WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.879 Today's episode is all about visual thinking 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:09.919 and learning. We will expand on an underrated, 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:14.279 nearly unrecognized power of the autistic phenotype, 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:20.079 visual thinking. Not just seeing a picture, but 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:26.120 the vivid details, the movies, acuity, experiences, 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:31.670 etc. This fascinating phenomenon does for learning. 00:00:33.049 --> 00:00:36.869 With that, we will discuss associative learning 00:00:36.869 --> 00:00:43.250 and procedural learning and a theory called weak 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:48.490 central coherence by Happ and Frith. It's about 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:53.450 20 -25 years old now. Very fascinating and relevant. 00:00:54.509 --> 00:00:58.609 We will explore and expand on what Leo Kanner 00:00:58.609 --> 00:01:03.829 and Hans Asperger highlighted. More recently, 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:07.010 Temple Grandin provides wonderful experiences 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:11.510 and scientific exploration of visual thinking. 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:17.049 The autistic brain sees details. Then it spans 00:01:17.049 --> 00:01:20.790 out to see the bigger picture. Remember the example, 00:01:20.950 --> 00:01:23.930 the anecdotal example in the first episode of 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:27.450 visual thinking about the trees, seeing the trees. 00:01:27.790 --> 00:01:31.120 But I could only see the tree bark, the different 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:37.159 types of bark. It builds models. The autistic 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:41.159 brain builds models and it's detailed and precise 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:46.799 models of the world. In other words, the autistic 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:50.599 brain and the autistic phenotype uses a similar 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:57.859 approach to machine learning and AI. Remember 00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:01.780 Hans Asperger's first paper in 1944. Much of 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:04.519 the lengthy paper, this was a lengthy paper, 00:02:04.859 --> 00:02:09.379 was on autistic intelligence. Remember Asperger's 00:02:09.379 --> 00:02:13.860 little professors. He nicknamed those kids little 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:17.960 professors. Remember the 11 case studies from 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:23.860 Leo Kanner in 1943. Similar learning style and 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:28.960 imagination. Remember the translation of autism 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:35.520 comes from autos, which means self. Remember 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:38.659 the early origins and connections to schizophrenia, 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:43.099 the visual hallucinations. Intense dreamlike 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:49.680 states is exactly why autism was used by Eugen 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:53.280 Blueler. And for the record, it took me five 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.099 takes to say that last name. And I don't even 00:02:56.099 --> 00:02:59.979 know if I got it right. Remember Piaget highlighted 00:02:59.979 --> 00:03:05.879 this a little in the 1920s with selective kids 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:10.039 appearing to have intense inter -worlds. Most 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:12.960 importantly, remember these crucial mentions 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.860 shared from the start of the podcast. The origin 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:22.199 of the podcast are things like this. The biology 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:25.439 that gives us autism. allows us to be comfortable 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:29.539 within ourselves. And that accelerates learning. 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:34.960 And remember B3, restricted, fixated interests 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:39.360 that are abnormal in intensity or focus. How 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.319 is that a thing? Remember, social norms are in 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.039 contrast to the autistic phenotype, especially 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:51.879 in education. The outside world is a conundrum. 00:03:52.090 --> 00:03:56.969 an odd paradox, and humans fit everyone into 00:03:56.969 --> 00:04:01.490 a box so they can evaluate and predict. And this 00:04:01.490 --> 00:04:05.750 is an answer key. The entry point, the path, 00:04:06.069 --> 00:04:08.990 this gate that must be entered, et cetera, into 00:04:08.990 --> 00:04:14.110 learning is not an easy entrance. For the autistic 00:04:14.110 --> 00:04:19.709 phenotype, that is not so much the case. Humans... 