WEBVTT 00:00:02.029 --> 00:00:05.349 Today's episode is about autism and intuition. 00:00:06.849 --> 00:00:09.830 With the high rates of sensory information, sensory 00:00:09.830 --> 00:00:14.330 processing, that data is coming in fast and processed 00:00:14.330 --> 00:00:18.750 fast. Remember the outside world is chaotic. 00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:23.390 Autism is an interesting conundrum, a confusing 00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:28.109 paradox of socialness balancing on the self, 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:33.439 our intense internal world. meeting the complex 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:37.399 and ever -changing social world. Keep in mind 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:41.479 as we explore autism and intuition episode, keep 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:47.520 in mind autist or autistic means autos, which 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:53.200 means self. Before we begin, I want to take a 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.899 moment to mention Daylight Computer Company and 00:00:55.899 --> 00:01:00.060 the future of tech. The future of tech is already 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:04.680 here. and it's Daylight Computer Company. It 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:08.799 is too easy and too frequent that our society 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:12.200 and culture are seeing the vast harms of tech 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:18.060 on humans. This is not a good situation. Daylight 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:24.120 Computer Company's DC1 offers the solution. See 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:29.379 the link and use autism for a $50 discount. With 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:34.180 that, The most exciting news of late is Daylight 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:39.040 Kids. Daylight Kids offers kid -friendly devices. 00:01:40.379 --> 00:01:45.480 We cannot likely outrun or avoid the tech world. 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:51.079 But we can understand how to use tech and how 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:56.680 these devices should be built. Human life depends 00:01:56.680 --> 00:02:01.670 on it. Use autism for $50 discount at Daylight 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:06.930 Kids. So that's autism at Daylight Computer Company 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:11.990 and at Daylight Kids. The future of tech is already 00:02:11.990 --> 00:02:17.770 here. Also see chroma light devices, lights designed 00:02:17.770 --> 00:02:22.509 for humans. Humans were created from sunlight 00:02:22.509 --> 00:02:27.870 and modern life, our modern environments are 00:02:27.870 --> 00:02:32.870 neglecting what gives life on earth. Sunlight. 00:02:34.030 --> 00:02:38.969 All light have wavelengths. Isolated light wavelengths, 00:02:39.449 --> 00:02:42.849 especially shorter wavelengths like blue light, 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:47.990 LED, fluorescent light, and tech light are destruction 00:02:47.990 --> 00:02:54.430 to our biology. Dementias and Alzheimer's, obesity, 00:02:54.909 --> 00:02:59.210 heart disease, cancers, neurodevelopmental problems, 00:02:59.889 --> 00:03:04.030 autoimmune conditions, and so forth are all tied 00:03:04.030 --> 00:03:09.229 to this story. With Chromalites, their products 00:03:09.229 --> 00:03:14.830 are designed for human biology and their engineering 00:03:14.830 --> 00:03:19.610 are foremost with their devices. Use autism for 00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:25.539 10 % discount. So let's start autism. and intuition. 00:03:26.580 --> 00:03:30.659 Intuition is not some sort of mystical and not 00:03:30.659 --> 00:03:35.120 merely emotional. Intuition is a biological process, 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:39.379 and its rapid prediction under uncertainty arises 00:03:39.379 --> 00:03:44.900 from the integration from sensory input, interoceptive 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:50.580 signals, emotional salience and memory, and learned 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:54.330 values. We've discussed every one of those components, 00:03:54.770 --> 00:03:58.750 every dynamic just mentioned in previous episodes. 00:04:00.530 --> 00:04:04.150 Rather than originating from a single gut filling, 00:04:05.669 --> 00:04:09.250 intuition emerges from neural loops involving 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:13.530 sensory cortex and some regions such as the posterior 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:19.069 parietal cortex, the anterior insula, the orbital 00:04:19.069 --> 00:04:24.730 frontal, and the ventral medial prefrontal cortexes, 00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:29.410 anterior cingulate cortex or the ACC, and broader 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:34.509 prefrontal networks and the basal ganglia. We've 00:04:34.509 --> 00:04:37.029 discussed each of these regions in pretty good 00:04:37.029 --> 00:04:41.410 detail. Now I will admit the orbital frontal 00:04:41.410 --> 00:04:47.850 cortex OFC hasn't been discussed that much. We've 00:04:47.850 --> 00:04:50.009 discussed it a little bit in the whiteboard series. 