Simon Baron-Cohen the autism researcher is brother of Sacha Baron Cohen the comedian.
For a moment I thought you were joking. Thanks for the info.
Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
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Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
autism does correlate with birth month https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296777/?report... and does seem to be more prevalent in particular latitudes, though that may be an effect of social/industrial/economic conditions.
Somali children in Sweden are 3-4x more likely to be Autistic than Swedish children: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence... 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women: https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-pr...
> 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women
You have to be careful with those claims; I believe "Vitamin D deficiency" is one of the medical metrics that isn't race-normed. But there's no reason to expect Somalis to have the same natural level of Vitamin D that Swedes do.
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#33This article fills a gap in my vocabulary for someone who shares some traits associated with ASD but doesn't suffer from any negative effects, i.e. is not in the scope of the medical autistic spectrum. The word is systemizing or being systematic. Autistic spectrum disorders then manifest in systemizing behaviour, but that doesn't mean only people with autism are systematic.
The term as used by Robert Trivers (evolutionary psychologist) is ‘Strong Systemiser’
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#34See also the similar book NeuroTribes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroTribes
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#35I am now quite curious about this book. One thing which seemes puzzling and distinctive about autism is that it appears to manifest much more in males than females (I think somewhat over 4x) - I'd be interested to see how Baron-Cohen addresses that.
In case you didn't know this: autism diagnosis is heavily biased towards how autism typically expresses in males. Autism expresses differently in females, causing to a very high number of women on the spectrum being misdiagnosed as having disorders such as anorexia, OCD or anxiety.
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#36How does this explain the comorbidities associated with autism? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditions_comorbid_to_autis... It seems to somewhat focus on the more high functioning/savant cases than those who have to wear diapers through their entire life and suffer from severe metabolic and immune system issues.
Sickle cell anemia? 1 gene malaria, two copies a disease (I might have cause wrong).
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#37How does this explain the comorbidities associated with autism? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditions_comorbid_to_autis... It seems to somewhat focus on the more high functioning/savant cases than those who have to wear diapers through their entire life and suffer from severe metabolic and immune system issues.
Sickle cell anemia? 1 gene malaria, two copies a disease (I might have cause wrong).
But that doesn’t explain the multiple genetic and chromosomal disorders that are associated with autism.
It’s almost like autism is a side effect of disorders that are associated with cognitive impairment.
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#38Interesting. Mutations have their uses, but not all. The increasing rates of Autism now are most likely the result of increasingly advanced maternal age for pregnancies. Healthy BMI, cardiovascular fitness, and youth are some of the key factors to a healthy pregnancy. Edit: I didn't mean to say that advanced maternal age is the "only" reason for autism. I was just quoting what I was taught to be one of the main facto…
> The increasing rates of Autism now are most likely the result of increasingly advanced maternal age for pregnancies
Wiki seems to say it's either even split between parents, or leans paternal:
> It is not known whether mutations that arise spontaneously in autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders come mainly from the mother or the father, or whether the mutations are associated with parental age.[74] However, recent studies have identified advancing paternal age as a significant indicator for ASD.
There's also the other factors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism#Causing...
But as another mentioned, the increased awareness and access to medical professionals could also explain an upward trend in diagnosis.
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#39Interesting. Mutations have their uses, but not all. The increasing rates of Autism now are most likely the result of increasingly advanced maternal age for pregnancies. Healthy BMI, cardiovascular fitness, and youth are some of the key factors to a healthy pregnancy. Edit: I didn't mean to say that advanced maternal age is the "only" reason for autism. I was just quoting what I was taught to be one of the main facto…
It’s the Back to Sleep campaign that started in the 90s.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaav5188/tab-art...
Basically, sleeping is important to brain development in new borns and infants and forced back sleeping is hugely disruptive. Hence the increase in autism rates for kids born in 90s and later.
Re: Is autism the legacy of humans evolving the ability to innovate?
#40This article fills a gap in my vocabulary for someone who shares some traits associated with ASD but doesn't suffer from any negative effects, i.e. is not in the scope of the medical autistic spectrum. The word is systemizing or being systematic. Autistic spectrum disorders then manifest in systemizing behaviour, but that doesn't mean only people with autism are systematic.
> This article fills a gap in my vocabulary for someone who shares some traits associated with ASD but doesn't suffer from any negative effects, i.e. is not in the scope of the medical autistic spectrum Another phrase you could add to your vocabulary to describe that is "broad autism phenotype" (BAP). People with BAP have significantly more autistic traits than the average person does, but not to the extent that a di…
TIL. Is BAP comorbid with ADD too?