As far as I'm aware, the autistic neurotype is caused by a different distribution of connections in the brain, caused by a deficiency of some chemical that I can't seem to find the name of (I swear I saw it somewhere, but there's too much SEO garbage for anything to find things other than vitamins and anti-vax propaganda). ASD is diagnosed by disordered symptoms that are consistent with autism, and can sometimes occur in people who do not possess the actual neurotype, but still have something else that causes those symptoms. (What the "something else" might be is something I do not know.)
> Some of this work indicates that autism is characterized by underconnectivity between distant brain regions and overconnectivity between neighboring ones; others show differences in connectivity within certain brain networks. In one study, connections within the default mode, or ‘daydreaming,’ network of autism brains looked especially weak.
> For example, mutations in the autism-linked genes MET and CNTNAP2 produce patterns that differ from those in people without these mutations.
> Ashley Scott, a graduate student in Geschwind’s lab, scanned the brains of 16 high-functioning boys with autism and 16 age-, sex- and IQ-matched healthy controls during a difficult memory task that requires activity in that brain circuit. She also collected saliva samples from the children to see which ones carry the CNTNAP2 variants.
> Because the variants are common in the population, most participants — 11 of the children with autism and 12 of the controls — have at least one copy.
> Scott found that these children have increased connectivity among local areas of the prefrontal cortex. In contrast, long-range connections between the prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex — a region toward the back of the brain that’s part of the frontal-striatal loop — are significantly stronger in the children who do not carry the risk allele.
I don't remember if this is it or not, but there's something that stimulates the generation of long neural connections, and a deficiency in something can cause those connections to be shorter on average - you end up with the same amount, but they are distributed differently and more localized, which is what causes the "attention to detail" effect (as well as underutilization of potential connections, and connections between unwanted areas).
Still trying to find the original source where I heard that, though. Sucks that I do so many of my impulse searches in incognito mode.