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:55.079 but not too much. There's a lot of value here. 00:04:55.420 --> 00:05:01.079 Value in decision making. So, for the episode, 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.360 I reluctantly will compare and use neurotypical 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:10.660 brains. So, others versus the autistic brain. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.000 In the neurotypical brains, this loop tends to 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.540 compress uncertainty into affective impressions. 00:05:19.930 --> 00:05:24.509 and it produces fast, socially -tuned judgments. 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:31.269 In autism, altered sensory weighting, a persistent 00:05:31.269 --> 00:05:35.410 prediction error, an atypical interoception, 00:05:36.470 --> 00:05:40.189 in other words, a mismatch, a balance, a shift, 00:05:41.029 --> 00:05:44.689 weighted heavily on the inside versus the outside. 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:50.410 And excitation inhibition imbalance reorganizes 00:05:50.410 --> 00:05:55.709 this loop. Intuition becomes less effectively 00:05:55.709 --> 00:06:02.009 compressed and more analytically iterative, relying 00:06:02.009 --> 00:06:06.569 on explicit internal modeling and repeated prediction 00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:11.589 error refinement. Now, if you've paid attention 00:06:11.589 --> 00:06:15.339 to the recent whiteboard series episodes, we've 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:19.740 discussed diffusion versus refinement. This is 00:06:19.740 --> 00:06:22.300 going to be in play because we're already talking 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:26.879 about the sensory cortexes. These three main 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:31.279 sensory cortexes, cortices such as the visual 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:34.920 cortex, the auditory cortex, and the somatosensory 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:40.139 cortex are big major regions of interest here. 00:06:41.420 --> 00:06:45.579 The autistic intuition is not diminished. It's 00:06:45.579 --> 00:06:50.839 just weighted differently. It's reconstructed. 00:06:52.180 --> 00:06:55.660 Intuition begins in the sensory cortex. But sensory 00:06:55.660 --> 00:07:00.060 cortex is not just passive. The visual, auditory, 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.860 and somatosensory regions continuously compare 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:08.220 incoming input with predicted input. Remember, 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:12.319 the brain is a prediction machine. It does not 00:07:12.379 --> 00:07:18.060 like to work. It only wants to respond. Every 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:21.199 moment the brain is asking, does reality match 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:26.720 expectation? When it does not, this error happens. 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.899 Sensory cortex generates prediction errors that 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:33.819 propagate forward through association networks. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.439 Remember the recent episode about the corollary 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:40.699 discharge as well. This is all happening. This 00:07:40.699 --> 00:07:44.220 is all connected. All of these previous episodes 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:48.019 are connected. We're just building a grand story 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:52.360 about the autistic phenotype. And so -called 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:54.819 neurotypical brains, these prediction errors 00:07:54.819 --> 00:07:59.439 are rapidly filtered. Inhibitory interneurons, 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:02.980 remember the parv albium interneuron, the most 00:08:02.980 --> 00:08:08.300 abundant inhibition or GABA, same thing. cells 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:12.420 that we have, inhibitory interneurons suppress 00:08:12.420 --> 00:08:17.480 redundant detail and alpha oscillations gate 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:21.300 irrelevant input. We've talked a lot about the 00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:24.920 waves, alpha waves, sometimes called oscillations 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:29.319 or sometimes called frequencies. So inhibition 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:32.519 and these oscillations are working to surround 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:38.019 and inhibit uncertainty, unpredictability. and 00:08:38.019 --> 00:08:41.399 fit into the social world, the social norm, if 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:46.340 you will. Redundant features are averaged away. 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.639 The system compresses detail into just -like 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:55.580 representations so that only the most behaviorally 00:08:55.580 --> 00:08:59.679 relevant information survives long enough to 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:04.460 influence intuition. In the Autistic Phenotype, 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:09.750 This compression is reduced. Local inhibitory 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:13.990 tone is weak and excitation is often increased. 