biases us towards safety, but it takes an account of what it knows over safety. 18 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:34,000 And even based off of what it knows over fear, meaning, you can provide fear into somebody. 19 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:41,000 And that doesn't mean that they will change, or their nervous system will change specifically. 20 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Addictions is the best example of this. 21 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:52,000 This is why everything I just said about motivation and the nervous system responding. 22 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:57,000 This is why change is hard. 23 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:03,000 The basal ganglia is known as our go, no-go area. 24 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:15,000 And it operates best when projections, or you can say signals or connections, are coming down from our cortex. 25 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:21,000 The go side is connected to excitation dopamine. 26 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:28,000 The no-go side is connected to inhibition dopamine. 27 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:37,000 This is simple to connect because of the excitation inhibition phenomena with autism. 28 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Remember Mike Mersenex, wonderful paper back from 2002. 29 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Excitation is activating. Inhibition is inactivating. 30 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Now you know the mechanisms by which this occurs. 31 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:07,000 With autism, this EI imbalance is well established. 32 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:20,000 Also, some well-known genetic implications is shank 3, which are mutations or deletions, are frequently understood in autism. 33 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:33,000 Its roles include, synaptic formation, maturing dendrites, synaptic transmission, and plasticity of synapses. 34 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:48,000 Neurolegin 3, this is more synapses formation and plasticity, and neuronal communication, meaning forming of the cleft, the space in between the synapses. 35 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,000 Now this space is roughly 10 nanometers. 36 00:05:53,000 --> 00:06:02,000 And for reference, there are 1000 nanometers and 1 millimeter, sometimes called micron. 37 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:11,000 And a sheet of paper, the thickness is roughly 80 to 90 microns. 38 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:22,000 CNT NAP2 for axonal guidance and myelination and some more synaptic functioning. 39 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:31,000 Some other genetic studies for these areas include 16p11.2. 40 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:36,000 Remember the conversation with Dr. Hannah Stevens, MD, PhD. 41 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Towards the end of the episode, she mentioned the dorsal striatum and studying this, this is enlarged in autism. 42 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And it's unclear if the number of dendrites are a factor, connections and axons and so forth. 43 00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:00,000 All of these genetic identifiers mentioned are well understood in autism. 44 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,000 So if interested, seek that data. 45 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:11,000 In episode 3 of the podcast, way back then, I covered these in more detail. 46 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:24,000 For today's episode, I just want to briefly mention them for their roles with the autistic phenotype, especially in the basal ganglia. 47 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:31,000 The basal ganglia, we can break these regions into three different roles. 48 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:42,000 Inputs, or they receive signals, relays, or connects regions within the basal ganglia. 49 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:49,000 And outputs, or sends signals outside of the basal ganglia. 50 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:56,000 A region that receives most of these outputs is the thalamus. 51 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:02,000 We will talk more about the thalamus in a little detail shortly. 52 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:07,000 The inputs are the cadet nucleus and putamen. 53 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:12,000 These are known as the dorsal striatum. 54 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:24,000 The cadet is involved with motor learning, movement planning and execution, various cognitive functions with decision making, 55 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:34,000 cognitive flexibility, more so with reasoning and evaluating and problem solving, working memory, 56 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:42,000 focusing our attention, reward processing and emotional regulation. 57 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:49,000 You can see sensory, motor and cognition are involved. 58 00:08:49,000 --> 00:09:00,000 Remember the signals coming in to the cadet and from the cortex, remember the orbital frontal cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex. 59 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:07,000 So the prefrontal is orchestrating here and as we review those items, 60 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:15,000 you can remember the roles of various prefrontal and cingulate cortex as having the same roles, 61 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:23,000 such as the interior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex. 62 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:27,000 These things work in concert with one another. 63 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:40,000 The other input region, the putamen, plays parts with motor, especially with skill acquisition, fine tuning movements. 64 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:50,000 If you think about catching a ball or reaching out for something, especially if you are passively attending to the object, 65 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:59,000 you can still grab it. You can successfully grab it with precision. 66 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Okay, how about learning to type or learning to walk? 67 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Imagine being a child and learning to walk versus walking now. 68 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Imagine being an Olympic hurdler, the motor control and the learning. 69 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:29,000 When we were learning to walk, it was very much different than passively just walking now. 70 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:40,000 There was a lot of deliberate action needed and this is mainly areas of the dorsal anterior cingulate 71 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:49,000 projecting down to the dorsal region of the striatum, so more cadet than putamen. 72 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:54,000 As we learn to do this skill, becomes a habit. 73 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:04,000 That is more from the so-called infralimbic or sometimes called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex 74 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:12,000 projecting down to the more lateral side of the dorsal striatum, which is the putamen. 