Today we are going to investigate on how exactly autism affected john’s brain and made him act and speak like this.

Autism and the brain

- At a certain point in post-natal development, autistic brains are larger.

- Testosterone may be linked to autism.

- Certain portions of the brain, such as the amygdala, may be enlarged in autistic brains.

- Certain parts of the brain may function differently in autistic people.

- "Minicolumns" in the brain may be formed differently and be more numerous in autistic brains.

- The entire brain may function differently in autistic people.

John said`I usually play with numbers when im agitated or angry or nervous or scared.It makes me feel calmer.I once doubled 2s to 33554432 which is 2^35,which was not very much because I got to 2^45 before,but my brain wasn’t working very well’.

All these point to autism as a disorder of the cortex. The cortex is the proverbial "gray matter": the part of the brain which is largely responsible for higher brain functions, including sensation, voluntary muscle movement, thought, reasoning, and memory.

The brain of autistic people develops too quickly beginning at about 12 months. By age ten, their brains are at a normal size, but "wired" atypically. "

Wiring has to be very complex and intricate. With autism there's accelerated growth at the wrong time, and that creates havoc. The consequences, in terms of disturbing early development, include problems within the cortex and from the cortex to other regions of the cortex in ways that compromise language and reasoning abilities."

Autistic people have more minicolumns which include a greater number of smaller brain cells. In addition, the "insulation" between these minicolumns is not as effective as it is among typically developing people. The result may be that autistic people think and perceive differently and have less of an ability to block sensory input.

Autism really impacts behavioral function in the brain very broadly. It affects sensory, motor, memory, and postural control -- anything that requires a high degree of integration of information. The symptoms are most prominent in social interaction and problem solving because they require highest degree of interaction.

Autistic people are socially/emotionally far more delayed than anyone ever thought,

While social and communication skills may be compromised by unique wiring in the brain, other abilities are actually enhanced.

Autistic people have a really stellar ability to use the visual parts of the right side of the brain to compensate for problems with language processing. This may be the basis for detail-oriented processing.