The first thing that occurred to me when reading the wonderful 1000 brains theory and in particular the model building predictions of the neo cortex was how this relates to autism. It seems to me to be glaringly obvious that what has happened here is there is somehow a higher mismatch between what is predicted and what is observed which would explain much of the behaviour of someone suffering from autism. Kind of like the predictions are just a little too specific and the tolerance is too tight resulting in an over stimulating neurons in the brain for environmental factors that don’t fit a “too specific” model that has been built for whatever reason. The comfort of very predictable environments and the over stimulation caused by less predictable environments would be explained by this. I think this may hold the key to what is going on in autism. There is definitely a phd project somewhere in there.
Congratulations! What an incredible milestone :) wish you the best of luck
Congrats on starting med school—I’d most interested in your observations from the inside.
The first thing that occurred to me when reading the wonderful 1000 brains theory and in particular the model building predictions of the neo cortex was how this relates to autism. It seems to me to be glaringly obvious that what has happened here is there is somehow a higher mismatch between what is predicted and what is observed which would explain much of the behaviour of someone suffering from autism. Kind of like the predictions are just a little too specific and the tolerance is too tight resulting in an over stimulating neurons in the brain for environmental factors that don’t fit a “too specific” model that has been built for whatever reason. The comfort of very predictable environments and the over stimulation caused by less predictable environments would be explained by this. I think this may hold the key to what is going on in autism. There is definitely a phd project somewhere in there.