75 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:23,000 These signals are orchestrating our ability to learn and have memory and be able to perform the skill. 76 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:34,000 So as it comes into skill development or learning, it passes it off to more habitual or habit forming. 77 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:42,000 And I think this is because it frees up those learning mechanisms needed for future skills. 78 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:48,000 The putamen is involved with inhibiting inappropriate movements. 79 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:55,000 Of course it is. We've learned to do it. This is where habits reside. 80 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,000 You can start to understand some connections with autism here. 81 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:05,000 Some dyspraxia, lack of motor control, flappy hands and stimming. 82 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:09,000 The putamen has a huge part in habits. 83 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:17,000 Habit formation, the transition to go directed to automatic. 84 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:26,000 We no longer need that deliberate effort when we know how to walk versus when we were learning how to walk. 85 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:33,000 Now walking is the easy example that we can all make sense of. 86 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:37,000 This is procedural learning and action selection. 87 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:44,000 That area, the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, sometimes called infralimbic and rodents. 88 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,000 This is a toggle. It toggles through action selection based off of the habit. 89 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,000 It's providing context. 90 00:12:53,000 --> 00:13:00,000 It also integrates sensory information and reward prediction. 91 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:10,000 So you can see the dorsal striatum is huge in our previous discussion on internal calculators. 92 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:17,000 The role, why learning and guiding rewards and future behaviors. 93 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Soon we will discuss the substantia nigra and the role of dopamine. 94 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:30,000 Remember our episode on internal calculators and what makes autistics innate. 95 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,000 Stuck in our inner world. 96 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:42,000 And being comfortable, being comfortable with inside of ourselves and preferring our inner world. 97 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Think about motor control and speech as well. 98 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:54,000 This is within these regions, the broca area projecting to these dorsal striatum areas. 99 00:13:54,000 --> 00:14:00,000 If you think about, sometimes people just talk. They talk a lot quite frankly. 100 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:06,000 This is habit formation. This is them action selecting to comfort them. 101 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:13,000 They have something to say. Something on the external world is not quite satisfying them. 102 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:17,000 And they must speak to calm themselves. 103 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,000 It's habit. 104 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:24,000 It's returning their nervous system to that homeostasis. 105 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:31,000 That's not all speech, but it is in play. 106 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:40,000 In learning and memory, zooming into the dorsal striatum and the cadet is more action and go based. 107 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:45,000 The putamen is more reflexes and habits. 108 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:50,000 The putamen receives signals from sensory motor regions as well. 109 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:57,000 Towards the middle and the top of the head. It's a big sensory motor region. 110 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:01,000 After the input areas receive these signals. 111 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:09,000 The dorsal striatum, those regions just covered, orchestrate downstream behaviors. 112 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:17,000 Remember each connection. Each synapses. Provides a brief summary. 113 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:21,000 Each connection is conveying a story. 114 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:28,000 This whatever this is, that specific cell activation means something. 115 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:34,000 It builds a story and the basal ganglia, based off of these, the summary, 116 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:44,000 orchestrates downstream behaviors. Based off of that story, it is completely subjective to the living organism. 117 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:57,000 This is why we are all essentially have the same regions, molecules and chemicals, but are very much different. 118 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Before we get into the relays and outputs, I want you to think about the substantia nigra here. 119 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,000 A place of dopamine. 120 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:13,000 We can think about substantia nigra as a relay and an output. 121 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Autism or not, the substantia nigra is vital for humans. 122 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:29,000 Remember dopamine is much more in humans than just wanting and liking and motivation. 123 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:40,000 However, remember you don't define motivation. Our nervous systems define the motivation for us. 124 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:52,000 If you look at it from this perspective, you can start to understand dopamine and drive and motivation and how people are so unique, a little bit better. 125 00:16:52,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Also a big topic for us, the neuro melanin. Much more than what people consider. 126 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:09,000 This is crucial for energy. Melanin plus water. 127 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:15,000 Remember, cytochrome c-oxidates. So dopamine is a modulator. 128 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:25,000 Okay, that's easy to understand. If you think about regions, modulators, networks, etc. 129 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:37,000 Activating and inactivating. In the basal ganglia, as the go, no go area, you can see dopamine is crucial. 130 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:48,000 In a quick review, dopamine has two receptor types. Of course those are excitation and inhibition. 131 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:56,000 You can see how much of our brain are involved with conducting movements. 132 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:03,000 The role of the central nervous system is to move the living organism. 