Research on Extremes of Autism in Biographies
This page discusses the background of the author that led to this work, and research done by the author to test this theory. Contemporary autistic biographies were examined for extremes in abilities. Literature on the location of brain functions was examined to find the most easily recognizable markers to suggest strength of brain areas. This research suggests that classic autistic symptoms may be caused by strengths in using the left limbic system and right neocortex, and weak ability to use the other quadrants.
If one has read much of the rest of this site, I think it should be clear that I believe that based on what we know, it is plausible that imbalanced use of quadrants of the brain leads to intelligence of all kinds, disorders and autism. The idea, though, of our becoming more intelligent by also becoming less able is counter-intuitive.
Personally, I am someone who felt that I wasn’t performing at the level that would have been indicated by my supposedly high intelligence. I had emotional issues, and presumed there were psychological issues that needed to be addressed. I eagerly improved my relationship with God. I gratefully used all the tools of psychology. I combated false ideas. I accepted my past. I talked to a therapist. At the end of this long journey, I was a healthier, better person. It wasn’t until this point, though, that I realized that there were quirky things about myself that all the other issues had masked. Things like, I was much more aware of visuals on my right side, and that I was recognizing people by their voices, their expressions and location instead of by their faces.
These quirky aspects led me to consider whether I had some sort of neurological syndrome that was impairing my life. I felt that a summation of my issues were that I had problems with being social, in communication and in having limited interests. This would put me exactly on the autistic spectrum. On the other hand, when I started reading the literature of autism, I found that none of the specifics fit me at all, though I found out much later that people with autism can differ in many specific ways.
I read the autistic biographies of Temple Grandin (1986, 1995). I was struck by the idea that not only was I not like her, I seemed to be her exact opposite. She thought in pictures. I realized that I couldn’t visualize at all; I only thought in words. She felt great empathy for living creatures that she applied to more humane slaughtering. I couldn’t feel what animals felt, but many years before I had used my very strong sympathy to decide to be a vegetarian. This left me with a mystery of why I would match the general criteria for autism, but be so very opposite in so many of the specific details which are commonly discussed about those with this condition.
A second mystery surfaced when I decided to join an email list for prosopagnosia, face blindness. I was struck by the fact that so many of the people on the list, those who had always had face blindness, were quirky, very intelligent people. We didn’t all share, though, the same quirks. We had quirky relatives, but they didn’t necessarily have the same quirks either.
Then I read The Creative Brain by Ned Herrmann (1988). This book attempts to explain human personalities by how much people use four sets of abilities. It was based on the idea that the brain has a left and right neocortex, and left and right limbic system. I realized that if this could be taken further, it could mean that greater imbalance could cause greater strengths and greater problems. It could explain the mysteries I was seeing. It could explain both my intelligence and my problems, and the counter-intuitive became plausible for me.
This investigation has turned me into an amateur psychologist. With two engineering degrees, a minor in biology, and a Master of Library Science, I am a good generalist and a good researcher. The following is my attempt to test and explore the idea of imbalanced development causing autism. It is my hope that it may encourage others to examine these ideas, and hopefully they will apply their strengths to considering its validity.
I hypothesized that if autism is caused by large imbalances in the use of quadrants of the brain, the left and right limbic system and neocortex, then by examining the biographies of contemporary people on the autistic spectrum, I would find a pattern of strengths and weaknesses which reflected those four quadrants. To do this, I matched simple behaviors, those noted in the biographies, with the location of brain functions in order to provide markers as to whether or not someone had strong or weak use of a particular quadrant. Grouping these autistics by the strengths of quadrants, I checked for whether their overall abilities and problems were similar.
One issue with this approach is that I only had the information in the biographies; I didn’t attempt to get any clarifying information. On the other hand, I was able to learn about a much larger group of people with autism then I would have by other methods, and there were descriptions of development over time which would have been much more difficult to obtain in other ways.
Another issue is that these biographies do not necessarily represent a random sample of people with autism. It is likely to include larger numbers of any autistic subgroup that is treatable by today’s methods because it is likely that more success stories are written. Assuming there is a link between personality and autism subgroups, then autists, and parents, who are inclined to write about their lives may be overrepresented. It is also possible that those people with autism whose symptoms don’t fit classic descriptions may not feel that they should write their biographies.
There were the general difficulties of relying on written descriptions of behaviors and motivations. Words like ‘logic’ and ‘depression’ were sometimes used in ways that didn’t reflect their traditional meanings. Through this work, I’ve become convinced that worry is a left limbic emotion and anxiety is a right limbic emotion, but words like ‘worry’, ‘anxiety’, ‘fear’, and ‘panic’ were used somewhat interchangeably, making it difficult to use those emotions to understand someone’s underlying abilities.
