Neurotransmitters Flow in this Autism Mind

Understanding Autism and The Cocktail Party Effect

Plain Language Version for Lay Reader

The "cocktail party effect" is the brain's ability to focus on one sound, like a conversation, while ignoring other noises around us. Imagine you're at a busy party with many people talking. You can still listen to and talk with one person without getting distracted by the background noise. This skill involves parts of the brain that handle hearing and attention. The term was first used by scientist Colin Cherry in the 1950s.

How It Works

At a noisy event, like a party, you can focus on what one person is saying even though many other conversations are happening at the same time. This shows how we can pick out specific sounds in a noisy place. Scientists study this to understand how our attention and hearing systems work together.

Autism and the Cocktail Party Effect

For autistics, the cocktail party effect can work differently because of how they process sounds and focus their attention. Here are some key points:

Auditory Filtering: Autistics might find it harder to separate speech from background noise. This is sometimes called "auditory filtering problems."
Research Findings: Studies show that autistic children often have more trouble focusing on speech in noisy places compared to non-autistic children. This can lead to feeling overwhelmed by too much noise.
Brain Differences: The parts of the brain that deal with sound might work differently in autistic people. This can make it hard to tell apart important sounds (like someone talking to you) from background noise.

Why It Matters

Understanding these differences is important to help autistic people feel more comfortable in noisy places. Schools, workplaces, and social settings can use this knowledge to create better environments that consider their sensory needs.

Versions of this article: Academic/Scientific Audience, Plain Language for Lay Reader

Articles on other topics in #PlainSpeak

https://www.dailycal.org/2018/04/05/access-ramp-volunteering

Appreciation

Got a nice note today.

Just wanted to tell you the articles you are publishing are very well-written and insightful into the mind of someone with autism. I have a little brother who is autistic, so I am very fascinated by what you write as it helps me understand him better and makes me better equipped to help him navigate his grief at any time he may require. I sincerely appreciate and admire your work man, just wanted to reach out and let you know. Take care of yourself!

https://uniquelyhari.blogspot.com/p/published-work.html

Our bodily states and emotional reaction

The relationship between bodily states and emotional reactions is a well-documented area in psychological research, with several studies supporting the idea that physical expressions and postures can influence emotions. Here are key findings from research that support the statement:

Facial Feedback Hypothesis: The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that facial movements can influence emotional experiences. For example, the act of smiling can actually make people feel happier. A seminal study by Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) found that participants who held a pen in their mouths in a way that facilitated a smile (without being aware of smiling) rated cartoons as funnier than those who held a pen in a manner that prevented smiling. This study demonstrates the effect of facial expressions on emotional experience.

Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768-777.

Posture and Emotion: Research on posture and emotion has shown that adopting certain body positions can influence one's emotional state. A study by Peper and Lin (2012) explored how body posture affects energy levels and the ability to generate positive and negative thoughts. They found that an upright posture can promote a more positive mood and energy levels, while a slumped posture can lead to increased feelings of depression.

Peper, E., & Lin, I. (2012). Increase or decrease depression: How body postures influence your energy level. Biofeedback, 40(3), 125-130.

Embodied Emotion: The theory of embodied emotion also supports the idea that bodily states influence emotional reactions. This perspective suggests that emotions are grounded in bodily sensations and that physical states can modulate emotional experiences. Niedenthal (2007) discusses how bodily sensations are integral to emotional processing, indicating that the body's posture, facial expressions, and actions can influence emotional states.

Niedenthal, P. M. (2007). Embodying emotion. Science, 316(5827), 1002-1005.

These studies collectively support the notion that bodily expressions and postures not only reflect our emotional states but can also influence them. The act of smiling can induce feelings of happiness, while adopting a slumped posture can contribute to feelings of depression, highlighting the intricate link between the physical body and emotional experiences.

Coping with the reality

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

Can relate to every bit of this as I have seen a grandparent lose his life to cancer - a painful end followed by a phase of intense struggle to cope with the reality of what I had experienced, an experience that took nearly three years and CBT sessions for me to find closure..

Autism and Grief

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

As a daughter who lost her dad at 15, and a mother who's spent two decades raising an autistic son, I have spent way too much time thinking about grief and about autism. I haven't often seen them talked about together - though I've watched my son experience the loss of his three grandparents, and address sorrow - both his own and that of the people around him - in ways that are both typical and amazingly unique.

"Nana must be feeling lonely without Papa."
"I think Papa must be in God's sunshine."
"She was MY grandma - and I loved her."
"Mom - your dad died 40 years ago - that's a long time!"
"It's December 28th, Mom, are you feeling sad today?"
"I just realized that "funeral" has the word "fun" in it!"

A year or so after the death of both of his grandmothers, James began to implode - an onset of OCD, anxiety and depression that took over and dominated our lives for almost two years. I've often wondered if the experience of losing two women he loved - and who adored, understood and valued him - was part of what set his implosion in motion.