00:04:19.709 --> 00:04:23.569 can complicate themselves so easily. We can spend 00:04:23.569 --> 00:04:27.350 an infinite amount of time and create these distractions, 00:04:28.149 --> 00:04:32.790 these reasons that prevents themselves from exploring 00:04:32.790 --> 00:04:38.750 outside the box. Humans construct a box. Inside 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:42.089 this box is everything they know, everything 00:04:42.089 --> 00:04:46.480 we know, and humans. want others to fit inside 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.839 of a facade construction to evaluate and for 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:54.740 prediction. If you can fit someone in that box 00:04:54.740 --> 00:04:58.939 or even manipulate them into your perception 00:04:58.939 --> 00:05:04.439 to make the others fit inside that box, it's 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:10.199 acceptance. If not, it's rejection. In other 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:12.959 words, If you can fit something inside of this 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:16.240 quick answer key, this quick box, you accept 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.639 it. It's easier for you. If it's not inside the 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:22.519 box, if it's different, it's outside the box. 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:27.839 You reject it. Humans love this because it makes 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:31.680 it easier on the observer. And you don't like 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:36.040 that. When others are outside that box, you've 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:39.899 created. It's complicated and hard to make sense 00:05:39.899 --> 00:05:44.550 of. when this is occurring. You don't like that. 00:05:45.050 --> 00:05:49.430 You hate those underlying feelings that are offending 00:05:49.430 --> 00:05:55.709 your beliefs, offending your abilities to understand. 00:05:56.490 --> 00:06:01.709 You might even resist that. Let's get into this. 00:06:01.889 --> 00:06:06.870 How autistics build catalogs in different categories. 00:06:08.050 --> 00:06:11.529 A remarkable similarity between autistic brains 00:06:11.529 --> 00:06:14.889 and artificial intelligence and that machine 00:06:14.889 --> 00:06:18.990 learning. It's forming concepts by collecting 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:23.910 and organizing specific concrete examples. And 00:06:23.910 --> 00:06:28.310 this is often visual image, sensory experiences. 00:06:29.129 --> 00:06:32.189 And this is collected and they form a mental 00:06:32.189 --> 00:06:36.670 database or like a library. So for instance, 00:06:37.009 --> 00:06:40.949 the catalogs. Unlike neurotypical individuals 00:06:40.949 --> 00:06:46.230 who might rely on the abstraction or generalization 00:06:46.230 --> 00:06:50.129 ideas, autistic people, especially those visual 00:06:50.129 --> 00:06:53.730 thinkers and the ones that see the movies, construct 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:57.850 categories by compiling these detailed instances, 00:06:58.410 --> 00:07:03.769 these examples. Temple Grandin in Thinking in 00:07:03.769 --> 00:07:07.529 Pictures and the Autistic Brain Books describes 00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:12.639 this in quite detail. She explains that her mind 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:16.360 works like a search engine for photographs, and 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:19.600 she sorts these specific images into categories 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:23.699 to understand the world. An example she gives 00:07:23.699 --> 00:07:29.060 is a butterfly. Grandin doesn't think of a generic 00:07:29.060 --> 00:07:32.939 butterfly. She often talks about churches and 00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:36.579 the steeples. Maybe she sees the type of block 00:07:36.579 --> 00:07:41.639 or brick. she sees real -life examples, things 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:45.339 that she's encountered and seen, and she's building 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:53.019 this up in this mental model. For instance, with 00:07:53.019 --> 00:07:58.160 the butterfly, she will see specific butterflies, 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:03.399 one from her childhood backyard, or a metal decorative 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:08.519 butterfly, a painted butterfly, and so on. Each 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:13.439 image is in a file that's kind of labeled the 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:15.860 mental catalog. This is like the filing system 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:19.240 I explained in the previous episode. And this 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:22.699 is our collection of, okay, that's what a butterfly 00:08:22.699 --> 00:08:27.980 is. When Grandin calls this associative learning, 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:31.319 and this is a hallmark of how many autistic individuals 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:35.879 build these catalogs. It's a bottom -up approach, 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:40.470 starting with specific details, and then gradually 00:08:40.470 --> 00:08:44.870 constructing broader concepts or ideas or images. 