00:09:14.370 --> 00:09:16.570 Remember this is a seesaw. Remember this is a 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:21.429 push -pull tactic. Our default as humans is go. 00:09:21.950 --> 00:09:27.929 Our default is excitation. We use the inhibitory 00:09:27.929 --> 00:09:33.210 side inhibition side to kind of balance out so 00:09:33.210 --> 00:09:37.519 that excitation being increased, gamma synchrony 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:42.019 within circuitry is stronger and alpha gating 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:47.519 is diminished. Sensory cortex therefore preserves 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:53.139 far more raw information. Subtle timing shifts 00:09:53.139 --> 00:09:57.620 and micro -expressions, tonal fluctuations and 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:02.990 environmental problems remain available. to higher 00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:07.250 cortical regions. The spotlight of attention. 00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:14.389 This is what higher signal fidelity means. Higher 00:10:14.389 --> 00:10:18.429 signal fidelity refers to the perseveration of 00:10:18.429 --> 00:10:22.090 fine -grained sensory information across cortical 00:10:22.090 --> 00:10:27.190 layers. Remember the many columns. Instead of 00:10:27.190 --> 00:10:30.919 collapsing input into simplified representations, 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:34.519 docistic phenotypes, sensory systems maintain 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:39.100 high resolution detail. Remember visual thinking 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:42.879 and thinking in pictures and that intense internal 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:47.240 world. Seeing movies at high rates of speed. 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:51.899 These features from the sensory input would normally 00:10:51.899 --> 00:10:55.179 be discarded but instead they are processed. 00:10:55.460 --> 00:10:58.820 They are encoded and forwarded downstream. to 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:03.980 the cortical processes, sensory processing, sensations 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:09.460 to perceptions. This produces extraordinary perceptual 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:13.299 precision, but it also increases cognitive load 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:16.679 because the system must process more information 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:21.279 simultaneously. This bottom -up precision forms 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:25.580 the foundation of Autistic Intuition, the Autistic 00:11:25.580 --> 00:11:30.779 Phenotype. From the sensory cortex, information 00:11:30.779 --> 00:11:35.600 flows into the posterior parietal cortex, which 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:39.379 integrates across modalities and constructs salience 00:11:39.379 --> 00:11:44.580 maps. Posterior parietal regions determine what 00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:47.480 deserves attention and how sensory information 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:52.320 is organized spatially and contextually. Remember, 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:57.139 signal to noise. In the so -called neurotypical 00:11:57.139 --> 00:12:00.580 brains, The normal brain, salience is stronger, 00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:05.120 biased towards social cues such as faces and 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:09.220 gaze direction, emotional tone and group dynamics. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:13.539 Prior expectations about people heavily influence 00:12:13.539 --> 00:12:19.179 what is noticed. In the autistic phenotype, those 00:12:19.179 --> 00:12:24.700 priors are weakened. Incoming sensory likelihoods 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:29.889 carry more weight than social expectation. Parietal 00:12:29.889 --> 00:12:33.769 cortex becomes tuned toward anomalies and patterns 00:12:33.769 --> 00:12:38.330 and structural inconsistencies. Attention is 00:12:38.330 --> 00:12:42.049 pulled toward what does not fit versus what is 00:12:42.049 --> 00:12:45.870 socially relevant, what is important for the 00:12:45.870 --> 00:12:51.309 social context. This explains why autistic individuals 00:12:51.309 --> 00:12:56.169 often notice system errors and logical gaps and 00:12:56.169 --> 00:13:00.600 subtle inconsistencies long. before others do. 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:06.080 Our parietal cortex is weighting reality more 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:14.440 heavily than narrative. Truth versus social goals. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.139 The autistic phenotype's intuition therefore 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:23.860 begins not with social impression, but with anomaly 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:28.419 detection. Deep things that is difficult to see. 00:13:30.669 --> 00:13:34.950 Next comes the anterior insula, which integrates 00:13:34.950 --> 00:13:39.669 bodily signals like heart rate variability, breathing 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:44.429 rhythm, both rate and depth, gut sensations, 00:13:45.389 --> 00:13:49.710 autonomic arousal, into subjective feeling states. 