The Supercharged Brain
Kamila and Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have developed a theory that autism is caused by a “supercharged” brain, today’s Telegraph reports. The Markrams posit that autistic individuals—far from earlier notions that they were without emotions and the capacity to feel—-”‘perceive, feel and remember too much’” and very intensely:
Faced with this “intense world”, autistic infants withdraw, with serious consequences for their social and linguistic development, she added.
Repetitive behaviours such as rocking and head-banging, meanwhile, can be seen as an attempt to bring order and predictability to a “blaring world”.
Most of the theories surrounding autism involve the idea of an underperforming brain but the Markrams believe the opposite is true with the brain being “supercharged”.
Their research, which included studying their own son who is borderline autistic, is backed up by one of the most replicated findings in autism which is abnormal brain growth.
At birth the brains of autistic children are small or normal sized, but grow unusually quickly.
By age two to three, when symptoms of autism occur, their brain volume is roughly 10 per cent larger than average.
Experiencing sensory stimuli and even feelings and thoughts and emotions “intensely”: This describes much about how my son Charlie seems to interface with the world. He often seems to seek out strong tastes and smells and we’ve long connected his love of the ocean and swimming with a need for the deep pressure provided by the water; Charlie often wraps himself in blankets and especially fleece. In regard to feelings, even today, Charlie’s teacher noted that he careened from silliness and smiles to crying out in deep nervousness from moment to moment. According to the Markams’ theory, autism is all about feeling too much, not at all not enough.
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, Baby, brain, deep pressure, disabilities blog, disability, Family, family blog, Health, macrocephaly, Neuroscience, Parenting, pdd-nos, Sensory, supercharge, WaterRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Baby, Cause, Neuroscience, Sensory
17 opinions for The Supercharged Brain
Emily
Sep 17, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Amen. I’ve ALWAYS interpreted autism this way, partly because that’s exactly how I am. I feel EVERYTHING, and it’s unnerving, disorienting, annoying, scary, etc. I don’t like people to touch me, I don’t like being in crowds or busy places, etc., and it’s because those inputs feel like a drill bit of stimulus where to others, they’re barely registered.
As a side note-ish: when our youngest was born, over the ensuing few weeks, his hairline rapidly moved to the back of his crown as his head just grew and grew. His hairline just receded several inches, and his hair growth could not keep up with the newly arrived inches of forehead, etc. Enormously fast head growth. He and our oldest both had that and both have HUGE heads.
Tahirih Bushey SLP
Sep 17, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I too have heard this theory and think that it makes sense for at least some of the children that I see. Quite a few actually. I think that the theory that the brain is not integrated well across various areas of the brain also makes sense and the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Karin
Sep 17, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I agree too - I’ve been doing more research on sensory integration issues and Asperger’s, and it has led me to believe that ASD and probably ADHD are both responses to too much information flooding in - and I’ve talked to several of my professors and school psychs I know and they are inclined to agree. I know that my son hears too much and feels too much, and tries to block that out.
name
Sep 17, 2008 at 5:05 pm
It’s too bad they used their own child in the studies. That will discredit their results. Terrible methodology.
Kassiane
Sep 17, 2008 at 5:18 pm
This actually makes a lot of sense to me…I feel a lot, and very intensely, though I don’t always process it “normally”. Kids I have worked with also seem to be rather intense.
Not feeling? Not hardly.
Eleanor
Sep 17, 2008 at 5:29 pm
This definitely resonates with me. I learned pretty early in life that I needed lots of “down time.” I still do, athough I’ve become somewhat more adaptable. My son’s behavior problems are almost all triggered by overstimulation–school is a particular challenge because it is inherently such an active environment.
Frances
Sep 17, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I can see that, although my agreement with the “supercharged” theory is based entirely on anecdotal evidence. We have always thought that our autistic son has been able to see and hear to a different degree than my husband and me. I could easily believe that he sees, hears and feels on a much broader spectrum.