Even when words accurately described what someone believed was the truth, it is possible for that person to misinterpret the situation. Gunilla Gerland (1997), with autism, wrote about herself “But my mother couldn’t really cope, and she was also frightened of me. She called them ‘furious temper tantrums’, but to me they had nothing to do with rage, but more with a strong sense of panic.” (p. 25) Not everyone, though, has an accurate understanding of their own symptoms, and some descriptions can be misleading.
Even given these difficulties, I believe that these biographies were a good source of information. I found that often parents who wrote biographies were astute observers of their children, and the parents did a tremendous job trying to resolve environmental issues that could impact their children – and obscure their strengths. I found the autobiographies of those with autism to be particularly useful. I believe that someone developing beyond a problem is in a better position to understand the problem. As Lucy Blackman (1999) wrote in her autobiography of autistic life “Once again I learned this by comparing the Old and New Lucy.” (p. 278)
In the next section, I discuss which brain functions were used as markers to estimate the strength of the use of different brain quadrants. This was limited by needing functions which by themselves produced noticeable behaviors, and that they would be noted by the person with autism or those who wrote about them. These behaviors needed to be noticeable in individuals who were verbal and in those who weren’t. These requirements, and needing researchers to have located the function within the brain, limited the number of functions that were useful within this context.
Keeping in mind behaviors noted in autistic biographies, I examined the scientific literature to try to understand which quadrant particular functions were located, the left or right limbic system, or left or right neocortex.
In general, current research shows that behaviors are created through subprocesses, and that in terms of being able to do something, it is rarely a matter of only one hemisphere having all the ability. Older literature may reflect a feeling that the right hemisphere does not have important functions, but current literature shows that this isn’t true.
Psychological and cognitive functions are no longer viewed as made of unitary processes (e.g. reading, writing, object recognition) but rather as being composed of several subprocesses (e.g., featural analysis, structural encoding, activation of biographic memories) organized in specific ways (e.g., in parallel or in succession, independently or interactively), and the cognitive architecture of mental functions is best characterized by a compartmented organization of interactive components. (Sergent, 1995, p. 157)
Before beginning a review of behavioral asymmetries, I want to highlight two important conclusions to which the review will lead. One is that, with the possible exception of overt speech and one or two other tasks, it is rarely the case in the intact brain that one hemisphere can perform a task normally whereas the other hemisphere is completely unable to perform the task at all. Instead, even when hemispheric asymmetry for a task exists, it is typically the case that both hemispheres have some ability to perform the task, even though one may do a better job than the other. For some tasks, one hemisphere performs better because the task is approached in different ways as a function of which hemisphere is injured or which hemisphere receives the stimulus information – one approach leads to better performance than the other. A second important conclusion is that even simple tasks consist of a number of components or subprocesses, and there is no guarantee that hemispheric asymmetry for one component is the same as that for another component. Thus, it is not usually easy to state which hemisphere is “superior” for a multicomponent task. (Hellige, 1993, p. 29)
For most tasks, both hemispheres have some ability, and we use the term hemispheric asymmetry to refer to the different ability levels of the two hemispheres rather than to a situation in which one hemisphere has absolutely no ability at all. This being the case, it is possible to make a distinction between the direction of asymmetry (i.e., which hemisphere has greater ability) and the magnitude of asymmetry (i.e., how great is the difference in ability between the two hemispheres). (Hellige, 1993, p. 212)
My layman’s description of the brain structures involved is that the neocortex and limbic system are part of the cerebrum that can be further divided into two cerebral hemispheres. The outermost part of the cerebrum is the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is made up of four lobes: the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, the occipital lobe, and the frontal lobe. The neocortex is the top layer of the cerebral hemispheres, and in human beings makes up most of the cerebral cortex. Part of the cerebrum, buried deep, is the limbic lobe. The limbic lobe is part of the limbic system. The limbic system contains both cortical and subcortical brain structures. The limbic lobe is subcortical, and the cortical parts of the limbic system are in the lobes of the cerebral cortex.
The structures that are included in the limbic system do not appear to have become standardized, and a listing can vary from source to source. It seems fairly clear that the limbic system contains the thalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and possibly the hypothalamus. Whatever the definition, I really mean to define the limbic system as the parts of the brain that develop together along with the limbic lobe.
Since many studies locate a function within a hemisphere or within a structure which is in both hemispheres, but not determine both, I sometimes depended upon knowing the kind of function it was to help determine whether it is generated from the neocortex or the limbic system. Generally, it is known that the neocortex is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, language and conscious thought. The limbic system is especially involved in emotion, learning and memory.
So, given this background, I matched simple aspects of behaviors that were noted in autistic biographies to the quadrant which one would need strong use of in order to produce the behavior. Though I started with many candidate behaviors and functions, many functions were not useful to me because I couldn’t determine the quadrant they would activate, and many behaviors were not useful because it would activate more than one quadrant. I was still able to identify a small number of actions that could be connected to brain activity in a particular quadrant of the brain.