133 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:14,000 While allocating as little energy as possible. So those internal calculators are here. 134 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:26,000 And in case you are wondering, every aspect discussed so far are implicated and involved in autism. 135 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:38,000 So the receptor types, D1 like, are excitatory. And those are DR1 and DR5. 136 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:49,000 Inhibitory receptors are D2 like. And are DR2, 3, and 4. 137 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:58,000 So 5 total receptors for dopamine broken down into two types. One for excitation. 138 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:07,000 Two for inhibition. Soon we will cover autism and Parkinson's. 139 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:15,000 In that episode, we will go more into the so called direct pathway and indirect pathway. 140 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:21,000 The two most common conversations when talking about the basal ganglia. 141 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:27,000 For this episode, we will cover all of those components just not in detail. 142 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:37,000 We will cover the regions, but we won't specifically go into detail on the direct pathway and the indirect pathway. 143 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:45,000 Dopamine orchestrates those pathways. At minimum, dopamine has a huge involvement in them. 144 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:55,000 Just think about it as precise movements based on precise signaling and instruction. 145 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:03,000 You can see the connection here. Why? Artistics are vulnerable to Parkinson's. 146 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:15,000 For the substantia nigra, it has two main subdivisions. The pars compacta, abbreviated as SNC. 147 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:23,000 This area sends signals. Remember this is information. The summaries to the dorsal striatum. 148 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:30,000 That work in concert with those other signals coming into the dorsal striatum. 149 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:44,000 This is called the nigrotriatal pathway. The second subdivision is the pars reticulata, shown as SNR. 150 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:52,000 This area is crucial for inhibiting and is an output area. 151 00:20:52,000 --> 00:21:01,000 Other areas involved in the basal ganglia include the globus pallidus, which has two parts as well. 152 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:10,000 This forms a triangle in the basal ganglia. The two nuclei forms a triangle. 153 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:23,000 The globus pallidus internal, so closer to the center of the brain, receives inhibitory signals from the striatum. 154 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:30,000 It also receives excitatory signals from the subthalamic nucleus. 155 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:48,000 The GPI will then send signals to the thalamus and areas of the brainstem, midbrain area, including the substantia nigra and superior colliculus. 156 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:59,000 The superior colliculus is crucial here for an upcoming episode on autism in eye contact. 157 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:09,000 The GPI and substantia nigra reticulata are essentially the same functions for the basal ganglia. 158 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:16,000 The GPI is both a relay and an output. 159 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:29,000 The globus pallidus external receives inhibitory signals, so GABA are the inhibitory neurotransmitters from the striatum. 160 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:41,000 Then the GPI sends inhibitory signals to the subthalamic nucleus and the globus pallidus internal. 161 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:51,000 The GPI is a relay, meaning it only sends signals within the basal ganglia. 162 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:57,000 With the subthalamic nucleus, remember the GPI sends signals here. 163 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:06,000 The subthalamic nucleus will send signals back to the GPI as a feedback loop. 164 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:12,000 This communication is providing updates, asking for guidance. 165 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,000 What do I do? Are we good? Etc. 166 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:28,000 And if you zoom out and think about how many movements the human being is conducting over space and time, it's extraordinary. 167 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:33,000 These circuits right here are in constant loops. 168 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:40,000 Now imagine if these signals, these loops, have a delay they lack behind. 169 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:49,000 Imagine what that's going to do for activating and inactivating our movements. 170 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,000 Remember the go, no go areas. 171 00:23:52,000 --> 00:24:10,000 And remember, everything here is clocked timed and we need specific and efficient energy flowing through these cells, these connections, these regions and pathways and so forth. 172 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:26,000 So when we think about a future episode, autism and Parkinson's, or when we think about autistics and these kind of erratic and uncontrollable movements, 173 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:39,000 and stemming and the neuroplasticity, doing this out of comfort or to satisfy the living organism, our nervous system and these habits, 174 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,000 all of this is happening here. 175 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:52,000 So if this is kind of abnormal circuitry, you can begin to understand this. Why? It's hard to control. 176 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:57,000 So the subthalamic nucleus. Remember the thalamus from episode 1. 177 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,000 This is where all sensations are processed. 178 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:14,000 In episode 1, I gave a kind of an analogy of a big skyscraper in a big metropolitan area, a big building, and it has revolving doors. 179 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:22,000 And people are coming into the revolving doors from the outside world and they go up into this building and they all have different roles. 180 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:29,000 They go to different areas of the building and at the same time, people are leaving the building. 181 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,000 And they all came from different areas of the building. They all have different roles. 182 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:39,000 And as they exit the building, they're going to different areas of the world or the city. 183 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,000 Maybe it's local or maybe it's distal. 184 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:54,000 Anyway, I like to think about the thalamus in this manner because of the amount of signals running through the thalamus. 185 00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:01,000 Essentially, you can think about every region or nuclei that we talk about in this analogy. 