I have been in discussion lately with a great number of people from the Facebook Autism community with in-depth chats about what is currently known to be true, what is currently known to be mythical and what is currently speculation. For a minority of the population mythical speculation seems to be the popular recurring flavour of the month. In fact, a lot of the minority just simply aren't interested in the cold hard facts. But now I find myself thinking, what if some of this speculation has just a smidgen of credibility? Everybody is so busy jumping up and down in the air that there can only be one cause for Autism based on their own experiences.... maybe there are a number of different factors that could individually cause the brain to have the same conditions necessary for Autism? What if the corpus callosum was the key factor in Autism? You remember the corpus callosum? That's our neurotypical friend that acts like an information superhighway, bridging the gap between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Just to refresh your memories, numerous studies have shown that people on the Autistic Spectrum frequently have either smaller parts of their corpus callosum when compared to the neurotypical, or sometimes have no corpus callosum at all. This would all suggest a lack of communication between the two hemispheres. Left side brain therefore will have difficulty holding all it's chatroom discussions with right side brain and vica-versa. Hence the difficulty processing thoughts or socialising. The two halves can't help each other with life's little problems.
So lets say Autism starts with a developing fetus. Something goes a bit awry during the initial forming of the brain and the corpus callosum is facing a bleak future. We also know that the Autistic brain creates far more brain cells for the left and right sides in certain areas than would otherwise be normal too, as well as too few brain cells in other areas, perhaps to compensate for the lack of connection between the two halves, the brain cells get re-allocated to a common area in the hopes of finding a solution to the lack of internal communication. Initial testing shows the two halves don't get on with each other, so the DNA strands compensate by trying to give certain parts of the brain a little bit extra to work with to see if the two sides can't eventually figure things out by themselves. This would therefore be Autism Classic. Which I for one have been arguing in favour of myself.
Now, lets say that an otherwise healthy brain has a slightly reduced corpus callosum. Not enough to worry about, and not nearly enough that the original testing showed any problems in the womb. So the brain has the normal count of brain cells in the usual places. This baby then grows happily for the first two years of life on the outside world and then BAM! Why is this baby suddenly showing signs of Autism? Well maybe something was introduced to the infant that blocked or slowed down the communication centre, the corpus callosum!!!! Maybe some children are more susceptible to vaccines. Maybe something about the corpus callosum gets damaged or blocked by trace elements of whatever the manufacturers put in these things. Maybe the corpus callosum was just slightly mal-formed.... not enough to worry about initially, but with the right conditions, maybe it can be pushed over the edge and cause a communication blockage? This therefore would be Autism Vanilla. The flavouring tipped the scales and now the child is suddenly Autistic.
So Autism Vanilla and Autism Classic... Classic cases would show the child to have developmental delays due to the extra brain cells pockets confusing everything. The developing brain has more cells to sort through and hardwire as the child grows and learns, while other sections of the brain have to deal with a reduced compliment of grey matter to try to sort lifes little mysteries out of. Vanilla cases would show the child to be developing normally due to a normal amount of brain cells in all the right places to play around with before suddenly being transformed into a member of the Spectrum overnight.
And what of the sudden increase in the number of Autistic people in recent years? Here again we have two arguments. The Classic version is that there were always people with Autism. It just wasn't diagnosed as Autism so much until recently due to better informed professionals who are more happy to give the diagnoses now. The Vanilla version is that all these vaccinations are to blame.... maybe it's both of these, depending on whether you're talking about Classic or Vanilla? I'd like to add a Cherry version to all of this too. What if all these people over all the years, be they Classic or Vanilla, had babies? Back in the olden days of throwing these people into asylums and most probably sterilising them too, there wouldn't have been so many people on the Spectrum being able to have families of their own. But nowadays society in some part is at least a little more understanding and lets Classic and Vanilla grow up as a part of society. Heck, they're probably even allowed to have their own families now!!! So do you know what the most important ingredient is in evolution? Genetics breed true. Maybe we're slowly evolving a new species of humans? Classic Vanilla humans? Doesn't mean we'll be replaced. The human species has shown itself to be diverse. Just take a look at all the different types of people there are in the world! Asian, Caucasian, African, Pygmy.... no one human species has been replaced by another, some may have become extinct over the millions of years, but I think we're talking cavemen and pre-cavemen in the extinction line here. So maybe we'll eventually need to add a new species to our encyclopeodias. Classic Vanilla humans, living side by side with Asians and Caucasians and Africans and Pigmys. I'm sure they'll find a nicer name to call themselves by the time they're recognised as an official human race though. So wow, maybe there is an upsurge in the number of people on the Spectrum? Classical reasons, Vanilla reasons, and even Cherry reasons! Why is everyone so hung up on there only ever being one reason for anything? Doesn't anyone ever watch House M.D? Every week they look so surprised that something was caused by two separate conditions. You think they would have figured it out after all these years.
Maybe this new race of people will help us to evolve a new version of society too? One where it's not rude if you don't look at someone while you're talking.
Now you watch, all the bigots, racists and scare-mongers will use this type of argument to validate the need to sterilise all people on the Autistic Spectrum to ensure we don't all evolve into Classic Vanilla humans too.... The way I see it, we should sterilise the bigots, racists and scare-mongers instead.
Some of the nicest and most intelligent people I know are already on the Spectrum. Vanilla, Classic and Cherry!