- Left Neocortex
Key component for producing speech
Sequential thinking/temporal ordering
- Left Limbic System
Left side emotions tend to be positive/approach/conscious such as excitement, happiness and anger
- Right Neocortex
Alert to changing attention
Can hold attention for long periods when interested
Holistic thinking
- Right Limbic System
Right side emotions tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, and guilt
Left Neocortex: Key Component for Producing Speech
Expressive (or Broca’s) aphasia is a deficit involving primarily the patient’s own speech; the patient’s comprehension of the speech of others remains relatively intact. This type of aphasia is associated with damage to the frontal regions of the left hemisphere controlling speech output, particularly the region called Broca’s area, as shown in Figure 6.1, is located just in front of the primary motor zone for speech musculature (lips, tongue, jaw, larynx, and so on). (Springer and Deutsch, 1989, p. 175-176)
Broca attributed Tan’s aphasia to a lesion on the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere, in a specific area now known as Broca’s area (see Figure 3.1). Although Tan had lost the ability to talk, he could write normally and showed no impairment in comprehension of written or oral language. He seemed to suffer no paralysis of the lips or tongue, and indeed he could move his tongue to the left or right on command. The deficit seemed to be restricted to the movements of articulated speech. (Corballis, 1983, p. 30)
Left Neocortex: Sequential Thinking/Temporal Ordering
Although few studies have investigated the factor of information sequencing in split-brain subjects, reports have come in from other clinical groups, primarily those with unilateral brain damage. Early findings revealed that left-hemisphere (not right-hemisphere) damage seriously interfered with subjects’ perception of temporal ordering (Carmon & Nachshon, 1971). Reviews of the clinical evidence to date also tend to confirm the left hemisphere’s specialization for sequential processing and the temporal resolution of information, irrespective of its spatial complexity (Carmon, 1978; Mills & Rollman, 1980). (Iaccino, 1993, p. 35)
Left Limbic System: Emotions that tend to be positive/approach/conscious, such as excitement, happiness and anger
“The valence hypothesis postulates … that the left hemisphere is specialized for positive emotion” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 6) “plethora of EEG studies that have associated relative increased left-hemisphere activity with positive emotional states” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 8) “approach-withdrawal model of emotion processing, which posits that emotions associated with approach behaviors and withdrawal behaviors are processed within the left- and right-anterior brain regions, respectively.” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 8) “Among those who received negative feedback on their essays, increased postfeedback left-prefrontal aroused was associated with increased aggression.” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 10)
“Morris and colleagues have proposed that stimuli processed below the level of awareness activate the right amygdala, whereas consciously processed emotional stimuli preferentially activates the left amygdala.” (Phan et al., 2004, p. 260)
Right Neocortex: Alert to Changing Attention
Vigilance tasks are monotonous, and monotony is associated with reduced arousal. We have already discussed the role of the right hemisphere in mediating arousal. One of the reasons the right hemisphere may play a critical role in vigilance is because it is the hemisphere that also plays a dominant role in controlling arousal. (Heilman, 1995, p. 228)
It is interesting that norepinephrine (a specific neurotransmitter) seems to be particularly important in maintaining alertness and that processes dependent on norepinephrine are hypothesized to be more prevalent in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere (e.g., see Chapter 4 and Tucker and Williamson, 1985). (Hellige, 1993, pp. 104-105)
“For example, the intact, normal right hemisphere is quicker to react to external stimuli, and has a greater attentional capacity compared to the left” (Joseph, 1996, p. 550)
Right Neocortex: Can Hold Attention for Long Periods When of Interest
Furthermore, recent studies using PET techniques to monitor regional cerebral blood flow have shown increased activation in the right (but not the left) frontal lobe after subjects have maintained attention for long periods (e.g., Pardo et al., 1991). (Hellige, 1993, pp. 104-105)
Right Neocortex: Holistic Thinking
One characteristic not found in right-holistic processing is the temporal ordering of elements. Rather, a present centeredness or timeless experience has been associated with this cognitive mode in which all events are perceived to occur immediately and simultaneously. (Iaccino, 1993, p. 32)
Right Limbic System: Emotions that tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, guilt
“The valence hypothesis postulates that the right hemisphere is specialized for negative emotion” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 6)
“plethora of EEG studies that have associated … relative increased right-hemisphere activity with negative emotional states” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 8)
“approach-withdrawal model of emotion processing, which posits that emotions associated with approach behaviors and withdrawal behaviors are processed within the left- and right-anterior brain regions, respectively.” (Demaree et al., 2005, p. 8)
It is already possible to point to the following subtle aspects of personality that are missing in those with loss of right hemispheric function: There are deficiencies in the sense of “familiarity,” in pity and compassion, and of the solacing sense of union with a “Higher Power.” (Henry, 1997, p. 17)
“To Van Lancker, the right hemisphere is involved in matters as basic as the infant’s tie to the mother and in the later attachment of one adult with another.” (Henry, 1997, p. 18)
“As has been previously discussed this loss of the right side means that the victim experiences anger and fear but lacks the pity and compassion of normal attachment.” (Henry, 1997, p. 18)
“In his last writings, Jim [Henry] elegantly brought together data from a number of different areas to propose a prominent role of the right hemisphere in the development of human affiliative behaviours”. (Shapiro, Jamner & Spence, 1997, p. 61)
Horton (1988) has reviewed some evidence that the right brain is the locus not only of negative but also “positive” feelings. He argues that the most basic of these “positive” emotions is that of being solaced, soothed or comforted. It produces emotions such as happiness and peace, or elation and joy. (Henry, 1997, p. 19)
“Morris and colleagues have proposed that stimuli processed below the level of awareness activate the right amygdala, whereas consciously processed emotional stimuli preferentially activates the left amygdala.” (Phan et al., 2004, p. 260)
Using these behaviors, I considered whether this quadrant model could describe the behaviors and developmental changes of the 133 individuals. I found that this model did have the potential to describe the biographies under the following conditions:
• Each individual had great strengths in two quadrants.