00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:49.210 And this is the weak central coherence theory 00:08:49.210 --> 00:08:55.549 by Happ and Frith from 2006. They have studies 00:08:55.549 --> 00:09:01.330 from 20 -25 years ago. It's essentially a cognitive 00:09:01.330 --> 00:09:05.909 processing style in autism characterized by preference 00:09:05.909 --> 00:09:09.409 for local or detailed oriented processing over 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:14.830 the larger global contextual integration. They 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:18.370 suggest that autistics excel at focusing on specific 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:22.549 elements of information, such as noticing minute 00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:26.389 details in a visual scene or memorizing precise 00:09:26.389 --> 00:09:30.970 facts. But they may find it hard and challenging 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:34.799 to synthesize these details into broader holistic 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:39.759 understandings of the world. This weak central 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:44.179 coherence is very powerful in perception and 00:09:44.179 --> 00:09:49.399 learning and this categorization. There is something 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:54.179 called embedded figures test. And autistic show 00:09:54.179 --> 00:09:58.279 quickly they identify a hidden shape within a 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:01.960 complex image because of the focus on the individual 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:06.370 components rather than the distracting hole. 00:10:06.850 --> 00:10:11.250 Instead of viewing the hole, scanning the whole 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:16.129 picture. This is a strength of the visual processing 00:10:16.129 --> 00:10:20.429 which allows acceleration in activities requiring 00:10:20.429 --> 00:10:24.490 precision, such as spotting differences in images 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:28.169 or analyzing intricate patterns in art or design. 00:10:28.970 --> 00:10:33.639 This is very AI -ish. And I can't underestimate 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:37.440 this enough and I can't convey this to you enough. 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:40.379 The delays in the sensory processing because 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:44.799 of this and then the implications to socialness. 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:50.200 Do you understand this? This visual thinking 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:54.679 style enhances our ability to notice subtle details, 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:57.759 however, can make tasks requiring contextual 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:02.379 understanding like Interpreting social situations. 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:06.179 Understanding of each other and what social cues 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:11.899 are. Very challenging. Remember previous data 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:16.279 that we've discussed about local processing and 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.279 the sensory processing being kind of heightened. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.960 This is what's happening here as well. This is 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.059 just another way of explaining it. Understanding 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:33.539 it. This local processing kind of biases an ability 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:37.460 to focus on discrete features of objects or concepts 00:11:37.460 --> 00:11:42.620 and that accelerates the learning. That spinning 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:47.480 that heightened awareness on this specific detail 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:51.259 strengthens the memory here. And you should be 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:53.740 thinking about the pattern recognition as well 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:57.879 and just how autistics can see patterns very 00:11:57.879 --> 00:12:02.600 well. I will give you an anecdote about how I 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.740 associate things, especially with people. I've 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:08.759 done this for as long as I can remember, and 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:10.940 whenever I was younger with different peer groups, 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.820 they would disagree with me, but they missed 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:17.860 what I was saying. I would compare people, new 00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:21.779 people even, with certain phenotypes about them 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:26.830 to somebody else, especially famous people. and 00:12:26.830 --> 00:12:29.649 I would pick out these fine details about this 00:12:29.649 --> 00:12:33.090 person. Maybe it was some sort of phenotype, 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:37.470 but it was very covert detail that I could see 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:40.590 from this other person and then pull it up in 00:12:40.590 --> 00:12:44.389 this other kind of model or this category that 00:12:44.389 --> 00:12:47.289 I knew about this other famous person. And this 00:12:47.289 --> 00:12:51.389 was very... fine detail. Maybe it was a jawline 00:12:51.389 --> 00:12:54.590 or the way that their their chin looked or was 00:12:54.590 --> 00:12:57.929 shaped. The distance of their eyes. It's this 00:12:57.929 --> 00:13:01.809 sort of kind of fine detail phenotype that I 00:13:01.809 --> 00:13:04.629 could see pick out from the other person and 00:13:04.629 --> 00:13:08.429 then compare it to this famous person or from 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:10.649 somebody else. Maybe they're not even famous. 