186 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:14,000 But because of the inputs and outputs of the thalamus, it gets this special visual representation in my mind. 187 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:21,000 So if you imagine how many sensations our body is going through, 188 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:26,000 even right now, the thalamus needs help. 189 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:31,000 Sephthalmic Nuculus is a major relay center. 190 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:39,000 It receives excitatory inputs from the cortex and the globus pallidus external, 191 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:47,000 and relays to the globus pallidus internal and the substantiate nigra. 192 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:55,000 Why? Imagine processing all of those sensations coming through the central nervous system. 193 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:03,000 All of those smells, sounds, visual inputs, taste, pressure points. 194 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:09,000 We have a lot going on with the sensations. 195 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:16,000 A big factor of this nuclei is it is a break, an emergency break, 196 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:21,000 an assistance of processing the information. 197 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:30,000 You can think of the septalamic nucleus as a personal assistant to the thalamus. 198 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000 So it inhibits. 199 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:43,000 Remember autism and the EI imbalance, where most data, the data are impressive on too much excitation, 200 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000 lacking inhibition. 201 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:54,000 If it was a seesaw, we want this pretty balanced, but the excitation is always high. 202 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,000 And we can measure this in neuroscience with the Raskoerler-Wagner model. 203 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:09,000 We can put numbers to actions and learning, and then we can test them from memory and habits and so forth. 204 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:15,000 This nuclei is a major controller of movements. 205 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:29,000 The signals coming straight from the cortex are interesting whereby it provides faster responses and bypasses those connections, 206 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:35,000 those regions and relays and so forth. 207 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:47,000 If you think about autism and motor control, movement, motivation and so forth, many concerns arise. 208 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:58,000 Think about criteria B1, stereotyped, repetitive motor movements, use of objects and speech. 209 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:04,000 Soon we will cover autism and speech and language. 210 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:13,000 Also think about B4, hyper or hypoactivity, of sensory. 211 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:22,000 Hopefully you can start seeing why this is covered and connect the autistic phenotype to these areas. 212 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:30,000 With autism research, it is well understood that the cod debt nucleus is enlarged. 213 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:38,000 What is happening here? Is it more dendrites? More connections going in? Is it a loss of thermodynamics? 214 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:45,000 Is it a loss of energy? And with a loss of energy, things get larger. 215 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Remember the conversations about obesity and losing energy to the environment. 216 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:57,000 This isn't that difficult to understand. The cod debt is larger. 217 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:05,000 So the inputs and outputs coming in and out are going to be compromised. 218 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:20,000 In addition, cognitive control and the B3 restricted fixated interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus. 219 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:31,000 And the insistence on sameness, the B2, so we've covered all four of the criteria B symptoms. 220 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,000 This so-called lack of cognitive flexibility. 221 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:46,000 Think about penmanship and handwriting, those precise motor movements and how this is implicated in autism. 222 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:53,000 Think about some of the treatment options with autism, such as occupational therapy. 223 00:30:53,000 --> 00:31:03,000 What do you think it is, these therapy types are trying to change based off of the neuroplasticity? 224 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:14,000 This is all about changing the living organism to fit into something that will be satisfying and acceptable to the social norms. 225 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:22,000 And if you think about ABA therapy, controversial or not, occupational therapy and ABA therapy, 226 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:35,000 it's trying to train the nervous system to change into a manner that other people have constructed based off of how autistics should be. 227 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:45,000 Now, I'm not saying that this isn't needed, I'm just providing the data behind what is happening here. 228 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:55,000 Think about how so much repetition or in play with autism and the connectivity of these regions. 229 00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:10,000 In neuroscience, it's morphology, it's when signals grow in size based off of the connections and frequency and intensity. 230 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000 These connections are shown to even double in size. 231 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:21,000 Now, this could explain the enlarged cadet nucleus as well. 232 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:26,000 This makes us who we are, autism or not. 233 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:32,000 This is how the living organism's nervous system is operating. 234 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:36,000 Our nervous system and changes. 235 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:44,000 The more it prefers specific connections, the more the living organism becomes that. 236 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:51,000 If you are listening to the podcast or listening to the episode, please feel free to leave a review or rating. 237 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:59,000 In podcasting, reviews, ratings and downloads are huge and I very much appreciate your feedback. 238 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:09,000 You can contact me on X at RPS 47586 and we can have conversations about autism. 239 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:20,000 You can check out the YouTube channel and you can check out the Hop link for links to all other show platforms and contact information. 240 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:29,000 You can email me info.fromthespectrum.com 241 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:39,000 Thank you for listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.