• Development beyond these two quadrants appeared to be influenced by gender. (The data is consistent with females strengthening left hemisphere preferentially and males strengthening right hemisphere.)
• Largest group was those with strengths in left limbic system and right neocortex. These individuals were most often ones labeled as having classic autistic symptoms.
• There were smaller numbers of individuals with strengths in other quadrants.
Each individual exhibited strengths in two quadrants. My method was not precise enough to gauge whether there was any difference in strength between the two strong quadrants, but appeared to be able to detect which of the weak quadrants was gaining strength over time.
With regards to the biographies, there were generally lower numbers of them about females, but there was no indication that the strengths of the females differed from the strengths of the males. As will be noted later, most of the biographies described people with strong left limbic and right neocortex use, females as well as males. What was striking was that the females appeared to follow a different continued developmental pattern then the males.
Of the females who were strong users of their left limbic system and right neocortex, they generally were much higher functioning than the males with the same strengths, but continued to be strongly autistic long after they had made their gains. An example is Temple Grandin “a successful livestock handling equipment designer” (Grandin, 1986, p. 9) “a full fledged college professor” (Cutler, 2004, p. x) who is so successful that one might be forgiven for wondering whether she is impaired at all! My interpretation is that her biographies reflect her gaining use of her left neocortex over time, but that she continues to be deficient in use of her right limbic system.
The males, on the other hand, who have strengths in their left limbic system and right neocortex, appear to become less emotionally autistic, but seem to retain left neocortex deficiencies which hamper their living independently even when they are able to speak. An example is Sean Barron (Barron & Barron, 2002) who, over the length of his biography, becomes less autistic, but has difficulties living independently. I interpret his difficulties as trouble with sequential thinking and other left neocortex functions.
I believe that his biography does reflect his gaining use of his right limbic system over time. About his younger years, he wrote “People bothered me. I didn’t know what they were for or what they would do to me.” (p. 20) His gains in human bonding emotions seemed particularly notable.
[Sean] When we were both finished talking, we held each other. Neither one of us wanted ever to let go. I wanted to hold on until all the pain inside me was released and I was free. (p. 231)
[Sean’s mother] For seventeen years he had appeared to be destructive, negative, self-absorbed, insensitive – heartless. Now I saw a young man whose eyes filled with pain if a remark he made was misunderstood, if he did even the least thing to displease us. (p. 239)
In fact, it appeared as though an obsession with another person was a common symptom of those males with left limbic/right neocortex strengths who were very high functioning – which I interpret as gaining better right limbic use.
However, Rosemarie was now uncomfortable with Michael, because of a significant change in behavior and she thought he was “stalking” her. She told me that she could no longer handle the intensity of their friendship and she was receiving endless phone calls and e-mails from him and couldn’t get him to stop. When she discussed this with him, he became angry. (Cohen, 2005, p. 61)
Finally, Meg tried to break up with Paul. He went wild, crazy with hurt and humiliation and anger. Over and over again, he tried to talk to her, to persuade her to come back to him. He sent her a big pile of family pictures and one of his most treasured possessions, a valuable coin his grandfather had given him years before. He wanted to empty out his bank account and give her every penny of his savings. Luckily the account required my signature, so he couldn’t get at the money by himself. (McDonnell, 1993, p. 317)
So, my interpretation of these biographies is that the women are gaining left neocortex functions over time, and remain more emotionally autistic with poor use of their right limbic system. The men gain more use of their right limbic system, becoming less emotionally autistic, but retain the problems of having weak use of their left neocortex with poor sequential thinking and speech problems.