00:13:11.350 --> 00:13:15.100 And I would do this with maybe some sort of Nuanced 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:17.059 behaviors that they have, maybe it was their 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:20.279 pace of walk or their step, or the way that their 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:23.379 shoulders would slouch, or the angle of their 00:13:23.379 --> 00:13:25.820 thumbs. Have you ever noticed that people's, 00:13:26.059 --> 00:13:27.940 the angle of their thumbs as they're walking 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:31.899 forward, or if they're just standing still, angles 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:34.740 of the thumbs are different. Most modern humans, 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:37.320 they're turned in almost like at a 45 degree 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:41.019 angle. The thumbs should be pointed directly 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:45.070 in line with your forward ambulation the path 00:13:45.070 --> 00:13:48.389 that you're traveling on but now like modern 00:13:48.389 --> 00:13:53.309 humans with this slouching and c -shaped shoulders 00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:57.470 the thumbs are pointing in and they almost crisscross 00:13:57.470 --> 00:14:00.129 if you would draw an imaginary line out from 00:14:00.129 --> 00:14:03.610 the thumbs or other examples would be like a 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:06.590 hairline or the size of their ears or something 00:14:06.590 --> 00:14:10.210 like this very fine detail and very quirky, hard 00:14:10.210 --> 00:14:13.370 to detect, very covert. And others, whenever 00:14:13.370 --> 00:14:15.750 I would mention this out loud, they wouldn't 00:14:15.750 --> 00:14:18.309 catch it because they're not looking like that. 00:14:18.549 --> 00:14:21.529 They're just looking at the general person, the 00:14:21.529 --> 00:14:24.990 overall person. I'm looking at stuff that's very 00:14:24.990 --> 00:14:28.950 precise, very pinpoint. And I would usually just 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:31.590 say it out loud. That person looks like this 00:14:31.590 --> 00:14:35.690 person, or they have similar XYZ, whatever the 00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:38.620 phenotype. that I was comparing and building 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:42.059 up this model. This is exactly a good example 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:45.240 of building models and different catalogs for 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.659 different categories. And others would disagree 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:50.960 with it. They would even make comments and laugh. 00:14:51.100 --> 00:14:54.580 It's like no way. But they wouldn't see it. This 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:58.220 same mechanism is exactly like the pattern recognition 00:14:58.220 --> 00:15:02.460 even. Seeing the little details first and then 00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:07.019 zooming out, generalizing. This is exactly what 00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:10.940 AI is doing when Temple Granting gives the melanoma 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:14.840 detection example with the autistic brain, machine 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:20.039 learning, and AI. In addition, memorizing and 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:25.340 organizing facts and information. This is very 00:15:25.340 --> 00:15:29.320 fascinating stuff here. This is very powerful. 00:15:30.259 --> 00:15:35.330 This is why words like the superpower, is in 00:15:35.330 --> 00:15:40.370 the title for things like this. Not to be confused 00:15:40.370 --> 00:15:45.669 with the push -pull motivational tactics of society 00:15:45.669 --> 00:15:48.889 saying the autistic phenotype is superpowers. 00:15:49.870 --> 00:15:54.429 This is one of those examples. So with learning 00:15:54.429 --> 00:15:59.230 this weak central coherence shaping the autistic 00:15:59.230 --> 00:16:04.320 individuals form and applying associations particularly 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:07.580 in this associative learning process. And we'll 00:16:07.580 --> 00:16:10.879 dive into that more deeply later. This is similar 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:16.600 to classical and operant conditioning from old 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:20.299 learning theorists and psychologists like Pavlov 00:16:20.299 --> 00:16:26.480 and Skinner. This explains why there's a strong 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:31.700 association. This means that type of idea with 00:16:31.700 --> 00:16:36.110 autism. And you know, with the autistic phenotype, 00:16:36.470 --> 00:16:39.830 there's very rigid thinking. This is very black 00:16:39.830 --> 00:16:44.870 and white. There's no gray area. Because that 00:16:44.870 --> 00:16:48.990 strong connection, that strong associative learning 00:16:48.990 --> 00:16:55.250 to stimuli, this means that isn't flexible. Remember, 00:16:55.250 --> 00:16:57.789 we've talked about the medial prefrontal cortex 00:16:57.789 --> 00:17:01.470 in large detail and how it's kind of orchestrating 00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:06.240 adaptive responses. It provides us skill sets 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:10.460 to use in the unpredictable world. We've covered 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:14.940 this even the beginning of this episode. This 00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:18.720 is what complicates things. This is the kind 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:23.140 of the downfall of this strong association, this 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:27.740 accelerated learning. Remember the conversations 00:17:27.740 --> 00:17:32.339 about the salience network and the default mode 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:36.549 network. those two so -called networks are heavily 00:17:36.549 --> 00:17:41.170 involved here and strengthens the autistic phenotype. 