00:13:50.690 --> 00:13:54.750 Remember the frontal insula, sometimes called 00:13:54.750 --> 00:14:00.220 FI, frontal insula and anterior insula or the 00:14:00.220 --> 00:14:04.120 same thing. And the insula is very unique, where 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:07.039 it receives brain states, information coming 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:09.340 in from the brain, what's happening in the brain, 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:14.419 and bodily states, bodily signals, and environmental 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:17.600 signals. Those three are the main sources of 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:22.940 data. So the insula is very privileged. And the 00:14:22.940 --> 00:14:26.820 neurotypical... Intuition uncertainty is rapidly 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:31.059 converted into visceral experience. A bad vibe 00:14:31.059 --> 00:14:34.960 is literally a change in interoceptive mapping. 00:14:37.259 --> 00:14:40.179 In the autistic phenotype interoception is frequently 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:45.799 atypical. Internal bodily signals may be muted 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:51.889 delayed or noisy and often overwhelming. This 00:14:51.889 --> 00:14:54.570 does not mean that these so -called bodily signals, 00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:58.169 these gut feelings, doesn't happen. They're just 00:14:58.169 --> 00:15:03.710 processed and have different meaning. Emotional 00:15:03.710 --> 00:15:07.769 arousal does not always map cleanly onto conscious 00:15:07.769 --> 00:15:12.629 awareness. Because the insula cannot reliably 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:17.570 compress uncertainty into bodily sensation, intuition 00:15:17.570 --> 00:15:21.580 processing shifts upward. into cortical networks. 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:26.919 Instead of intuition arriving as a feeling, it 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:32.000 arrives as a thought. This is one of the central 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.559 reorganizations of the autistic phenotype's intuition. 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.980 Remember, the insula is involved in the salience 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:43.740 network, and it also has the von Economo, sometimes 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:48.519 called spindle neurons, those rapid. cells that 00:15:48.519 --> 00:15:51.519 are very unique for social situations. We'll 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:56.940 talk more about them momentarily. The amygdala 00:15:56.940 --> 00:16:00.840 operates in parallel, tagging emotional salience, 00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:05.620 especially threat, distress, motivation, and 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:09.320 incongruencies, within a few hundred milliseconds. 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:13.960 In many autistic individuals, the amygdala reactivity 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:18.110 is heightened here. Subtle negative cues are 00:16:18.110 --> 00:16:23.090 amplified. Tone shifts and posture changes or 00:16:23.090 --> 00:16:26.549 inconsistencies in behavior trigger emotional 00:16:26.549 --> 00:16:30.590 resonance even when they cannot yet be articulated. 00:16:32.009 --> 00:16:36.990 Remember, we are way past the era of this brain 00:16:36.990 --> 00:16:40.129 region is responsible for this thing like the 00:16:40.129 --> 00:16:44.429 amygdala is responsible for fear. We're way past 00:16:44.429 --> 00:16:48.100 that. The amygdala is responsible for all sorts 00:16:48.100 --> 00:16:52.159 of emotional salience and motivation, not just 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:58.259 aversive and fear. This produces strong, effective 00:16:58.259 --> 00:17:02.320 empathy, particularly for negative emotional 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:07.960 states, but without automatic narrative interpretation. 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:12.880 Autistic individuals often feel something is 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:17.240 wrong. before they know why. Before the social 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:20.380 cue or the social environment, the social tone 00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:26.460 even knows why. It's a great air detection method. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:32.799 So valuation, attaching some value and meaning 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:37.059 and kind of hitting on the orbital frontal cortex. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:41.579 The orbital frontal cortex assigns value and 00:17:41.579 --> 00:17:44.759 meaning to this sensory emotional information. 00:17:45.980 --> 00:17:49.700 It computes reward expectancies and evaluates 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:54.799 outcomes and updates predictions. The OFC, the 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:58.980 orbital frontal cortex, receives fast sensory 00:17:58.980 --> 00:18:03.720 information. Not raw sensory information, but 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:07.579 very fast early on in the sensory processing 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:13.970 procedure. It receives information fast. In the 00:18:13.970 --> 00:18:17.450 neurotypical brain's orbital frontal, valuation 00:18:17.450 --> 00:18:21.269 is strongly shaped by social reward, such as 00:18:21.269 --> 00:18:24.829 harmony and approval, and affiliation influence 00:18:24.829 --> 00:18:29.509 what feels important. Most people are social, 00:18:29.970 --> 00:18:35.950 but not all people are social. In autism, valuation 00:18:35.950 --> 00:18:40.329 shifts toward internal coherence. and the orbital 00:18:40.329 --> 00:18:45.230 frontal cortex prioritizes consistency and evidence 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:50.410 and structural truth over interpersonal smoothing, 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:54.450 over interpersonal relationships, or this so 00:18:54.450 --> 00:18:59.029 -called errors, making meaning just to fit into 00:18:59.029 --> 00:19:04.910 this social narrative. No, thank you. This supports 00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:08.950 accuracy but can appear blunt or rigid externally. 