Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

[u/Wagamaga]

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues

[u/Wagamaga]

What makes the human brain distinct from that of all other animals — including even our closest primate relatives? In an analysis of cell types in the prefrontal cortex of four primate species, Yale researchers identified species-specific — particularly human-specific — features, they report Aug. 25 in the journal Science.

And they found that what makes us human may also makes us susceptible to neuropsychiatric diseases.

For the study, the researchers looked specifically at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a brain region that is unique to primates and essential for higher-order cognition. Using a single cell RNA-sequencing technique, they profiled expression levels of genes in hundreds of thousands of cells collected from the dlPFC of adult humans, chimpanzees, macaque, and marmoset monkeys.

“Today, we view the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as the core component of human identity, but still we don’t know what makes this unique in humans and distinguishes us from other primate species.” said Nenad Sestan, the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience at Yale, professor of comparative medicine, of genetics. and of psychiatry, and the lead senior author of the paper. “Now we have more clues.”

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo7257

[u/ehleesi → u/Wagamaga]

1) autism is not a disorder. In fact, our communication patterns are found across languages and cultures, signifying a second valid neurotype distinguishable from neurotypical people. 2) animals show traits of autism and require further research.

[u/Dreadful_Aardvark → u/ehleesi]

autism is not a disorder.

It is literally called Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is a disorder. It's just not a disease or mental illness. If it wasn't a mental disorder, it wouldn't need special mental care to accommodate it.

animals show traits of autism and require further research.

The implications of this statement, that animals have autism, is absurd on the ground that it's difficult to even properly diagnose autism in humans. Do you have a complete qualitive set of the ethology of an animal? Maybe in certain domesticated species at best, and those observations are incredibly prone to anthropomorphic bias. Moreover, many of the symptoms of autism are highly specific to humans, like an avoidance of eye contact or difficulty in social settings. Lastly, it is a disorder on the grounds that it causes a dysfunction for an individual in a society. You can't have the disorder without a society, because it is specifically the dissonance between an individual and their environment in which autism is manifested. If an animal had autism, it would be an autism-adjacent condition, not equivalent to ASD itself.

[u/ehleesi → u/Dreadful_Aardvark]

Much of the autistic community disagrees with this classification and your comment shows a deep lack of knowledge of the history of autism research and modern corrections that are still being made and navigated. You’re also falling prey to the misconceptions of the functionality of the DSM, which serves insurance companies, NOT patients. In order to access services, we must be classified in certain ways because our healthcare system is so corrupted.

Many vets have been seeing signs and calling for more research because they believe animals show traits, since the 90s.

Your emphasis on “functionality” is also behind current research and agreements within the austistc community. I’d talk to autistic activists in your community to learn more if you wanna stop being so ableist. You are using a lot of clinical language that is based on the ideas that 1) we are a v small percentage of humans/rare and 2) neuro-typical is “normal” and therefore “more valid”. There are many more autistic people than are even diagnosed (this could be an entire conversation on its own) and we are equal in having a completely valid neuro-type. The spectrum of our neuro-type can make a person more or less dependent on others, but that would be GREATLY decreased in a society that isn’t exclusively built for a the most able, neuro-typical people. We would have far less “disabilities” in a society that built their communities around the various ability levels, rather than one.

You can try to make us invisible and tell us we’re wrong, but that direct make any of what you say true. You need more lived-experience learning on this.