“Kamila carried out behavioral studies on the animal model and found that the autistic animals developed excessive fear memories, that these fears lasted much longer and where difficult to undo. She also found that they generalized these memories too easily to associated stimuli (i.e. once afraid of a sound with a certain pitch, they become afraid of all sounds regardless of the pitch). Kamila realized that this could lead to autistic children quickly to becoming fearful of parts of the world for no apparent reason and it would make rehabilitation very difficult. This also suggested that one would need to be extremely careful when exposing an autistic child to the world and especially when punishing an autistic child. They will never forget the punishment and generalize it quickly to a point where they will fear so many things that they not be able to function normally.”
I’ve heard the theory before, but from this interview it sounds a bit… woo-ey. I skimmed it, and their response to the savant question has a particular flavour of optimism that makes them seem unbelievable. If they said “hypothetically, yes, but it’s hard to unlock it”, it’d be fine, but “severely autistic people that cannot speak or interact at all have locked up abilities even greater than savants”, that rings alarm bells and make me distrust them more generally.
Although, the fear thing makes sense, explains my social anxieties—I thought it was just spergy poor social skills made me screw up more, but in retrospect definitely I’ve been hurt more than a normal person should be by various minor embarrassments through my childhood that still give me flashbacks and that’s a better explanation.
May be interesting for people on the spectrum:
http://wrongplanet.net/interview-henry-and-kamila-markram-about-the-intense-world-theory-for-autism/
“Kamila carried out behavioral studies on the animal model and found that the autistic animals developed excessive fear memories, that these fears lasted much longer and where difficult to undo. She also found that they generalized these memories too easily to associated stimuli (i.e. once afraid of a sound with a certain pitch, they become afraid of all sounds regardless of the pitch). Kamila realized that this could lead to autistic children quickly to becoming fearful of parts of the world for no apparent reason and it would make rehabilitation very difficult. This also suggested that one would need to be extremely careful when exposing an autistic child to the world and especially when punishing an autistic child. They will never forget the punishment and generalize it quickly to a point where they will fear so many things that they not be able to function normally.”
I’ve heard the theory before, but from this interview it sounds a bit… woo-ey. I skimmed it, and their response to the savant question has a particular flavour of optimism that makes them seem unbelievable. If they said “hypothetically, yes, but it’s hard to unlock it”, it’d be fine, but “severely autistic people that cannot speak or interact at all have locked up abilities even greater than savants”, that rings alarm bells and make me distrust them more generally.
Although, the fear thing makes sense, explains my social anxieties—I thought it was just spergy poor social skills made me screw up more, but in retrospect definitely I’ve been hurt more than a normal person should be by various minor embarrassments through my childhood that still give me flashbacks and that’s a better explanation.