“In an ideal world the scientist should find a method to prevent the most severe forms of autism but allow the milder forms to survive. After all, the really social people did not invent the first stone spear. It was probably invented by an Aspie who chipped away at rocks while the other people socialized around the campfire. Without autism traits we might still be living in caves.”
Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
161–170 of 199 posts
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If I were to include additional biological possibilities, I'd include: a) birth control -> waiting to have children until a later age, more de novo mutations due to age. Surely it should be easy to collect the data to plot such a hypothesis: incidence rate vs age of father and vs age of mother at conception, and at birth.
Be careful of reverse causation. Being autistic makes you more likely to have children later (if at all) and we know it's at least partially heritable.
reverse causation? if the stated premise were true, it should be easy to plot.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that the set of problems is very broadly defined, changes over time, varies from person to person, it's often impossible to obiectively test. Can't it be that a neurotypical person is bothered by some autistic triggers? Would that make them neurodivergent? How many of those triggers do you need to have to be under that umbrella? 1? 5? 20? It is indeed called a spectrum, and I think it gets so fuzzy at…
It's a bimodal distribution. There are people with few of these traits lightly, and people with many or with a few severe ones. Not so many in between. This already makes it an interesting line to draw.
That's interesting. Are there studies on this? I.e. 1000 participants, "count" the symptoms and make a graph of autistic symptomps/person.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I would not condemn anyone who refused to be in a relationship if the other person had an autistic child. Let me correct that for you, > I would not condemn anyone who refused to be in a relationship if the other person had a child. Being a step parent is one of the most difficult things a person can do. If you can’t or don’t want to do it that’s fine.
That's a good correction. Heck, leaving space for the child to grow up and have their mom when they need them and not helping if it is not asked for is difficult at times. From my admittedly limited experience, the parent and child have relationship that will keep you on the outside even if the family has made a conscious choice to include you as a step parent. I have made a conscious choice to be okay with being on…
Ok.
You have 2 options.
Stop making so many harmful assumptions about your partners child. Theirs a good chance he’s just weird and he’ll grow out of it, but you’re not exactly helping here.
Hell, to be honest I was weird as shit as a kid until my dad kicked me out and then I matured real quick.
If I had to guess my issue is that I’m essentially half asleep most of the time unless I have a Red Bull or 2.
Or you can always just leave.
Right now your post reads like ; “This annoying kid is messing up my relationship with his mom, I’m the victim here”
I’d venture to say all kids are annoying and if you can’t deal with that date someone without kids.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
This line of thinking diminishes the real struggles autistic people face. Not everyone is autistic, and it's not just a quirky set of traits. I do believe society could be better arranged for people who for whatever reason don't conform to the overculture norms, so we could talk about disability along the axis of how society privileges or disadvantages certain individuals. The concern is that autism as a rigorous cat…
>The concern is that autism as a rigorous category may be useless, but that doesn't mean that autistic people are suddenly neurotypical IDK. I'm diagnosed as autistic, but I've become a bit less attached to that label in recent years. Like, I do struggle with eye contact, excessive noise, and social situations. I'm not going to say that I'm just a normal guy, but I do think that there's a wide spectrum here that enco…
Yup, exactly my thoughts.
When I first considered my condition, I was looking around and was trying to mentally label people as neurotypical/neurodivergent.
After a few years, I started labeling more and more people as neurodivergent, because I could notice more subtle hints. Now, I instead just try to figure out how far on the spectrum everyone is, to know how the relationship dynamic will be like.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be clear: are you suggesting that the only reason someone would want a companion is to satisfy lust?
What other reason would there be to have a girlfriend or boyfriend? Financial exploitation?
Love? Emotional connection? Care, empathy, social connection, support, like-mindedness…
Lust and control are perhaps the two worst reasons to have a relationship.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is high-level behavior the only criteria for diagnosis? I think the majority of the public would like to better understand how we came into this position. There's nothing wrong with the topic of autism as research, but it's been a political football for so long that there are many reasonable doubts about methodology, diagnosis, and relevance to everyday healthcare. I understand there may be complications with some pa…
On the contrary, autistic people tend to be way too mature for their age, often visibly so. (it used to be called the "little professor syndrome") It seems to me that's what they actually found - the genes accelerate maturation. Maybe it's just the neoteny fetish of the modern society that makes it feel like a disorder.
> autistic people tend to be way too mature for their age
Appear to be, which isn't the same as "tend to be" because many go from being perceived as "overly mature children" to being perceived as immature adults because they diverge from social norms. Traumatized children also appear to be too mature for their age, and the likelihood of being traumatized growing up as a neurodivergent child is pretty high.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
For single celled organisms "epigenetic" effects carry non-basepair state from a single-cell parent cell individual to its single-cell children cell individuals after cell division, For multi-cellular organisms "epigenetic" effects carry cell type state from lesser differentiated cell type parent to identical or higher differentiated cell type children cells in the same individual. For example A->B+C where A,B,C are…
I'm not sure if I understand, you're saying that there is no such thing as epigenetic inheritance? In other words you disagree with the phenomenon discussed in this wiki page? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgenerational_epigenetic_i...
There absolutely is such a thing as epigenetic inheritance. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genomic_imprinting Epigenetics is a pretty broad term. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of environmentally-induced expressions, however, has never been firmly demonstrated in mammals, let alone humans. There's a bunch of needles that need to be threaded to achieve it, for example modifying gametes, then sneaking past the epigenetic resetting that occurs during meiosis, etc. Repeat the feat to cross more than one generation.
There's a ton of extravagant claims and overly credulous reception driven in part by powerful cultural narratives. AFAIU, epigenetics in the popular discourse has different connotations then for most scientists. And when a scientist says epigentic processes are beyond dispute--because many of them are clearly established as key to some basic developmental processes--the lay person takes this as validation of, e.g., epigenetically inherited intergenerational trauma. But there's tremendous distance between those two extremes, both semantically and physically.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's never been classified that way as far as I know. I would say somewhere between level 1 and level 2. He writes very well. But speaking person to person, not so good. And as I described, there's significant rigidity in his behavior. For example, when he cooks, he can't generalize. Cooking is by time, not appearance, food has to come the same packaging etc.
Level 1 is minimal assistance needed. Simply "requires support". Might need headphones sometimes or additional space to process feelings. This can often be just some extra coaching or training. Level 2 is "requires substantial support". This is where there are significant obvious impairments to daily life. You may not see emotional reciprocity, and peer relationships may be difficult. Sensory sensitivities may be mor…
You're probably right. I may have flipped the scale. I see most of what you describe in level 2 combined with significant difficulty being flexible. At the same time, he writes very well expressing his emotions and insights. He can handle basic things like hygiene, laundry and food prep if it's pre-packaged but has a hard time with emptying the dishwasher. Frequently when he does things around the house, he is watching videos on his tablet in one hand and using the other hand for the task.
Re: Autism mutations drive neurodevelopmental pathology
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the contrary, autistic people tend to be way too mature for their age, often visibly so. (it used to be called the "little professor syndrome") It seems to me that's what they actually found - the genes accelerate maturation. Maybe it's just the neoteny fetish of the modern society that makes it feel like a disorder.
> autistic people tend to be way too mature for their age Appear to be , which isn't the same as "tend to be" because many go from being perceived as "overly mature children" to being perceived as immature adults because they diverge from social norms. Traumatized children also appear to be too mature for their age, and the likelihood of being traumatized growing up as a neurodivergent child is pretty high.
They diverge from the norm, because they grow out of what is considered normal adult behavior.