00:17:42.609 --> 00:17:44.690 Other examples that you might be familiar with 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:49.009 is like how autistics will categorize animals 00:17:49.009 --> 00:17:53.950 maybe into fur types or habitats or big or small 00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:58.490 number of legs and so forth colors maybe how 00:17:58.490 --> 00:18:01.920 they purr or bark, or the sounds that they make, 00:18:02.019 --> 00:18:05.000 the foods that they eat, predator or prey type 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:08.160 of things here. Then there's just massive amounts 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:12.460 of catalogs inserting those pictures into each 00:18:12.460 --> 00:18:16.880 of these types of little categories about that 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:22.619 specific animal. Similar to the tree bark, instead 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:26.119 of seeing a large tree, just a generic tree. 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:30.359 Remember the tree bark example from the previous 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:34.440 episode. I didn't even get to the canopy By the 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:38.859 time I realized that others weren't doing this 00:18:38.859 --> 00:18:41.440 And something fascinating about Temple Grandin 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.779 is breaking the type of visual thinkers into 00:18:44.779 --> 00:18:49.039 different kind of subtypes She she so -called 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:53.980 calls these object Visualizers who think in concrete 00:18:53.980 --> 00:18:59.680 detailed imaging or spatial visualizers thinks 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:02.900 in patterns or she uses the word abstractions 00:19:02.900 --> 00:19:06.779 here that often excel in fields like math or 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:10.119 music. Now the word abstraction here is confusing 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:14.720 to me. However, I'll just keep moving on. Object 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:19.440 visualizers like her relies on cataloging the 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:24.339 specific images to form these categories. The 00:19:24.339 --> 00:19:27.500 visual thinking It's supported by unique neural 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:30.740 wiring. She really highlights this in the autistic 00:19:30.740 --> 00:19:35.000 brain. It's very necessary reading if you want 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.740 to understand the autistic brain. And in her 00:19:38.740 --> 00:19:43.440 brain, they found a large white fiber track connecting 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:46.940 her visual cortex to her frontal cortex. Remember 00:19:46.940 --> 00:19:50.200 these different types of fasciculus. These are 00:19:50.200 --> 00:19:53.289 called fasciculus. There's Many. We have many 00:19:53.289 --> 00:19:55.329 different types just depending on what they're 00:19:55.329 --> 00:19:57.690 trying to accomplish and the connections being 00:19:57.690 --> 00:20:01.109 made. The one that I can mention right now in 00:20:01.109 --> 00:20:04.529 real time is the arcuate fasciculus that connects 00:20:04.529 --> 00:20:07.690 varnices and brocas for the language and speech 00:20:07.690 --> 00:20:12.869 connection. What to take away here is this. Some 00:20:12.869 --> 00:20:16.950 of these connections are hyper connected like 00:20:16.950 --> 00:20:20.730 driving on an interstate and some of these connections 00:20:20.730 --> 00:20:24.970 are hypo. connected. It's like driving on a gravel 00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:31.250 road. I don't think anybody can explain it any 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:34.730 simpler and easier to understand form than that. 00:20:36.069 --> 00:20:39.109 Another worthy highlight from scientific literature 00:20:39.109 --> 00:20:44.750 is Matrone et al. in 2006 who kind of helped 00:20:44.750 --> 00:20:47.430 support this showing that autistic individuals 00:20:47.430 --> 00:20:51.960 show enhanced perceptual functioning. particularly 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:56.839 in visual and auditory domains. Remember the 00:20:56.839 --> 00:20:59.460 first and second episodes of the Sensory Processing 00:20:59.460 --> 00:21:03.900 episode. This is heightened sensitivity to sensory 00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:09.079 details that allows a building of the rich detailed 00:21:09.079 --> 00:21:14.359 catalogs which are then formed and used to solve 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:18.140 problems and make sense of the world. An example 00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:22.000 here is an autistic artist might catalog specific 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.059 shapes or colors to create intricate designs. 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:30.579 Remember Temple Grandlin sharing her ability 00:21:30.579 --> 00:21:34.839 to design this cattle system, these livestock 00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:39.539 systems in her head, and she can work out the 00:21:39.539 --> 00:21:43.400 flaws in it in her head in real time. She sees 00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:47.480 this. This machine learning, these catalogs that 00:21:47.480 --> 00:21:50.420 we're building up, we're talking about explaining 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:56.519 involves a process called iterative refinement 00:21:56.519 --> 00:21:59.779 this is error correction remember the interior 00:21:59.779 --> 00:22:02.960 cingulate cortex part of the medial prefrontal 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:07.480 cortex error detection and conflict monitoring 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:11.180 this is correcting things in real time this is 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:14.500 updating the catalog this is machine learning 00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:21.089 and ai iterative, refinement. This is so very 00:22:21.089 --> 00:22:25.549 fascinating here. So here is the perceptual learning 00:22:25.549 --> 00:22:29.009 in the context of the autistic phenotype. A definition 00:22:29.009 --> 00:22:32.549 here is experience -driven improvement in the 00:22:32.549 --> 00:22:36.309 brain's ability to process and interpret sensory 00:22:36.309 --> 00:22:40.630 information that results in enhanced accuracy, 00:22:41.329 --> 00:22:44.809 efficiency, and sensitivity to specific stimuli. 