I had an interesting day chatting with all kinds of intelligent people on the Autism Awareness group today at Facebook. It was all about the differences in all the different types of brains in all the different types of people in the world. For instance, did you know that a male brain naturally has a smaller corpus callosum than a female brain? That's the squidgy part that connects the left and right hemispheres and allows the two sides to communicate with each other. And did you also know that the late Kim Peek, the Autistic guy who inspired the Rain Man movie with his gift for remembering stuff had no noticeable corpus callosum at all? His left and right brain hemispheres worked in harmony but completely separated from each other communication wise. This got me curious, and I did some searching on the Internet to see if there had been any studies on the size of an Autistic person's corpus callosum compared to the size of one in a non-Autistic person. Well guess what? There is an abundance of studies published on the Internet from various parts of the world. And the one thing they all had in common, was that in all the Autistic people always had a noticeably reduced corpus callosum or part thereof compared to the non-Autistic people.
So now I know a bit more about the inner workings of an Autistic persons brain. I discovered a few days ago that in Autistic people there are pockets of extra brain cells that need to be sorted out before all the correct cells can be hardwired as the child grows and learns, as well as pockets with fewer braincells, so that explains the reason why Autistic kids take longer to reach their milestones. And now I find that the left hemisphere of their brain barely knows what the right hemisphere is doing and visa-versa!!! So the two sides can't balance themselves out evenly with all the maths and logic on one side and the music and pretty colours on the other. No wonder Autistic kids get so confused on how to cope with life's obstacles! It's like they have two half brains trying to figure it all out at the same time but without asking each other for assistance!!!! Personally I think life's confusing enough with two halves helping each other, so imagine what it's like for these Autistic kids!!! I'd be rocking back and forth too with that much confusion going on in my head. No wonder they rely on routines so much. It helps to bring a bit of order to their environment.
So now, people are asking 'Why are these kids being born with so many extra braincells and such a small corpus callosum?' And of course we are getting people jumping up and down saying it has to be mercury in vaccines, or metals in the air, or botched up ultrasounds on the mother while she's pregnant..... these people never want to listen to the thought that it might have something to do with genetics and possibly the occasional mutation of cells during initial growth in the womb. There are so many forms of Autism, perhaps there are various causes that lead to the Autism variants, be they genetic, chemical, mutation or some other as yet unknown reason. We have more boys in the world with Autism than girls,... maybe that's because boys have a smaller corpus callosum to start with? There's not so much left for a boy if it doesn't grow and form properly.... the girls might be able to get away with it because they have just that little bit of extra leftover to use as a backup.
Think I'll go back and watch episode 11 of the COSMOS series by Carl Sagan. It's a fascinating insite into the human brain and how it's evolved over a gazillion years.