For decades, scientists have fruitlessly sought a unifying aetiology for autism and an explanation for its prevalence, but now a new theoretical model describes the condition as a combination of traits that are common in autism and which are socially valued, combined with co-occurring disabilities.
An estimated 1 in 54 people have autism, which has been on the increase in developed countries. TA Meridian McDonald, PhD, a research instructor in Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said: “Up until now there have been a lot of theories about the possible causes of autism but none of those theories account for the majority of autism cases. There are also a lot of theories as to why the prevalence of autism has been increasing in the population but, to date, there hasn’t been a theory that provides an explanatory model that accounts for all of those phenomena, including the genetics, social history, or characteristics of autism.”
She has worked on autism for 25 years, culminating in a theory called, “The Broader Autism Phenotype Constellation-Disability Matrix Paradigm (BAPCO-DMAP) Theory”, a focuses on the genetic basis of autism in line with current science but shifts the emphasis to positive traits selected for by events occurring over the past century.”The BAPCO-DMAP theory describes how people are attracted to other people who are very similar. They are attracted to certain traits that are very common in the population, and this leads to offspring who are more likely to have certain traits, as well as a greater intensity of traits,” said McDonald.
“The [BAPCO] traits are not what people expect. They expect the traits to be about challenges or difficulties, but instead there are six main traits—increased attention, increased memory, a preference for the object world vs. the social world and their environment, increased nonconformity, increased differences in sensory and perception, as well as systemising.”
These BAPCO traits are thus not necessarily negative, and can be combined with social skills. Counterintuitively, babies with increased memory and attention spans learn language later, because babies normally rely on their tiny attention span to break words down into their simplest sounds. With greater memory and attention spans, infants engage in echolalia, speaking long phrases without understanding them.
“You can often see children with autism engaging in sense-making activities, such as watching the same show over and over and memorising information,” McDonald said.The BAPCO traits are not by themselves significant impediments, but when combined with a disability such as an information processing disorder, then the combination leads to greater difficulties.
According to McDonald, the increased prevalence of autism in developed countries is due to men and women with BAPCO traits being able to pursue similar careers and passions, as opposed to being limited by circumstance, and results in relationships. This effectively concentrates BAPCO traits in any children they have.Since the BAPCO traits are socially valued, there simply is no “cure” for them, according to McDonald.”When we talk about autism we need to address the developmental disabilities that these individuals are experiencing but also find way to support and enhance their broader autism trait constellations,” she concluded.
Source: Medical Xpress
Journal information: T.A. Meridian McDonald, The broader autism phenotype constellations–disability matrix paradigm: Theoretical model for autism and the broader autism phenotype, Medical Hypotheses (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110456