This could explain why so many of the males struggle to gain speech – which may come from them being able to transfer the speech function to the right neocortex. The women seem to gain speech more easily. An example is that Gunilla Gerland (1997) appears to have naturally developed the typical function for speech.
And something had actually happened in me that made it possible for me to now speak automatically. I had never been able to do this before. I no longer had to think out everything I wanted to say, and I didn’t have to direct my voice to say what I wanted said. (p. 236)
Including the information from all the biographies, a larger pattern appears to be that of women gaining greater use of their left hemisphere over time, and the men of gaining greater use of their right hemisphere over time. This is based, though, on a much smaller number of biographies of people who have strengths in different quadrants, but this type of additional gender-based pattern appears to me to be necessary in order to explain all the data.
Strong left limbic system use means strong left side emotions that tend to be positive/approach/conscious such as excitement, happiness and anger. Strong right neocortex use means strong holistic thinking, and strong in being vigilant and able to focus for very long periods of time. Weak left neocortex use means being weak in speech, sequential thinking, and temporal ordering. Weak right limbic system use means weak right side emotions that tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, and guilt.
A very strong result from this work was that there were an overwhelming number of biographies for people with left limbic system/right neocortex strengths. This may only reflect the nonrandom nature of the biographies, but the people in this category were the ones who were claimed to have classic autistic symptoms, and this leads me to hypothesize that classic autistic traits are caused by personalities strong in left limbic system/right neocortex use and weak in other areas.
For example, Ann Hewetson (2005) wrote a biography of her son Mark, a “classic textbook presentation of Kanner-type autistic disorder” (p. 194) but who does go on to have speech. He has very similar characteristics to others in this category, whether they are labeled with autism or with asperger’s syndrome.
About Mark: “strengths far in advance of those of his peer group lying side by side with serious deficiencies” (p. 86) “Why does he constantly ignore the vast and the global to concentrate instead on the minute and the minuscule?” (p. 23) “excellent rote memory” (p. 35) “Mark hears too much” (. 63) “attraction of this inner world” (p. 77) “powerful capacity for visual imagery” (p. 81) “trigger a preoccupation” (p. 82) “interprets speech entirely literally” (p. 87) “Mark’s thinking is based on visual images of words rather than the verbal words themselves.” (p. 96) “sameness, ritual and routine” (p. 122)
He exhibited a strong ability to feel left hemisphere emotions. “chortling happily” (p. 10) “delighted” (p. 11) “ecstasy” (p. 15) “his excitement was palpable and infectious” (p. 16) “laughs in delight” (p. 21) “The more major the road, the more excited he becomes, limbs twirling and twisting as the car eats up the miles.” (p. 22) “enthralled, is riveted, his body trembling, his small hands twirling from side to side in excitement” (p. 23) “enthralled” (p. 28) “squealing with exuberance and delight” (p. 47) “quivering with excitement” (p. 82) “quivers with excitement” (p. 84) “too excited” (p. 165) “experienced great joy in his successes and great pride in his achievements” (p. 177) “anger” (p. 191)
He appears to have weak ability in right hemisphere emotions. “He is oblivious to praise and approval” (p. 15) “trailing his mantle of aloneness” (p. 41) “he is oblivious to either rejection or lack of acceptance” (p. 92) “Mark, as yet, is incapable of forming the human social bonds necessary to establish and maintain the two-way contact that is friendship.” (p. 121)
He shows left neocortex deficits in speech production, sequential reasoning and temporal understanding. “It is as if he does not have the innate, inherent ability to manufacture speech.” (p. 38) “Speaking doesn’t come easy to me like it does to everyone else.” (p. 191) “Academically he shows little capacity for logical reasoning at even the most elementary level.” (p. 90) About his trouble understanding time.
Mark’s response to every situation is one of totality, as if he had a vision of neither hindsight nor foresight, as if he could not grasp the fact that the future will in time become the present and will then slide into the past never to come again. (p. 33)
Mark has brought order into his time-life and the events of the past by setting up a visual date calendar in his memory. Never having had even the hazy concept of “a few years ago” or “early last month” or even “last night”, he has now developed a precise hold on time. He has related it specifically to date and the clock. (P. 102)
He shows strengths in right neocortex use. Though logical reasoning is problematic for him, he seems to be a good holistic thinker. “Sitting happily in his high seat at the back of the car, eyes focused on the road ahead, he give the impression that he could go on for ever.” (p. 22) “come to realize also that his thought processes work by association” (p. 97) “he spends hours shooting down the invaders” (p. 126) “But then, as he settles into the rhythm and beat … his concentration is absolute” (p. 133) Young Mark escaped from the securely fenced back yard, (p. 25-26) and later from school (p. 46).