I'm grateful for this piece that just popped up on my feed - thank you Hari Srinivasan for sharing your insights on the experience of grief through the lens of autism.

Grief as an emotion can impact the autistic community in very different ways

Frist Center for Autism and Innovation Neurodiversity Inspired Science and Engineering Fellow Hari Srinivasan has published a new article in Psychology Today about the impact of grief on the autistic community.

In this article, Hari discusses his own moving experiences with grief after the recent loss of both of his grandparents and how grief as an emotion can impact the autistic community in very different ways.

As well as being a Neurodiversity Inspired Science and Engineering Fellow, Hari is a Ph.D. neuroscience student at Vanderbilt University, a graduate of UC Berkeley, a PD Soros Fellow, a Fellow at the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, a non-federal member of NIH's Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, and on various boards including Duke University's ACE and The Brain Foundation. He is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.

You can read the full article here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

Power dynamics of ABA

https://autisticselfadvocatesagainstaba.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/problematic-and-traumatic-why-nobody-needs-aba/?fbclid=IwAR3aeHROwIEr2uaRmsw7i1oBuOy90Cln8cMgi_nJ4bZGT87VckcUhTUoOqA

Some points that resonated in this article.

The problem with reinforcements.

"tablet time” is used as reinforcement. This is a problem because many autistics rely on their tablets for communication. Many autistics are non-speaking, and to take away their means of communication is one reason increasingly aggressive or “challenging” behaviors persist — they are not being heard or understood and the only way left to communicate their discomfort, pain, or any other needs has been taken away."

The loss of childhood.

"A child is typically expected to participate in 25-40 hours of ABA therapy each week; that is 5-8 hours a day of repetitive, uncomfortable, or potentially painful demands and broken down tasks, of few or no breaks, of being presumed incompetent, and of not having adequate accommodations.

Lack of training and quality control.

"Many ABA practitioners are Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT)s, which any 18-year old with a high school diploma could be by taking a 40-hour training and passing an exam."

Long term trauma and PTSD

"A survey of 460 autistic adults and caregivers of autistic children evidenced that 46% of those who participated in ABA therapy met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, and 47% of those meeting this diagnostic threshold experienced severe symptoms (Kupferstein, 2018)."

Yet, still touted as the gold-standard EBT

"Yet ABA is still widespread throughout the United States and it is recommended under the premise of being an effective evidence-based practice. However, there is weak evidence that ABA is an effective behavioral treatment. Rated on the GRADE system the quality of evidence is low to very low (Reichow, Hume, Barton, & Boyd, 2018). In fact, “of the 58 studies done on Lovaas’ ABA therapy, only one was found to meet the U.S. Department of Education’s standards for scientific evidence."

There is some irony in the hashtag. Today is

#RandomActsofKindnessDay

On this day, we tweet and we post.

Hashtags to flaunt, kindness to boast.

A day to be kind, as if it's a task.

"Do good deeds," our social feeds ask.

But why, oh why, do we need reminders?

Is kindness so rare, that we wear blinders?

Shouldn't it weave through our daily thread,

Not just on days when hashtags are spread?

Should kindness not be our everyday quest?

Compassion the core of our heart's daily vest.

Lives have worth, without the #sign.

Kindness not staged for a digital reaction.

But the essence of our daily interaction.

For those on the spectrum the range of mourning is even wider and complex

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

Hari, This is a VERY important piece. When our Dad died in 2017 (he was an amazing autism advocate), both my brothers on the spectrum dealt with his death very differently, and yes of course, they are very different from each other. Brother 1, who has profound IDD, had a very delayed mourning. He may have thought his father was going to come back. Finally a year+ after Dad's death, we had an additional memorial. This one reality hit him. He stopped eating, drinking, tons of crying ... it took around 6 weeks for the extreme mourning issues for him to subside. Brother 2 never once wanted to be seen shedding a tear. That had and has been very tough for all of the remaining siblings (there are six of us) and my mother to watch. So yeah, everyone of us handles grief differently. For those on the spectrum the range of mourning is even wider and complex. Thank you for sharing your wise insight and I am so sorry for your loss of both of your grandparents.

Helping Autistics adapt their approach to grief is crucial

"Understanding & helping autistics adapt their approach to grief is crucial, allowing them to process loss in a way that respects their unique experiences & needs." @HariSri108

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

Psychology Today: "Autistics often process emotions and sensory inputs differently, and intense emotions like grief can be particularly overwhelming." Here's what everyone needs to know.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/giving-voice/202402/the-spectrum-of-loss-grief-through-the-autistic-lens

Memories

This memory popped up in my feed today.

This was my first semester at The Daily Californian, when I wrote a weekly column with editors Chantelle and Dohee.