summary ofThe Autistic BrainBook by Temple Grandin, Richard Panek

first KEY POINT

Early explorations of an autistic disorder

Leo Kanner, the first English-speaking psychiatrist who wrote about autism, considered it a biological issue. He examined his patients and their parents to learn specific patterns and symptoms of the disorder. Later on, he changed his opinion and wrote that the disorder had roots in the psychological field.Another researcher who examined autism was Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger. He listed specific symptoms that come with the disorder, and the scientific community started to recognize autism more often. Kids who had resembling symptoms, like shyness or excessive enthusiasm about one subject, could be diagnosed with autism disorder even though they didn't have it. With the development of MRI and neurobiology, scientists started to understand which parts of the brain could be “broken,” causing an autistic disorder.

Neurology has to explore the human brain when it doesn't work right to realize which part of it is responsible for our language skills, diverse emotions, memory, and so on. For example, if a person traumatizes the back part of their head, they will most likely experience vision disturbances because the visual cortex is at the back part of the brain. However, an autistic disorder does not entail a broken brain. Some of its parts just don't grow right. After her MRI, Grandin realized that her cerebellum was smaller than in a normal brain, resulting in weak coordination.Grandin’s MRI also showed that her amygdalae were increased. Since they are responsible for working with emotions, particularly fear, Grandin had acute anxiety throughout her life. One more impressive finding was made by Grandin when the researchers checked her visual cortex activation in comparison to a person without an autistic disorder. When looking at pictures with faces and other subjects, Grandin's brain didn't activate the same way as another person's brain when doing the same.

This summary will reveal the real nature of autistic people. We are used to perceiving them as little children who don’t understand much about the world. The truth is that people with an autistic disorder are as intelligent as individuals who don't have it. You will observe how autistic people think about themselves, and how their brain works.