Mark Hewetson was one example, but there were many biographies that could have been used. Biographies in this category all showed strong left hemisphere emotions. They had anger and fear, and they had strong positive emotions. The biographies mention words like “riding the high of his own happiness” (Kaufman, 1994, p. 3) “bouncing off the walls with excitement“ (Thomas, 2000, p. 122) and “[h]er happiness was not occasional or accidental, it was characteristic of her condition, as characteristic, as needful to acknowledge, as the eerie banshee shrieks and wails that the books call tantruming” (Park, 2001, p. 8)
This category showed weak right hemisphere emotions. “I began to suspect that I was of no more significance to my son than a table or chair.” (Waites & Swinbourne, 2002, p. 7) “I [Temple Grandin] don’t ask permission for anything … I go ahead and do it, and if it’s wrong, too bad!” (Cutler, 2004, p. 132) “The only emotions I felt after her [sister’s] death were cold panic and fear.” (Thomas, 2000, p. 19)
This group showed weak left neocortex use. “his schoolwork was always at least average, often higher – except in assignments requiring abstract reasoning. Then he was lost and confused.” (Barron & Barron, 2002, p. 112) When Charles Hart’s son Ted talked about when he would be a little boy again, Hart (1989) tried to explain to him “Time goes only one way.” (p. 223)
This group showed strong right neocortex use. “He’ll soon tire of that. He did it again, and again, and again. And again.” (Barron & Barron, 2002, p. 4) “is easily distractible” (McDonnell, 1993, p. 69) “Whitney was teaching me that you could engage in complex problem-solving and thinking, and never use words.” (Florance, 2004, p. 113)
Other Types: Strong Left Neocortex and Strong Right Limbic System
Strong left neocortex use means being strong in speech, sequential thinking, and temporal ordering. Strong right limbic system use means strong right side emotions that tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, and guilt. Weak left limbic system use means weak left side emotions that tend to be positive/approach/conscious such as excitement, happiness and anger. Weak right neocortex use means weak holistic thinking, and weak in being vigilant and able to focus for very long periods of time.
There were only a few biographies that I put in this category. One example is the autobiography of Will Hadcroft (2005), The Feeling’s Unmutual: Growing Up with Asperger Syndrome (Undiagnosed), and in the last pages of the book he describes self-diagnosing himself with Asperger’s Syndrome. He is viewed throughout the book as eccentric, different and weird, but generally people couldn’t see anything wrong. “Unfortunately, whenever I did try to suggest that something was fundamentally wrong they would dismiss it.” (p. 189)
Much of the book was focused on his relationships with other people. He also wrote about his obsession with Doctor Who. “He [Doctor Who] was like a father figure to me.” (p. 65) “The Doctor was my friend, and Peri was my girl.” (p. 107) He wrote “the Bible and Jehovah’s Witnesses were my core obsessions” (p. 113) These obsessions appear to be focused on connectedness and belonging. The book was full of what seems to be his describing his desire to draw close to others and his desire to be away from them to escape negative feelings like shame and embarrassment. “I actually feel both, you see. I want to be left alone and have lots of friends.” (p. 189)
He cared about other people’s opinions. “I valued her encouragement.” (p. 100) “I couldn’t bear to hear any negative comment.” (p. 177) I believe that Hadcroft, though, wrote about a lack of empathy, in the narrow sense of his not sensing what others were feeling. “He was so much like me … his knack of offending people without realizing it.” (p. 143) “I wasn’t sure whether they were just patiently listening or really engrossed.” (p. 219) I do think that Hadcroft felt very sympathetic. He wrote “I just wished that I was as articulate and funny and likable too. But I enjoyed him enjoying being popular.” (p. 61)
What is very clear is that Hadcroft had very strong use of his right limbic system. In both general ways and in specific incidents, he noted his strong negative emotions and emotions connecting him to other people. He wrote “I nod, ashamed. I feel like crying.” (p. 16) “the feeling of guilt whenever an adult saw me [missing school] crippled me” (p. 28) “Embarrassment silenced me, followed by one deep-seated emotion: rage.” (p. 30) “I fell in love. … Oh, how my heart ached!” (p. 51) “She looks so frustrated. I feel so guilty. I’ve let her down.” (p. 57) “embarrassed, humiliated and traumatized” (p. 74) “I want to love.” (p. 92) “I was shaking with rage” (p. 137) “The stark loneliness which I had experienced since puberty had been unbearable” (p. 172) “Then there was the issue of my anxiety attacks and my depressions – and my anger – I still battled deep-seated negative feelings.” (p. 172) and “I descended into the depths of depression” (p. 181). He wrote about trying to distance himself from his “darker, angry self” but “it proved difficult not to get sucked in to the darkness” (p. 196) He also wrote:
I’m not sure where having to leave the person I love all day to go to work comes on the scale [of ridiculous customs], but I wish there was another way of making a living. (p. 32)
I was deeply traumatized [by the death of Adric from Doctor Who], as though someone real had passed away. … What was out of the ordinary, perhaps, was the length of time it took for me to get over the “bereavement”. (p. 65)
I would sit in the canteen and stare out of the window, wishing that God would bring his day of judgement and an end to my misery, either in a wrathful execution for my sins, or salvation into the New World as he wiped out the existing system. Sometimes I would actually say it aloud. “Oh, roll on Armageddon, I’ll be glad when it’s all over.” (p. 184)
In comparison to the long list of strong right limbic feelings, he mentions possible left limbic emotions far far fewer times and in comparison they are particularly mild. About one particular triumph he wrote that he “felt a glow unlike any other feeling I’d experienced.” (p. 99) I interpret this as poor use of his left limbic system.
