Bulldozing new neural connections

The ever thought-provoking John Elder Robison has an interesting new article on his Look me in the eye blog regarding some research work that he is involved in as a test subject. The experimentation involves looking at brain plasticity, which is the ability for your brain to make connections – to learn things – and whether this ability differs between those on the Autism Spectrum and not.

I found the article, and the research behind it fascinating.

The Harvard team behind the test are finding that indeed there does seem to be a difference, with those on the Spectrum better able to make new connections than those who are typical. John uses the analogy that he has a bulldozer for clearing new paths through his brain, where as those without Autism have machetes.

This rings true for me, and coincidentally I touched upon my ability to learn new things easily in an article I wrote just a couple of days ago.

If you give me something to learn that enthuses me, then I will learn it backwards and inside out in a surprisingly short period of time. Clearly, the mechanisms that surround special interests come into play, and I will consume and store many facts about the subject very easily.

This is a skill that comes in very useful at work, where I can be given something to investigate, and I’ll do a good job of it quickly, without fuss, and with a detailed written report at the end. I may even appear excited as I dig out details, making all sorts of little noises and giggles. It’s a skill that I’m valued for at work, and it’s one that in my experience people without Asperger’s seem to lack most of the time.

The other thing that grabbed me was John’s description of how his son can learn things easily, but if he concentrates on more than one thing at a time then the data gets mixed up and confused. It’s great to hear that others experience this too.

I’ve always described this attribute of my character as being ‘linear’. I do things one at a time. I learn about one subject at a time, and I experience and express emotions one at a time too. When I tackle a new project at work, I find that it very quickly tramples on my ability to access data from the previous project. Someone will ask me me about something that I knew in detail the previous week, and I find I have to refer to notes I took to jog my memory. It’s not that I’ve forgotten the information, it’s just that I’ve lost the ability to recall it easily – the pathway to accessing it has become disrupted by my new project. Once I’ve looked it up in my notes then the information comes flooding back. This feels very like the confusion and disorganisation that John describes in his son.

It’s wonderful news that people are researching differences in thought processes like this, and that they appear to be finding real evidence of how the differences work.

If you’ve not read John’s article, go and do it now – it’s a great read.

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