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:14.650 For the people that's evaluating this or experiencing 00:19:14.650 --> 00:19:17.769 this from the outside, if this is not you, you 00:19:17.769 --> 00:19:20.529 think this is kind of rude or straightforward. 00:19:21.170 --> 00:19:28.019 But this is actually just reality. Conflict monitoring 00:19:28.019 --> 00:19:31.579 and control and the ACC, the anterior cingulate 00:19:31.579 --> 00:19:35.700 cortex. We've talked a lot about the ACC. We 00:19:35.700 --> 00:19:38.119 have an episode, early episode, about autism 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:41.799 and adaptive responses and the medial prefrontal 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:45.660 cortex and the ACC. Remember, those two lead 00:19:45.660 --> 00:19:51.240 the way for adaptive responses. I just want to 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:56.769 make mention though that the ACC is often paired. 00:19:57.309 --> 00:20:01.910 It's often accepted and thought to be as a part 00:20:01.910 --> 00:20:08.150 of the medial prefrontal cortex. So the ACC is 00:20:08.150 --> 00:20:11.549 often described simply as an air detector. We 00:20:11.549 --> 00:20:14.250 have a pretty good whiteboard on this about the 00:20:14.250 --> 00:20:17.769 complex and detailed roles, lots of roles with 00:20:17.769 --> 00:20:22.349 the ACC. We have that episode with the spindle 00:20:22.349 --> 00:20:25.970 neurons. where we map that out, the ACC and the 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:29.349 insula. So see the whiteboard episode about spindle 00:20:29.349 --> 00:20:35.769 neurons. The ACC integrates prediction error, 00:20:36.650 --> 00:20:39.650 emotional salience, and effort estimation, and 00:20:39.650 --> 00:20:43.509 risk reward evaluation, amongst other things. 00:20:44.170 --> 00:20:47.890 It answers the question such as, is this outcome 00:20:47.890 --> 00:20:53.630 worse than expected? Is continued effort worth 00:20:53.630 --> 00:20:59.509 it? Is this uncertainty tolerable and should 00:20:59.509 --> 00:21:03.069 control be increased? Remember about leading 00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:07.369 the way. Sometimes this area can be hijacked 00:21:07.369 --> 00:21:10.970 with those subcortical areas, those emotional 00:21:10.970 --> 00:21:17.190 areas. The ACC monitors conflict between competing 00:21:17.190 --> 00:21:20.309 interpretations and evaluates whether actions 00:21:20.309 --> 00:21:24.910 are producing expected rewards. and signals when 00:21:24.910 --> 00:21:29.150 cognitive resources need to be recruited. It 00:21:29.150 --> 00:21:32.349 is deeply involved in motivation, persistence, 00:21:32.910 --> 00:21:38.089 and adaptive responses, adaptive learning. In 00:21:38.089 --> 00:21:42.150 electrophysiological studies, the ACC activity 00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:46.250 appears as error -related negativity and sustained 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:51.920 beta oscillations during conflict. It recruits 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:56.000 dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when models need 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:00.279 updating and influences dopaminergic signaling 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:07.279 when reward expectancies are violated. So the 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:09.779 basal ganglia, the dorsal striatum I should say, 00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:14.039 and the ventral striatum and the brain stem areas 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:19.650 such as the VTA, ventral tegmental area. are 00:22:19.650 --> 00:22:24.950 all involved here. In the normal brain, the ACC 00:22:24.950 --> 00:22:30.190 signals attenuate once emotional or social coherence 00:22:30.190 --> 00:22:34.970 is restored. Ambiguity is tolerated and the system 00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:40.710 moves on. In the autistic phenotype, ACC signals 00:22:40.710 --> 00:22:45.970 tends to persist. Prediction error does not resolve 00:22:45.970 --> 00:22:50.049 simply because something feels acceptable The 00:22:50.049 --> 00:22:54.529 autistic phenotype does not work that way. Risk 00:22:54.529 --> 00:22:58.990 -reward evaluation remains active until structural 00:22:58.990 --> 00:23:04.789 coherence is achieved. Effort continues until 00:23:04.789 --> 00:23:09.789 the model actually makes sense. This is an underrated 00:23:09.789 --> 00:23:13.650 aspect of learning. This will never be understood 00:23:13.650 --> 00:23:16.630 and the listener of the podcast will likely not 00:23:16.630 --> 00:23:21.579 catch this. It's no shot to you. and the professionals, 00:23:22.339 --> 00:23:25.599 people in professional roles, PhDs, MDs, and 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:27.839 so forth, the people