Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article notes a new type of neuron found in the human brain. The researchers termed these "simulation neurons." The idea being that a person uses them to create a mental model of another person's thoughts and feelings, in order to predict what decisions they might make. The researchers suggest that if these neurons were inhibited (or missing), the person might not be able to do as well in social situations, and might not learn social information as easily.
So, on surface inspection, this article kind of looks like another "autistic people don't have empathy" assertion. Particularly with the "autistic people might be missing these neurons!" thing they kind of throw in. I'm always a little touchy about suggestions like that, because to me they suggest autistic people are sub-human. Autistic people sometimes show reduced recognizeable empathy, which may be explained by lacking these neurons, and because empathy is an important human trait, we're therefore less than human.
Given my particular therapeutic history (several years of neurofeedback, which improved my social cognition and ability to express myself socially), I'm more inclined to say the neurons are all there, but are having difficulty doing their jobs. Brains have a hard time functioning when they're overwhelmed with stress, poor nutrition, sensory overload, and unreasonable expectations. With all those demands, it can be really hard for an autistic person to properly recognize a situation meriting empathy. And that's assuming we'd have the same emotional response most people would in that situation... which is not always the case.
(I trust I don't need to remind you that yes, autistic people do have empathy. I personally have empathy, to the point that it's rather painful.)
On a more personal note regarding these specific neurons... I get the feeling that if you put a brain scanner on me as I talked with people or went through my errands, you'd see these neurons go nuts. I spend a lot of time putting together mental models of people and systems so that I can work with them without unduly upsetting them. That's actually how I can seem so "normal" when having a conversation with people. I try to quickly construct a sense of the person, what they want, and how I can best deal with them in a mutually satisfactory way.
It's kind of exhausting, honestly, because I do a good amount of it consciously. I suspect, given the descriptions here, that most people do this mostly automatically. Still, it's a useful skill/ability, and I'm not going to complain about having it. I'm not sure it's as simple as "I have this skill, which I use a lot, therefore social anxiety" the way the article suggests is 100% accurate, but it might reduce down to that. Maybe.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article notes a new type of neuron found in the human brain. The researchers termed these "simulation neurons." The idea being that a person uses them to create a mental model of another person's thoughts and feelings, in order to predict what decisions they might make. The researchers suggest that if these neurons were inhibited (or missing), the person might not be able to do as well in social situations, and might not learn social information as easily.
So, on surface inspection, this article kind of looks like another "autistic people don't have empathy" assertion. Particularly with the "autistic people might be missing these neurons!" thing they kind of throw in. I'm always a little touchy about suggestions like that, because to me they suggest autistic people are sub-human. Autistic people sometimes show reduced recognizeable empathy, which may be explained by lacking these neurons, and because empathy is an important human trait, we're therefore less than human.
Given my particular therapeutic history (several years of neurofeedback, which improved my social cognition and ability to express myself socially), I'm more inclined to say the neurons are all there, but are having difficulty doing their jobs. Brains have a hard time functioning when they're overwhelmed with stress, poor nutrition, sensory overload, and unreasonable expectations. With all those demands, it can be really hard for an autistic person to properly recognize a situation meriting empathy. And that's assuming we'd have the same emotional response most people would in that situation... which is not always the case.
(I trust I don't need to remind you that yes, autistic people do have empathy. I personally have empathy, to the point that it's rather painful.)
On a more personal note regarding these specific neurons... I get the feeling that if you put a brain scanner on me as I talked with people or went through my errands, you'd see these neurons go nuts. I spend a lot of time putting together mental models of people and systems so that I can work with them without unduly upsetting them. That's actually how I can seem so "normal" when having a conversation with people. I try to quickly construct a sense of the person, what they want, and how I can best deal with them in a mutually satisfactory way.
It's kind of exhausting, honestly, because I do a good amount of it consciously. I suspect, given the descriptions here, that most people do this mostly automatically. Still, it's a useful skill/ability, and I'm not going to complain about having it. I'm not sure it's as simple as "I have this skill, which I use a lot, therefore social anxiety" the way the article suggests is 100% accurate, but it might reduce down to that. Maybe.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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