About his neocortex functions, I didn’t see any evidence of problems with left neocortex use. There was no mention of any delay in speech. His writing is very linear, and he wrote descriptions of the deductive logic of his thinking at a number of points. He called himself “a deep thinker” (p. 24) “I saw no logical reason why anyone should want to behave like that [aggression and bitchiness].” (p. 53) He complains about “dodgy reasoning” (p. 76) and “I loved their [Jehovah’s Witnesses’] lines of reasoning.” (p. 79) and “[T]hey [adults] would praise my individuality and call me “a thinker”, a term I greatly appreciated.” (p. 83) He wrote that he would make an “attempt at discerning the truth … logically and intellectually” (p. 203) and “logic was staring me in the face” (p. 204).
I felt safe with adults. They didn’t laugh when I made philosophical observations. They would say things like, “Oh, that’s a very interesting way of seeing it. I hadn’t thought of it like that before,” or “You’ve got an old head on young shoulders.” (p. 67)
I do see evidence of him having problems using his right neocortex functions. There is no indication that he was alert to changes in his environment or that he was able to think and focus for very long periods of time. Throughout the book there are incidents that indicate that he was having trouble thinking laterally and trouble with rapidly assessing situations.
Mr Seagrave took me back to his office and concluded the interview with a question. “So, then, what do we call you? William or Bill?” “Oh, not Bill, “ I replied airily. “Why not?” “Well, it conjures up images of some smelly old dosser wearing a flat cap and duffle bag, living in a cardboard box under a bridge in Farnworth.” Mr Seagrave raised an eyebrow and smiled. “My name’s Bill,” he said. Done it again. Wish I were dead. (p. 140)
Other Types: Strong Left Limbic System and Strong Right Limbic System
Strong left limbic system use means strong left side emotions that tend to be positive/approach/conscious such as excitement, happiness and anger. Strong right limbic system use means strong right side emotions that tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, and guilt. Weak left neocortex use means being weak in speech, sequential thinking, and temporal ordering. Weak right neocortex use means weak holistic thinking, and weak in being vigilant and able to focus for very long periods of time.
There were a significant number of biographies that described people with left limbic system/right limbic system strengths, with many, though not all, written through facilitated communication. These people had no emotional deficits and good memories, but had trouble with thinking and with controlling their body.
Those who wrote through facilitated communication didn’t indicate any problems with nonliteral language, were very people-focused, and had a strong self-image.
I have feelings like everyone else / i just cant show them / they are shut up in me and cant get out / i feel joy pain and sadness too / all of it like normal people / and i feel sympathy for others (Sellin, 1995, p. 145)
“I did not have sophisticated thinking in those days, but I had sophisticated feelings!” (Page, 2003, p. 5)
MYT INDFIAN NAME WWOULD BE BOYY WHO LIVES IN TUNNEWL YERT STILL SEESS VERTY FAR, Ian typed determinedly, so quickly that surely the name already was one to which he had laid a kind of claim. As Claudia read the name from the laptop’s display, Boyce and Sarah were as suddenly dumbfounded as she was, equally stunned to realize that yes, Ian truly had identified himself with that metaphoric chain of words. (Martin, 1994, p. 258)
An example of someone that I put in this category who speaks is John Brine (Brine & Brine, 2000), a young adult with Asperger’s Syndrome. He appears to exhibit no emotional deficits or memory problems. He has trouble controlling his body, but about reading, his mother wrote “Before John went to kindergarten, I discovered by accident that he could read” (p. 13).
There is evidence of left limbic emotions. His mother wrote about presenting new images to him when he was a baby.
I changed the pictures I’d pinned up above John’s changing table. Perhaps I was bored by the old ones. Whatever the reason, when I laid him down on the table to be changed, he lazily turned his head to the wall, started to turn away from it, then suddenly jerked his head back to look again. He became very excited about the new images presented to him. (p. 7)
She also wrote “When John was excited about something, he brought his hands up to his face, near his mouth, and became very tense. His whole body appeared to vibrate or quiver.” (p. 17). He wrote “I squished my anger into a ball” (p. 27).