that study this, people 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:31.960 that study autism, they won't catch this. But 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:36.000 this is a huge part that allows us to enter in 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.640 the gate of a learning bout. You must overcome 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:46.319 this before you can learn. Don't miss that. I 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:49.559 want you to understand that the Autistic Phenotype 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:55.420 learns at accelerated rates. The Autistic Intelligence, 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.279 Asperger's Little Professors, and so forth is 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:05.900 all in this story. That B3 restricted fixated 00:24:05.900 --> 00:24:09.799 interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:14.650 entering into that gate of learning. This is 00:24:14.650 --> 00:24:18.289 all happening here. The autistic phenotype's 00:24:18.289 --> 00:24:21.809 brain, our brain does not accept, now that's 00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:25.430 close enough type of thing. We'll just make sense 00:24:25.430 --> 00:24:27.890 of this. This makes sense to us. We'll just fit 00:24:27.890 --> 00:24:32.009 this and move on. The autistic brain waits for 00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:35.970 a closure, a certainty, an explanation, making 00:24:35.970 --> 00:24:42.390 sense of things. Whenever the ACC refuses this 00:24:42.390 --> 00:24:46.819 closure, The system enters iterative learning. 00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:51.240 For most, these spindle neurons, or sometimes 00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:54.400 called Von Economo neurons, are in play here 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:58.099 because of the social aspect, the social influence, 00:24:58.859 --> 00:25:04.200 the social dynamics of most people. Spindle neurons 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:10.460 are large and fast, conducting projection neurons 00:25:10.460 --> 00:25:14.470 located primarily in the ACC and the anterior 00:25:14.470 --> 00:25:18.730 insula. These regions sit at the center of uncertainty 00:25:18.730 --> 00:25:22.910 monitoring, interoception, emotional salience, 00:25:23.049 --> 00:25:26.470 and value computation, the salience network. 00:25:28.410 --> 00:25:31.430 Spindle neurons are recent, are evolutionary 00:25:31.430 --> 00:25:36.369 specialized cells found mainly in humans, great 00:25:36.369 --> 00:25:41.089 apes, and seditions such as whales and dolphins. 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:45.720 some elephants, more primitive and social creatures. 00:25:47.339 --> 00:25:50.380 And they develop largely after birth, reaching 00:25:50.380 --> 00:25:55.799 adult levels by early childhood. Their simplified 00:25:55.799 --> 00:26:01.160 dendritic structure and large axons suggest that 00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:05.420 they function as rapid relays and transmit condensed 00:26:05.420 --> 00:26:09.539 outputs from ACC and insula to the frontal and 00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:13.230 temporal regions. involved in higher order modeling 00:26:13.230 --> 00:26:18.529 and social inference. These are linked to reward 00:26:18.529 --> 00:26:22.589 expectancies and punishment anticipation and 00:26:22.589 --> 00:26:26.809 social bonding and are positioned to integrate 00:26:26.809 --> 00:26:31.490 bodily signals and emotional value and probabilistic 00:26:31.490 --> 00:26:38.839 outcomes into fast intuitive judgments. The spindle 00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:42.480 neurons, the system develops atypically in autism, 00:26:43.619 --> 00:26:46.400 with structural and connectivity differences 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:51.519 observed in the ACC and fronto -insula regions, 00:26:51.940 --> 00:26:55.420 along with disrupted white matter pathways that 00:26:55.420 --> 00:26:59.259 normally carry spindle neuron projections. Remember 00:26:59.259 --> 00:27:04.000 we drew this out in the mini -columns. When this 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.240 fast intuition relay is weakened, uncertainty 00:27:07.559 --> 00:27:10.960 is no longer efficiently compressed into those 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:16.119 visceral gut signals. And instead prediction 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:21.460 errors remain active in the ACC and force greater 00:27:21.460 --> 00:27:25.000 reliance on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:32.339 modeling and iterative cortical refinement. And 00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:35.000 in this framework the autistic phenotype does 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.920 not eliminate intuition. Intuition is rerouted 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:44.119 and the loss of rapid spindle neuron mediated 00:27:44.119 --> 00:27:49.400 compression shifts intuition processes away from 00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:55.079 effective immediacy and toward explicit analyst 00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:58.880 helping explain why autistic individuals often 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:03.279 rely on deliberate reasoning and internal stimulation 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:07.490 in situations where neurotypical intuition would 00:28:07.490 --> 00:28:12.529 arrive automatically. The spindle neuron disruption 00:28:12.529 --> 00:28:15.430 therefore provides a cellular bridge between 00:28:15.430 --> 00:28:20.890 altered interoception, persistent ACC signaling, 00:28:21.289 --> 00:28:25.829 and the structural driven iterative form of intuition 00:28:25.829 --> 00:28:30.970 described throughout this model. The iterative 00:28:30.970 --> 00:28:33.890 learning is a recursive loop through which the 00:28:33.890 --> 00:28:36.990 autistic phenotype and intuition is constructed. 