Mathematical and Computational Approaches for an Autism Renaissance ?2023

By Professor Elizabeth B Torres, PhD.

Mathematical and Computational Approaches for an Autism Renaissance ? 2023 by Elizabeth B Torres is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International?

From conception until death, the human body is in constant motion. The movements that we see with the naked eye are only a very small portion of all the biorhythms that our nervous system autonomously produces. ?Some movements are seemingly purposeless, leading to spontaneous learning, through na?ve exploration. Others rely on a reference signal that the system purposely uses to learn, first through trial and error, and then through goal-directed, intentional action. During all these processes balancing spontaneous and intentional learning, a fundamental feature of the nervous system’s biorhythmic activities is that they too are a form of sensory input to the brain. However, their flow across the peripheral nervous system takes time. The system must then learn to compensate for delays in the transduction and transmission of sensory signals (e.g., transducing vibrations engaging mechanoreceptors, into electro-chemical impulses that also take time traveling across the synapses.)

We posit that by building statistical codes that accurately predict the sensory consequences of its impending actions, the brain develops a self-referencing code that enables the differentiation between self and others, along with the development of a sense of action ownership. The person comes to autonomously understand the sensory consequences of actions, thus predicting and compensating for such internal time delays. In turn, agents in the external social environment too generate variations that the person’s nervous system needs to master and co-adapt with. When this co-adaptation succeeds, the person’s nervous system and those of others in the environment will effectively communicate, successfully interact in a social sense, and form a cooperative society. However, if those in the social environment do not recognize the needs of the person’s nervous system, or do not appreciate the differences in the internal codes of the person’s nervous system, they will fail to co-adapt and support the person.

One problem thus is that all this information is invisible to the naked eye of an observer. As such, the social group can only guess, or have an opinion about what it sees. Fundamental research from my lab created means to tap into this information quantitatively, at a microscopic level, reaching beyond the limits of the naked eye. Using what was previously assumed as superfluous noise, we found a wealth of information revealing signals to enhance the readiness potential for social exchange that neonates and children with special needs possess, many of whom are diagnosed today with autism.

Working collaboratively with autistics, our science and technology brought to the full awareness of society the internal states of the autistic nervous system. Using commercially available devices, our lab provided new tools to quantify at scale, with high precision and in a personalized manner, the micro-fluctuations in biorhythmic activities of the autistic nervous system. We thus defined autism anew. No longer a long list of deficits, but rather a new list of predispositions, capabilities and preferences could then guide us in developing regimes that enhanced the child’s autonomy, self-regulation, and self-control. Our methods provided a foundation to bridge the gap in those transduction-transmission delays and to align the signals of the autistic system in correspondence with those of the surrounding social group. In this way, we showed society the readiness potential of autism and their capacity to thrive as active members of our community, only when their agency is respected, embraced, and supported from a very early age.

Adopting this inclusive model for research, treatments and education is beneficial for all. It not only respects people with different needs, including those on the very broad spectrum of autism, but also enhances our own dignity, as we empower all people and, in so doing we strengthen our societal values.

Welcome to Autism in the 21st Century. Together, we can embrace autistic individuals as active members of society and promote true inclusion and diversification through scalable STEM research and the ARTS.