00:22:45.150 --> 00:22:49.309 without requiring conscious effort or explicit 00:22:49.309 --> 00:22:54.349 instruction. This is a very unique skill here 00:22:54.349 --> 00:22:57.809 for the autistic phenotype. Remember what I explained 00:22:57.809 --> 00:23:01.410 earlier about that conflict and people not liking 00:23:01.410 --> 00:23:06.690 when things are outside of that box. This is 00:23:06.690 --> 00:23:09.210 perfectly acceptable for the autistic phenotype. 00:23:09.410 --> 00:23:13.220 We're just going to update. But keep in mind 00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:16.839 that black and white thinking here don't underestimate 00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:22.160 this. This process of perceptual learning is 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.279 driven by neuroplasticity. And just pause for 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:28.619 a moment and think about the social situations 00:23:28.619 --> 00:23:33.579 from way back into the critical period of infants 00:23:33.579 --> 00:23:38.380 and child and babies. One, two, three years old 00:23:38.380 --> 00:23:42.549 and so forth. Remember that paper on salience 00:23:42.549 --> 00:23:46.970 network from UCLA. This is all connecting here. 00:23:47.089 --> 00:23:53.589 This is all in -depth exploration and understanding 00:23:53.589 --> 00:23:58.630 of the autistic phenotype here. With that perceptual 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:01.309 learning, a key feature here, especially with 00:24:01.309 --> 00:24:04.450 the autistic phenotype and that detailed orientation 00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:09.250 of this cognitive style, describes an enhanced 00:24:09.250 --> 00:24:14.079 local processing. And this is accelerating and 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:18.660 making us excel in certain tasks requiring precision 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:23.579 that discriminates sensory detail. Examples here 00:24:23.579 --> 00:24:27.319 for the autistic phenotype may be subtle differences 00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:32.380 in the visual patterns or auditory pitches, tactile 00:24:32.380 --> 00:24:36.599 textures, and so forth. Very fascinating how 00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:39.240 well autistics can do with these kind of slight 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:45.180 nuances. And also, keep in mind that sensory 00:24:45.180 --> 00:24:49.400 overstimulation. This is all a factor here. This 00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:53.440 is all in play. The example I've previously given 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:57.519 about auditory sounds is blending together and 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:01.119 eventually they just remind me of the late 60s 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:04.279 Beatles tracks. Whenever they're experimenting 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:07.299 with different instruments and things around 00:25:07.299 --> 00:25:10.880 the studio that they're using to create sound. 00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:14.000 They're just blending all of these sounds together. 00:25:14.299 --> 00:25:17.500 It's typically at the end of the tracks. Maybe 00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:21.019 check out Sgt. Pepper's or White Album. Just 00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:23.759 listen to the complete track towards the end. 00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:26.740 Sounds just start to blend in real time for me 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:30.700 in social settings. They don't have to be loud 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:35.799 sounds. Just multiple sounds. This iterative 00:25:35.799 --> 00:25:40.289 refinement and the perceptual learning the strong 00:25:40.289 --> 00:25:44.470 connections similar to the associative learning 00:25:44.470 --> 00:25:48.750 and that weak central coherence the detailed 00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:53.450 precision of understanding things. It's a powerful 00:25:53.450 --> 00:25:57.609 mechanism for refining this sensory processing 00:25:57.609 --> 00:26:02.829 that kind of leads to unique implications for 00:26:02.829 --> 00:26:06.970 the autistic individuals. The accelerated learning 00:26:06.970 --> 00:26:12.289 ability and that sensory sensitivity, disability, 00:26:13.490 --> 00:26:16.930 and those restricted, fixated interests that 00:26:16.930 --> 00:26:22.549 are abnormal in intensity or focus. And now whenever 00:26:22.549 --> 00:26:26.470 I say that the autistic phenotype has many contrasts 00:26:26.470 --> 00:26:30.089 to the social norms, including education, the 00:26:30.089 --> 00:26:33.769 school day, and within the classroom, you can 00:26:33.769 --> 00:26:36.670 hopefully see why. Start piecing this together 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:42.240 about Well, the autistic phenotype just prefers 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:47.700 isolation and restricted interest. Those details 00:26:47.700 --> 00:26:51.779 and knowledge and the wisdom builds up and is 00:26:51.779 --> 00:26:56.339 very interesting to us, especially when you transpose 00:26:56.339 --> 00:27:00.500 these into real live movies in your head. So 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:04.279 to end, let's do some similarities between AI, 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:08.769 machine learning, and the autistic brain. feature 00:27:08.769 --> 00:27:12.490 extraction and cataloging for the autistic brain. 