There is evidence of right limbic emotions. He wrote “I cannot say no without feeling guilty.” (p. 2) and “inside I was raging, screaming, weeping” (p. 39). His mother wrote:
John has a cat. He lives in a basement apartment, so the cat is able to come and go when he leaves the window open a bit. A few years ago, the cat disappeared. John was devastated. (p. 92)
If Brine’s pattern followed the same gender-based pattern I had seen, then the assumption is that he would be gaining in right neocortex functions over time, and would be weakest in left neocortex functions. His mother wrote
John has resented our insistence on his acquiring many skills. He has not understood our motives or the need for responsibilities like paper routes. I with we had explained more, and I wish John had grasped the point, but that’s part of the problem. He has difficulty making these connections and even now doesn’t always want to hear our explanations when we try to help him make these connections. (p. 37)
About his understanding of time and sequences, his mother wrote
It took many explanations from us before John understood the importance of timing – of greeting the guests, welcoming them into the house, taking their coats and jackets, and getting them settled inside before offering food and drink. (p. 51)
On one memorable vacation, I was determined John would learn to tell time. The school had told me everyone else in his grade could, and I should teach him over the summer. … We began our trip with John on the seat beside me in the car, and the reminder that he would be doing exercises with the clock I had brought along until he learned how to tell time accurately. … John seemed to get no further no matter what method I used and we plugged away at it for nearly six hours. (p. 69)
There is some evidence that would point to expanding use of the right neocortex, but in general he had “difficulty with problem solving” (p. 40) which would point to a lack in holistic thinking.
I believe that Brine’s writing had a poetic quality that is similar in tone to that which is written through facilitated communication. He wrote “Thoughts and feelings go flying through me like a leaf down a river’s rapids” (p. 1-2). “Much like the fitting of new glasses to someone who is nearsighted, or flipping on a circuit breaker, filling a house with warmth and light, my diagnosis has come recently.” (p. 1) “I am indeed a late bloomer – way, way late indeed, but is it not true that even the humble daisy must have its moment in the sun?” (p. 79)
I also believe that Brine is very focused on other people, though there are examples of him walking away from company, and his mother wrote “He never wanted to join anything that involved other children” (p. 30-31) She also wrote “John complained to me about not having any friends” (p. 50) He expressed “I just want to be useful, to know I’m appreciated.” (p. 75) and “I have always had an overwhelming desire to please people, no matter what the cost to myself.” (p. 85)
His mother wrote a passage that I think reflects how much John cares about other’s opinions.
As long as I can remember, John has avoided telling the truth. I don’t really know why, nor does John. If he’s asked about something, I think he tries to read the faces of the people asking questions, perhaps to work out what they want to hear, or what will keep them from being angry with him. I have learned that a direct, seemingly confrontational, question is not the route to take if I want a truthful answer and I have devised many indirect, some might say devious, ways to ferret out the truth. (p. 19)
One aspect that is very different between Brine and what I saw in the biographies of people who write through facilitated communication is that he didn’t express a lot of positive feelings about himself. He expressed “I got the feeling that I was a failure.” (27) and “I’m a loser” (p. 111) His mother wrote of him “John looks at things from the same perspective as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh” (p. 107). It is possible that this reflects an attempt on his part to draw attention to himself, but I think it may reflect his greater understanding of his limitations.
Other Types: Strong Left Neocortex and Strong Right Neocortex
Strong left neocortex use means being strong in speech, sequential thinking, and temporal ordering. Strong right neocortex use means strong holistic thinking, and strong in being vigilant and able to focus for very long periods of time. Weak right limbic system use means weak right side emotions that tend to be negative/withdrawal/people oriented/unconscious such as disgust, grief, and guilt. Weak left limbic system use means weak left side emotions that tend to be positive/approach/conscious such as excitement, happiness and anger.
In comparison to people with strong left and right limbic systems, we would expect many contrasting aspects to people with strong left neocortex and strong right neocortex characteristics. There were only a few people that I considered for this category, and when I decided on Alison Hale (1998) as the best example, I still read and reread her autobiography to try to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding her characteristics.
Hale wrote as a young woman who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome as a young adult. She had severe dyslexia and memory problems “My memory is definitely defective.” (p. 75) Throughout her autobiography, people appear to have difficulty believing that her problems are as great as she knows them to be. She also takes in a lot less then people have thought, having problems with sight and hearing. She wrote of “looking at the world through my own distorted senses.” (p. 120) She wrote about herself “I never appreciate or understand poetic language – it is meaningless.” (p. 84) and that a teacher said of her that “I was a very practically minded person.” (p. 44) She controls her body, but is constantly exhausted and in pain from moving around; she saw in herself “a lack of development in the reflexes” (p. 91).
She exhibits very strong thinking skills, and wrote a number of times about incidents that would seem to reflect strong right neocortex holistic thinking.