Autism is primarily a divergent way that human brains work, that is notably different to that of the biggest neuro (brain) type, the “neurotypical”. More accurately, Autism is a collection of traits that are human traits, but either hyper (above) or hypo (below) the common neurotypical person. Autism is not inherently a disability, although it can on its own be disabling for a fair few. Autism can be very lonely.

Here we’ll talk about how to conceptualise Neurotypes using a CPU analogy, and then how to think about the Autism Neurotype.

Difference, Divergence and Being Human

We humans all have red blood, yet we can’t easily just help someone with an injury out by giving them our blood. We must match blood types. Humans have about 50 different types of blood, and a complex diagram exists to help us work out who can share with who. We simplify the specific blood types down to around 8 approximate groups. We don’t identify what the “right blood type” is, because we recognise that there are diverse blood types.

In a similar way, humans have a large number of brain types. The largest group of this is what we reference off, and we call them neurotypical (neurologically [brain connection] typical). One of the sub group neurotypes is Autism, another is ADHD. There are more than these three groups, but these represent the biggest groupings single groupings (Autism and ADHD overlap a lot).

The Computer Analogy

If we think of brains to be computers, the most commonly publicly used computer processing unit (CPU) is the Intel family, followed by the AMD family. You use these for Windows Based computers. We also have the ARM style CPU’s that are in your Android and Apple products, and a host of smaller CPU styles that are too numerous to iterate. Which is the correct CPU? An Apple desktop computer essentially works the same as a Windows desktop computer, but the same software installation file won’t work, and when you load up the specific app in your Windows PC, Apple PC, Android tablet, Android Phone, iPad and iPhone, you’ll notice that the same app works different on each different CPU. Which is the correct CPU? It depends on what you want to use it for.

As an analogy, Neurotypical is effectively like the Intel / AMD CPUs. Most of us don’t know the difference between Intel and AMD when we are using a computer, because the operating system has smoothed over the differences. Sometimes the operating system is quite different and that can cause some hiccups, but that doesn’t tell you which CPU you have. That is like being born and raised in another country. They will experience some of the oddities that neurodivergent people have looking at the local culture, but it isn’t the same as being neurodivergent.

ADHD is more akin to the ARM CPU architecture. That’s what is in most of your Android and i-Products. Similar to the Intel / AMD above, there are many subtle variants within the CPUs that the operating system (Android or iProduct) smooths out, where Android is the most dominant presentation and i-Product is your rarer presentation. In this analogy, ADHD has some very common and predictable differences that can often show up in fMRI and MRI scans (about 5 various common differences) when compared to Neurotypical Brains, but not all ADHDers differences show up in these scans – there is no brain scan that proves ADHD.

Autism is more like the rest of the CPUs – not the common desktop CPU or the Android/i-Product range, but everything else. They are very numerous in number, quite different in how they operate, aspect, best work and so on. They can often be set up to mimic the activities and presentation of the other CPUs, but they struggle to do that well. When allowed to work in their native systems, they do those same tasks better without anywhere near as much lag or problems.

Autistic Brains are just Different

All brains are different, and no two are identical. Yet the differences between brains can be minor or notable. When we look at the fMRI and MRI scans of Autistic people, there are often notable indications of difference when compared to neurotypical brains [Source “Human Fetal Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Tells Future Emergence of Autism Spectrum Disorders“, “Neuron Number and Size in Prefrontal Cortex of Children With Autism“, “Infant Visual Brain Development and Inherited Genetic Liability in Autism“]. People have been looking for decades for “the autism difference”, without success. What we can conclude from this is that Autism is actually a collective term for “different” – that is, various differences in various parts from the typical brain is often correlated to a person who has been diagnosed with Autism. That is, there isn’t the Autism cluster of neurons that make you Autistic, it is more that your Neurons function differently in some meaningful way to those of Neurotypicals, and that difference, when noticed, shows up as Autism.

Using our computer analogy above, minor differences between brain models are often smoothed out by the operating system, our personalities. Larger differences can be noticed in changes in the ability to perform – either superior, or inferior. When allowed to run in a native way, the brain can operate more effectively, but due to cultural conforming, Autistic brains are often running a masking filter, to emulate neurotypical presentation, and that means that the performance suffers.