00:28:38.509 --> 00:28:41.430 Sensory cortex provides detailed prediction errors. 00:28:42.569 --> 00:28:45.569 The posterior parietal cortex highlights anomalies. 00:28:46.849 --> 00:28:51.930 The ACC flags unresolved mismatches. The prefrontal 00:28:51.930 --> 00:28:56.529 cortex updates internal models. The basal ganglia 00:28:56.529 --> 00:29:01.130 reinforce improvements via dopaminergic learning. 00:29:01.769 --> 00:29:07.269 And this system predicts again. This loop repeats 00:29:07.269 --> 00:29:10.829 continuously. Remember the episodes on the basal 00:29:10.829 --> 00:29:16.009 ganglia. In the so -called normal typical processing, 00:29:16.369 --> 00:29:18.869 learning often stops when emotional coherence 00:29:18.869 --> 00:29:22.869 is achieved. In the autistic phenotype, learning 00:29:22.869 --> 00:29:26.210 stops when structural coherence is achieved. 00:29:28.589 --> 00:29:32.339 Insight arrives late. because many little micro 00:29:32.339 --> 00:29:37.579 adjustments occur silently. When clarity finally 00:29:37.579 --> 00:29:41.240 appears it feels sudden but it represents convergence 00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:45.539 after prolonged refinement. This refinement here 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:49.079 does not necessarily mean it doesn't mean those 00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:54.039 sensory maps with the norophil it just means 00:29:54.039 --> 00:29:57.460 making sense of prediction and running models. 00:29:57.869 --> 00:30:01.670 storing databases, and so forth. The prefrontal 00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:04.529 cortex plays a central role here, especially 00:30:04.529 --> 00:30:07.450 the dorsolateral regions that support working 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:13.950 memory, abstraction, and simulation. The autistic 00:30:13.950 --> 00:30:16.730 intuition relies heavily on prefrontal modeling 00:30:16.730 --> 00:30:21.789 and individuals mentally test scenarios, track 00:30:21.789 --> 00:30:25.150 inconsistencies across time, and build explicit 00:30:25.150 --> 00:30:29.910 representations of cause. and effect. The basal 00:30:29.910 --> 00:30:32.690 ganglia will consolidate successful predictions 00:30:32.690 --> 00:30:36.250 through those dopaminergic reinforcements. Remember 00:30:36.250 --> 00:30:40.049 the substantia nigra pars compacta is dopamine. 00:30:41.029 --> 00:30:44.970 Substantia pars reticulata is GABA. So we're 00:30:44.970 --> 00:30:49.569 talking about the compacta here. And then the 00:30:49.569 --> 00:30:52.490 VTA, the ventral tegmental area, and the nucleus 00:30:52.490 --> 00:30:57.079 accumbens for those lower subcortical regions 00:30:57.079 --> 00:31:03.000 of dopamine. Each improvement strengthens corticostriatal 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:06.940 pathways, and over time, deeply refined models 00:31:06.940 --> 00:31:11.079 become automatic within domains of expertise. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.619 This is how iterative learning crystallizes into 00:31:17.619 --> 00:31:21.319 intuition. From the outside, this looks like 00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:25.029 instinct. Internally, This is the product of 00:31:25.029 --> 00:31:27.569 thousands of refinements that accelerate the 00:31:27.569 --> 00:31:30.230 rates of information coming in and closing loops 00:31:30.230 --> 00:31:34.390 and learning. In the autistic phenotype, diffusion 00:31:34.390 --> 00:31:39.750 imaging DTI reveals altered white matter connectivity 00:31:39.750 --> 00:31:45.190 patterns in autism. Long -range frontal parietal 00:31:45.190 --> 00:31:49.150 and frontal insula tracks may be weaker or less 00:31:49.150 --> 00:31:54.000 synchronized, while short -range tracks and local 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:57.220 connectivity within sensory and association cortices 00:31:57.220 --> 00:32:00.839 is often stronger. Remember those distal connections 00:32:00.839 --> 00:32:07.779 or a problem. The examples of driving on a highway 00:32:07.779 --> 00:32:11.660 or an interstate versus a gravel road. This is 00:32:11.660 --> 00:32:15.039 how you should look at this. And this creates 00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:19.019 increased local processing density. Remember 00:32:19.019 --> 00:32:21.779 the visual thinking episodes where there's a 00:32:21.609 --> 00:32:25.190 high rates of visual inputs and it's hard to 00:32:25.190 --> 00:32:30.009 kind of scan and move on. And reduced global 00:32:30.009 --> 00:32:34.809 integration speed, stronger intra -regional coherence, 00:32:35.230 --> 00:32:39.690 and weaker cross -network synchronization. Functionally, 00:32:39.910 --> 00:32:43.130 this looks like for the autistic phenotype because 00:32:43.130 --> 00:32:46.490 autistic cognition becomes internally coherent 00:32:46.490 --> 00:32:50.390 before it becomes socially aligned. The outside 00:32:50.390 --> 00:32:54.470 world is chaotic. So why would we go there? And 00:32:54.470 --> 00:32:59.309 plus, the internal world is more interesting. 