00:27:13.750 --> 00:27:16.769 Grandin's visual thinking involves breaking down 00:27:16.769 --> 00:27:19.869 complex information into the specific detailed 00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:25.609 images, which she organizes into the mental catalogs. 00:27:26.089 --> 00:27:29.589 Her livestock shoot and working out those kinks 00:27:29.589 --> 00:27:34.049 and flaws, seeing the bottlenecks, interestingly. 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:38.819 People like Oliver Sacks who just imagined being 00:27:38.819 --> 00:27:43.779 a bat wondered and put himself into I'm a bat 00:27:43.779 --> 00:27:46.759 right now for an hour or so he would just spend 00:27:46.759 --> 00:27:50.740 an hour two hours of his day pretending and imagining 00:27:50.740 --> 00:27:54.119 himself being a bat and Temple Grandin did this 00:27:54.119 --> 00:27:58.299 as well with Being a cow and kind of navigating 00:27:58.299 --> 00:28:02.619 the livestock chute What areas would terrify 00:28:02.619 --> 00:28:06.710 me what? is the flaws here, the barriers here. 00:28:07.250 --> 00:28:11.450 What do they see? If you think about autism and 00:28:11.450 --> 00:28:15.970 the ability to be more docile. I hate to even 00:28:15.970 --> 00:28:18.490 use the word, but it's pretty accurate here. 00:28:18.769 --> 00:28:22.589 With the squeeze machine and the smaller classrooms 00:28:22.589 --> 00:28:26.609 and so forth. Being in our preferred environment. 00:28:27.509 --> 00:28:30.730 This is what this is kind of doing here. Having 00:28:30.730 --> 00:28:36.009 an ability to Be something else. Imagine things 00:28:36.009 --> 00:28:39.329 in great detail from different perspectives. 00:28:40.910 --> 00:28:45.230 In AI and machine learning, they have the convolutional 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:48.690 neural networks. This is pretty similar to the 00:28:48.690 --> 00:28:53.930 autistic brain. Processes images similarly and 00:28:53.930 --> 00:28:57.690 extracts low -level features in different layers, 00:28:57.849 --> 00:29:00.609 just layers upon layers of the categories and 00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:05.009 catalogs. Both the autistic catalog and the AI 00:29:05.009 --> 00:29:08.910 feature extraction rely on bottom -up approaches. 00:29:09.470 --> 00:29:13.450 This is all very similar. Temple Grandin has 00:29:13.450 --> 00:29:20.869 a great example of AI for detecting melanoma. 00:29:21.809 --> 00:29:24.250 You just feed the AI machine, that machine learning, 00:29:24.849 --> 00:29:27.630 thousands upon thousands upon thousands of pictures 00:29:27.630 --> 00:29:32.460 of melanoma, and then you insert a subject. this 00:29:32.460 --> 00:29:35.339 new picture, and then it's just massively comparing 00:29:35.339 --> 00:29:38.599 it. It's just quickly comparing all of those 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:41.859 images. And then this is sort of like the box 00:29:41.859 --> 00:29:47.240 example. If it fits, if the subject's picture 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:52.680 fits the example of melanoma, accept. Detect 00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:59.000 it. If not, reject. So pattern recognition is 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:02.559 huge here. and the associative learning. In autistic 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:06.900 brains, associative learning allows us to form 00:30:06.900 --> 00:30:11.380 catalogs and connect specific visual memories. 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.259 Remember the default mode network. Nikolai involved 00:30:15.259 --> 00:30:20.099 here is the hippocampus. And we have strong memory, 00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:25.319 episodic memory. It's very fascinating here, 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:29.109 the episodic memory. For instance, the butterfly 00:30:29.109 --> 00:30:32.369 example. If you mention butterfly, Temple Grandin 00:30:32.369 --> 00:30:34.930 will remember a specific butterfly maybe in her 00:30:34.930 --> 00:30:37.710 childhood and where she was when she saw that 00:30:37.710 --> 00:30:41.950 specific butterfly. Specialized learning and 00:30:41.950 --> 00:30:44.549 connectivity. This is a big thing with the autistic 00:30:44.549 --> 00:30:48.650 phenotype. This specialized learning. These hyper 00:30:48.650 --> 00:30:54.230 -connectivities of visual areas reaching out 00:30:54.230 --> 00:30:58.509 to specific detailed areas of other brain regions 00:30:58.509 --> 00:31:03.089 are kind of strengthening these connections and 00:31:03.089 --> 00:31:07.150 those become preferred by the brain. The brain 00:31:07.150 --> 00:31:09.309 doesn't want to work. It just wants to respond 00:31:09.309 --> 00:31:13.029 based off of what it knows. We talk about neuroplasticity 00:31:13.029 --> 00:31:16.450 in quite detail throughout many different episodes. 00:31:17.450 --> 00:31:20.809 We are who we are because of these connections. 00:31:21.329 --> 00:31:24.769 With AI and machine learning, these neural networks 00:31:25.019 --> 00:31:28.740 and AI have dense local connections as well within 00:31:28.740 --> 00:31:34.259 layers that allows them to perform detailed analysis. