Outsider63

Is Asperger's a Neurobiological Disorder?

The Wikipedia article on Asperger's Syndrome recycles much orthodox thinking within the Anglo-American psychiatric establishment since the early 1990s, namely that a sizable section of humanity can be diagnosed with personality disorders attributable to genetically determined cerebral abnormalities. Given the lack of hard scientific evidence to support this theory, I feel alternative explanations for deviant or noncompliant behaviour should be given greater prominence. The article makes continuous references to and analogies with autism, previously considered a rare neurobiological communication disorder associated in 75% to 80% with a learning disability (P-IQ < 70 on adjusted Leiter scale). Over the last 15 years or so, autism has been redefined and, for want of a better term, actively marketed to a credulous public. I do not for one moment wish to deny that some people have personalities that deviate markedly from the norm or that is possible to group together behavioural traits and ascribe them to subsets of the general population, e.g. if I know that someone regularly reads a certain newspaper I can make an educated guess on her or his likely political perspective, though I may also sometimes be wrong. Likewise if I know someone enjoys nightclubbing, I might guess that they also enjoy indulging in certain recreational drugs or spend considerable time fashion shopping. We might describe such patterns as behavioural systems. This is quite evident in a number of people diagnosed with AS (such as myself). We have obsessive interests and purportedly fail to understand other people's lack of interest or misinterpretation of our preseverations. Indeed even within the AS-diagnosed preseverations vary so considerably that it is often hard for us to find common cause with the like-diagnosed. This apparent lack of awareness of other people's perceptions is now considered to be a form of autism, "living in a world of our own". Yet in very few cases do the AS-diagnosed exhibit any of the early signs of impaired communication and social development common to true autistics. Here we have to contend with three definitions of autism:

1. Deficient theory of mind
2. Pervasive neurobiological disorder that causes severe impairment in our ability to develop a theory of mind
3. Broad category of people who psychiatrists observe as exhibiting a lack of social insight and empathy combined with obsessive behavioural patterns.

The theory of mind is something, absent at birth, that develops gradually in all human beings at different rates. Human beings may be social animals, but empathy is an attribute that we learn within given societal restraints, we can only empathise with people in as far as we can conceptualise their predicament. As a result it is usually much easier for us to empathise with people who share the same culture and range of experiences. A billionaire's daughter can read about extreme poverty, but cannot empathise with a homeless inhabitant of Rio de Janeiro unless she has experienced something similar and grew up alongside others in the same condition. While it is true that many AS-diagnosed people have some form of dyspraxia, which is most likely neurobiological in origin, it is unclear whether dyspraxia is merely one of many factors that may induce Asperger's-style behavioural traits or is comorbid with the condition. The latter theory is based on the assumption that AS behavioural traits are fundamentally pathological. IMHO personality and behaviour are extremely plastic or responsive to environmental variables in most people of average to high intelligence. What is clear in the AS-diagnosed is a certain disruption in the development of socialising techniques in childhood and adolescence exacerabted by alienation from mainstream social rituals. If one comes from an intellectual family, has a mild form of dyspraxia (a bit cack-handed) and is interested in geekish subjects, one will spend much time alone excluded from play and teenage friendship circles. As a result by early adulthood such individuals lack social skills, but have enormous strengths in methodical independent analysis. My theory is that AS is just a set of heterogeneous behavioural traits that may emerge in different ways in diffrerent individuals for a variety of reasons. In many cases there may be some underlying neurobiological factors (such as dyspraxia) that contribute to the emergences of aspie traits, but it is largely our society or social environment that is responsible for the way some deviant individuals are alienated and thus left to withdraw increasingly into a world of their own. At times in my childhood, especially following my first car accident, I acted in an extremely withdrawn fashion, but others following new opportunities for socialisation, I have escaped my shell and become quite extrovert. One cannot study phenomena such as AS without looking at the social context and making cross-cultural comparisons. Part of the problem for many AS-diagnosed people is that we feel out of our depth in a world obsessed with social conformity or group-think mentality. Anyway in the true Wikipedian spirit I invite comment on my thoughts.