00:33:02.250 --> 00:33:05.809 Excitation inhibition imbalance further shapes 00:33:05.809 --> 00:33:10.650 this architecture. Increased excitation and reduced 00:33:10.650 --> 00:33:14.630 inhibition amplify sensory and emotional signals 00:33:14.630 --> 00:33:19.789 while prolonging neural activity. The neural 00:33:19.789 --> 00:33:23.390 oscillations reflect this profile. Gamma rhythms 00:33:23.390 --> 00:33:29.529 bind. Fine sensory detail. Reduced alpha gating 00:33:29.529 --> 00:33:34.890 allows more information into awareness. Sustained 00:33:34.890 --> 00:33:38.569 beta maintains conflict and cognitive control. 00:33:39.609 --> 00:33:44.309 Theta supports emotional memory retrieval and 00:33:44.309 --> 00:33:49.720 iterative updating. Together, This oscillatory 00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:54.859 pattern favors precision, persistence, and modeling 00:33:54.859 --> 00:34:03.660 over rapid compression. Effective empathy mediated 00:34:03.660 --> 00:34:07.079 by insula and the amygdala is often intact or 00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:12.000 heightened. Cognitive empathy, supported by medial 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.639 prefrontal and temporal parietal regions, is 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:20.119 frequently reduced. And this creates a two -stage 00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:25.820 intuitive process. Emotional resonance first. 00:34:26.699 --> 00:34:30.900 Cognitive interpretation second. Remember, effective 00:34:30.900 --> 00:34:34.280 empathy is if you tell me what you're going through, 00:34:34.440 --> 00:34:37.480 I will feel it. I will see it. I will live your 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:40.719 experiences. This is very much true. This is 00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:42.980 very much a byproduct of the visual thinking 00:34:42.980 --> 00:34:46.239 and seeing movies, seeing other people's lives. 00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:50.809 There are two episodes. two episodes on supplementing 00:34:50.809 --> 00:34:55.389 relationships through visual thinking. The autistic 00:34:55.389 --> 00:34:59.969 phenotype will appear lonely, and sometimes that's 00:34:59.969 --> 00:35:03.530 true, but most of the time it's not needed. There 00:35:03.530 --> 00:35:06.190 are many relationships going on. There are many 00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:13.809 experiences on the inside world. The Predictive 00:35:13.809 --> 00:35:17.380 Equilibrium differs fundamentally between affective 00:35:17.380 --> 00:35:21.960 empathy and cognitive empathy. Neurotypical intuition 00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:26.500 compresses uncertainty into filling. The autistic 00:35:26.500 --> 00:35:30.900 intuition resolves uncertainty through iteration. 00:35:32.659 --> 00:35:37.139 Autistic brains preserve detail, sustain prediction 00:35:37.139 --> 00:35:41.760 error, refine internal models, and wait for the 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:46.800 coherence. An uncertainty is constructed, not 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:53.059 assumed. Broader meaning and the architecture 00:35:53.059 --> 00:35:56.980 of the self. Remember, the term autism derives 00:35:56.980 --> 00:36:02.800 from the Greek autos, meaning self, not selfishness, 00:36:03.480 --> 00:36:10.260 not isolation, self -referenced processing. The 00:36:10.260 --> 00:36:13.159 biology that gives us autism allows us to be 00:36:13.159 --> 00:36:18.119 comfortable within ourselves. The autistic cognition 00:36:18.119 --> 00:36:22.219 builds meaning internally rather than inheriting 00:36:22.219 --> 00:36:26.360 it socially. We will build our own maps. You 00:36:26.360 --> 00:36:29.639 can have your maps built if you wish. We will 00:36:29.639 --> 00:36:35.260 build our own maps. This inward architecture 00:36:35.260 --> 00:36:38.880 resonates with Carl Jung's observations that 00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:42.349 model individuals often search outward. for meaning 00:36:42.349 --> 00:36:49.269 while avoiding descent into the inner self. This 00:36:49.269 --> 00:36:53.309 is very much where intuition and self -growth, 00:36:53.309 --> 00:36:57.630 self -understanding happens. Whether interpreted 00:36:57.630 --> 00:37:02.329 psychologically or philosophically, the neurological 00:37:02.329 --> 00:37:06.550 parallel is clear. Autistic minds are structured 00:37:06.550 --> 00:37:11.599 to model inwardly. Autistic intuition is not 00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:16.380 granted by social compression or social development. 00:37:17.659 --> 00:37:22.360 It is earned through recursive modeling. Modeling 00:37:22.360 --> 00:37:26.760 of the truth. Modeling of finding and discovery 00:37:26.760 --> 00:37:31.380 and understanding. Socialness and the complications 00:37:31.380 --> 00:37:35.360 can damage this system. When the autistic phenotype 00:37:35.630 --> 00:37:39.489 are taught to override internal signals in favor 00:37:39.489 --> 00:37:43.429 of external performance. We interrupt the iterative 00:37:43.429 --> 00:37:47.429 learning loop that builds certainty and intuition 00:37:47.429 --> 00:37:53.190 confidence erodes. Things like ABA, things like 00:37:53.190 --> 00:37:56.389 forcing the autistic phenotype to fit in. Can 00:37:56.389 --> 00:38:00.809 you fit in or not? The whole complex, the whole 00:38:00.809 --> 00:38:05.659 definition of criteria A. People determining 00:38:05.659 --> 00:38:09.340 who is socially awkward versus who isn't.