How Your Brain Works Differently

Ever wonder why you notice things others miss? Or why a crowded room feels like an assault while everyone else seems fine?

Your brain is wired differently. Here's what that means.

Autistic brains have stronger local connections but different long-distance connections. Think: amazing short-range wifi, spotty cell service between cities.

What This Means for You

You notice everything. Details others miss. Typos. Patterns. When something's slightly off.

Sensory input hits harder. Your brain processes at maximum intensity without filtering. That's not being "too sensitive"—it's receiving more information. (More in Sensory Processing)

Big picture takes effort. You build understanding from details up. Need time to step back and see how pieces fit.

Transitions are hard. Switching tasks requires coordinating across brain regions. That's why interruptions feel so jarring.

"When I learned about connectivity differences, everything clicked. I'm not bad at multitasking because I'm lazy—my brain literally works differently." — Autistic adult

The Wiring

Pattern	What It Does
Strong local connections	Detail perception, pattern recognition
Different integration	Alternative "big picture" processing
Persistent sensory networks	Why you don't "tune out" background noise

It's Genetic

Autism runs in families. If you're autistic, relatives probably are too (diagnosed or not).

"Autistic people find each other and have autistic children. My entire friend group turned out to be autistic." — Autistic adult

There's no single "autism gene"—hundreds of variations contribute. That's why autism looks different in everyone.

The "Evolutionary Advantage" Question

A common question: "If autism is genetic, what evolutionary advantage did it provide?"

The honest answer is more nuanced than the question assumes.

Challenging the Premise

The question itself contains a misunderstanding about how evolution works. Not everything in our genes needs to have been "advantageous" to persist.

Why Autism Genes Persist (Without Needing to Be "Advantageous")

Mutations are random. Natural selection doesn't select for helpful traits—it only selects against mutations that were detrimental enough to prevent reproduction. A trait can be neutral, or even somewhat challenging, and still persist across generations.

"A mutation can be neutral, or even detrimental and still persist in the gene pool, so long as the generations of the organism carrying it continue to reproduce and pass it on." — r/aspergers community discussion

The Complexity of Multiple Genes

Autism isn't controlled by a single gene—it involves complex combinations of hundreds of genetic expressions. Many of these expressions exist in non-autistic people too, simply remaining dormant or combining differently.

Think of it like this:

• Gene A + Gene B + Gene C → typical neurology
• Gene A + Gene B + Gene D → typical neurology
• Gene A + Gene C + Gene D → autistic neurology

The individual genes persist easily because most combinations don't produce autism.

De Novo Mutations

Sometimes autism appears in families with no prior history at all. In many of these cases—particularly when intellectual disability is also present—the cause is a de novo mutation: a spontaneous genetic change that occurs during conception rather than being inherited. These aren't "caused" by anything the parents did; they're random events that happen in all human reproduction. De novo mutations account for a significant portion of autism cases, especially those with higher support needs.

A parallel example: Congenital heart defects would have been fatal before modern medicine, yet the genetic expressions that cause them have persisted for millennia. Why? Because those genes exist harmlessly in most people, only causing problems in specific combinations.

That Said...

This doesn't mean autism couldn't have provided advantages. It may well have. Autistic traits like:

• 🔍 Deep pattern recognition
• 🎯 Systematic analysis
• 💡 Innovative thinking that ignores "how it's always been done"
• 🛠️ Specialized expertise in critical areas

...could certainly have benefited early human groups. The "lone inventor," the person who noticed the pattern everyone else missed, the one who didn't follow the group off a cliff—these archetypes resonate with autistic experiences.

The bottom line: Autism doesn't need to "justify" its existence through evolutionary advantage. It exists because human genetic variation is vast and complex. Whether it was historically advantageous, neutral, or challenging in different contexts—autistic people are here, have always been here, and deserve support as they are.

How Common Is It?

Autism prevalence has risen from 1 in 2,000 in the 1970s to about 1 in 31 today.

Before you panic about an "epidemic"—relax. This increase mostly reflects:

• Better recognition (especially in women and adults)
• Broader diagnostic criteria
• Reduced stigma leading to more people seeking diagnosis
• Understanding that autism presents differently than the old stereotypes

There's ongoing debate about whether prevalence is also genuinely increasing. Some researchers point to factors like:

• Assortative mating: Autistic people often find each other (we get each other!) and have children together, which may increase rates over generations
• Environmental factors: Still being researched, no definitive answers
• It was always this common: We're just finally counting properly

The honest answer? Probably a combination. The important point is that autistic people have always existed—we're just finally being recognized.

You almost certainly know multiple autistic people—whether they're diagnosed or not.

The Bottom Line

Your brain isn't broken. It's a different operating system. The challenge isn't fixing it—it's finding environments that work with how you're wired.

Next chapter: Cognitive Processing — how these differences show up in thinking and focus.