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:38.039 Maybe it's an object recognition or it's analyzing 00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:42.920 something, some sort of data. The autistic brain's 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:45.640 connectivity pattern supports cataloging and 00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:49.140 specialized learning as well. Both of these systems 00:31:49.140 --> 00:31:51.740 kind of excel in domains where precision and 00:31:51.740 --> 00:31:57.309 pattern recognition are key. Accelerated learning, 00:31:57.390 --> 00:32:01.269 something that's very, very important. I cannot 00:32:01.269 --> 00:32:04.769 overstate Asperger's little professors and even 00:32:04.769 --> 00:32:08.450 the children in the canner paper. They had accelerated 00:32:08.450 --> 00:32:12.190 knowledge and information on different things, 00:32:12.589 --> 00:32:16.509 random things in life. So what's so bad about 00:32:16.509 --> 00:32:21.009 that? In AI and machine learning, this accelerated 00:32:21.009 --> 00:32:26.640 learning uses that iterative approach. It's all 00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:29.900 doing the same thing. Transfers learning where 00:32:29.900 --> 00:32:32.900 AI applies knowledge across tasks and mirrors 00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:36.420 how autistic individuals build catalogs for different 00:32:36.420 --> 00:32:40.099 categories. Both the autistic brain and this 00:32:40.099 --> 00:32:44.240 machine learning and AI accelerated learning 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:49.119 builds by accessing detailed catalogs to precision 00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:52.599 these visual images and the movies playing out 00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:58.089 or accessible to us in real time. If I'm explaining 00:32:58.089 --> 00:33:02.049 something, if I'm explaining the inner mitochondrial 00:33:02.049 --> 00:33:06.009 membrane and oxidative phosphorylation, I see 00:33:06.009 --> 00:33:10.329 that in my head. I see the five cytochromes and 00:33:10.329 --> 00:33:13.150 the FO head and I can just reverse engineer that. 00:33:13.329 --> 00:33:17.089 I can just see it as I explain it. However, sometimes 00:33:17.089 --> 00:33:21.150 that delays my processing because I have to keep 00:33:21.150 --> 00:33:25.490 up with both. And that's an added factor. But 00:33:25.490 --> 00:33:28.930 I'll take that. I will happily take that because 00:33:28.930 --> 00:33:31.950 of this visual imaging and seeing movies in my 00:33:31.950 --> 00:33:35.609 head is very powerful. I have something exciting. 00:33:36.049 --> 00:33:38.750 I want to introduce a product unlike any other 00:33:38.750 --> 00:33:43.470 product available. A highlight is the product 00:33:43.470 --> 00:33:47.170 from Daylight Computer Company created their 00:33:47.170 --> 00:33:51.230 product based on these factors. The Daylight 00:33:51.230 --> 00:33:56.819 Computer. is completely blue light free. It has 00:33:56.819 --> 00:34:01.259 no flicker. Short wavelength flicker is extremely 00:34:01.259 --> 00:34:05.000 harmful for our eyes and downstream biology. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:08.900 Light flicker is constantly turning our central 00:34:08.900 --> 00:34:13.880 nervous system on and off. Essentially, it is 00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.119 like going to a light switch and repeatedly turning 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:22.469 it on and off. The problem is Blue light and 00:34:22.469 --> 00:34:27.690 LED light does this and it is so rapid you cannot 00:34:27.690 --> 00:34:32.510 even perceive this in real time. The daylight 00:34:32.510 --> 00:34:37.230 computer is the lowest stimulation and foremost 00:34:37.230 --> 00:34:42.210 for sensory sensitive users. It is no question 00:34:42.210 --> 00:34:46.449 that the alternative product especially when 00:34:46.449 --> 00:34:51.219 used at night Do not address or consider this 00:34:51.219 --> 00:34:56.360 in their product. It is so toxic to human biology. 00:34:56.980 --> 00:35:01.400 Big tech corporations have patents on how their 00:35:01.400 --> 00:35:04.340 short wavelength implicate the human nervous 00:35:04.340 --> 00:35:10.139 system. 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They 00:38:37.050 --> 00:38:42.130 are US made and chroma ships globally and accepts 00:38:42.130 --> 00:38:49.949 FSA and HSA payments. Use autism at checkout 00:38:49.949 --> 00:38:56.610 for a 10 % off discount. That's autism at checkout 00:38:56.610 --> 00:39:02.110 for a 10 % off discount. Don't ever underestimate 00:39:02.110 --> 00:39:04.289 the power of visual thinking and the autistic 00:39:04.289 --> 00:39:07.190 phenotype. This is very fascinating, very powerful. 00:39:07.769 --> 00:39:11.090 Don't interfere with this because you will harm 00:39:11.090 --> 00:39:14.650 the autistic phenotype. Embrace this. Allow them 00:39:14.650 --> 00:39:18.610 to embrace this. If you are listening to the 00:39:18.610 --> 00:39:21.329 podcast, listening to the episode, please feel 00:39:21.329 --> 00:39:24.630 free to leave a review or rating. In podcasting, 00:39:24.869 --> 00:39:27.289 reviews, ratings, and downloads are huge and 00:39:27.289 --> 00:39:29.730 I very much appreciate your feedback. You can 00:39:29.730 --> 00:39:35.889 contact me on X at RPS 47586. We can discuss 00:39:35.889 --> 00:39:38.510 anything and everything about autism. I very 00:39:38.510 --> 00:39:41.409 much appreciate your comments and your interactions 00:39:41.409 --> 00:39:44.909 on X. You can check out the YouTube page for 00:39:44.909 --> 00:39:48.329 all the videos, full -length videos, shorts, 00:39:48.449 --> 00:39:54.150 and clips. You can email me info .fromthespectrum 00:39:54.150 --> 00:39:59.210 .gmail .com. Thank you for listening. to From 00:39:59.210 --> 00:40:01.070 the Spectrum Podcast.