Maybe autism is less an abnormality of the brain than an evolution of the brain.
Regan
Sep 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm
If someone would like to read the full text of the paper in the original to examine more closely the data and premises that formulate the hypothesis –
Markram, H., Rinaldi, T., Markram, K. (2007). The intense world syndrome – an alternative hypothesis for autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1, 77-96.
I think that this will get you to the full text of the paper–or at least it did so for me.
Regan
Sep 17, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I think that I need to look at this more closely esp. since this is posited as a unifying theory to see what limits they might be posing to the model. Scanning–it’s a long paper and they seem to try and document pretty thoroughly the proposal.
Eleanor at this time tends to be attracted to hurly burly, bright lights–many of the things that are commonly overwhelming to many people, and that we might have anticipated to be so for her–so I see a paradox if I am understanding what they are forwarding (Granted that I might not be). I also would like to see where/how/if some of the documented language difficulties and comprehension of social rules fit into the model. But, as said, I haven’t really read the paper, so this is just talking through my hat.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 17, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Karin wrote, “it has led me to believe that ASD and probably ADHD are both responses to too much information flooding in ….” —- just wanted to highlight this as my husband has ADHD (severe at times)—-he is constantly always taking in information but not always what’s in front of him, or or he’ll already be talking about 2 new ideas when one is processing the 1st or a few back. Charlie seems rather to take more time to figure things out, to process it all.
Justthisguy
Sep 17, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Hmm, I have a very large hat size. I mind Major Donovan, at http://www.thedonovan.com
I sometimes tease him about having both neurotypical and autistic co-processors in that huge head. (His head is so big he had to have a prescription helmet in the Army.)
I got him to take all of the online “AQ” tests and his results were “just barely normal.” I love him, not least for all of the shiny weapons exactly lined up in rows in his basement.
He has the best Gun Pr0n on the internet, srsly!
Emily
Sep 17, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Aw, I consistently score a 35 or 36 on that AQ test. Doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, though.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 18, 2008 at 1:44 am
Born with a big head (that’s the first thing my grandfather, Yeh Yeh, said about me).
I perform pretty low on the AQ.
My Autism Insights
Sep 18, 2008 at 8:22 am
Funny, I was just talking to my son’s counselor last night about the notion that “they were without emotions and the capacity to feel…” and how he’s just the opposite. I think this theory is reasonable and would be interested to see more work in this direction.
What Do You Look At In a Crowded Room?
Sep 18, 2008 at 12:30 pm
[…] not being as good at “understand gaze cues and exressions,” they are focusing (even hyper-focusing) on different sorts of objects and information; that maybe the eyes don’t have […]
Brett
Sep 19, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The “supercharged brain” study came to mind when I saw the post The Eyes Have It, which includes a table that shows the actual bandwidth of the five senses, compared to the bandwidth we are consciously aware of. There is a drastic difference in all the senses, but as Dave hints at in the post title, the sense of vision has the most drastic difference: An actual bandwidth of 10,000,000 bits/second compared to a conscious bandwidth of 50 bits/second. Five orders of magnitude!!
Could it be that autism results in (from?) a higher conscious bandwidth for the senses? This would definitely account for the sensory overload. The table comes from a study that address the 1/2 second delay between the time we perform and action and the time we are aware of our decision to act. Maybe this increased conscious awareness has an impact on this delay (one way or the other) that contributes to the sensory overload?
Paula
Oct 19, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I am just now reading this.
I had a regular hearing test done when I was 36. My actual *hearing* (not processing ability) was about 7-10% above normal.
My eye doctor told me that the *worst* my vision ever could have been when I was a child was 20/10, which means I could see things at 20 feet away as though they were only 10 feet away. I remember being fascinated by looking into flowers and seeing the pollen, though I don’t know that I was seeing individual grains. Now that I am super far-sighted, I have to make do with numerous pairs of glasses that let me see what I used to see, only magnified so that they don’t really look “right” to me.
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