Top 8 Theories About Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by communication and social difficulties, as well as restricted interest patterns. Here we will talk about the main theories about autism that try to explain its origin.

• Related article: "Autism Spectrum Disorders: 10 symptoms and diagnosis"

Theories about autism

Although the origin of autism is currently considered unknown, a multitude of theories, both psychological and biological, have been developed to explain it. Some are more endorsed than others. Let's get to know them.

1. Psychological theories

Within these theories we find the following:

1.1. Theory of mind

One of the theories about autism is the one that relates autism to the theory of mind (ToM), made by Simon Baron-Cohen. These types of theories have been investigated more and more.

The theory of mind refers to the "ability that human beings have to understand and predict the behavior of other people, their knowledge, their intentions and their beliefs."

The concept of ToM was introduced by Premack and Woodruf (1978), who carried out experiments with chimpanzees with the aim of knowing their ability to understand in relation to the human mind.

1.2. Neuropsychological theory

This theory speaks of an alteration of the Executive Function in people with autism.

Fisher and Happé (2005) argue that the failures of autism are mainly caused by alterations of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe, is responsible for functions such as memory and the regulation of environmental stimuli, both visual and auditory. It is also involved in emotional regulation, impulse control, and social behavior.

What's more, frontal alterations are related to executive functions, that is, the set of processes responsible for generating, monitoring and controlling action and thought. In addition, they include aspects of planning and execution of complex behaviors, working memory and inhibitory control.

When these functions have been evaluated in the population with autism, the results have suggested global failures of executive function and particular aspects proposed as causes of ASD.

Global alterations in executive functioning have been observed in a large number of perseverance and failure to find effective strategies to achieve the goal; for example, on the Wisconsin Card Classification Test.

In relation to these findings, a possible prefrontal alteration along with subcortical dysfunctions has been proposed as the cause of the typical symptoms of ASD in the social and cognitive areas.

1.3. Weakening Central Coherence Theory

Another theory about autism is the theory was proposed by Uta Frith in 2003, who proposes that autism is characterized by a specific deficit in the integration of information at different levels.

According to this theory, children with autism have difficulty making efficient comparisons, judgments, and conceptual inferences.

1.4. Hobson's affective-social theory

Hobson's theory (1995) states that cognitive and social deficits in autism are affective-social in nature. Hobson defends the role of emotion in the development of interpersonal relationships as a primary deficit in people with autism. He suggests that people with autism have greater difficulty understanding emotion, and that this negatively affects their social interactions.

Hobson studied the spontaneous language of autistics to learn their first verbalizations about mental states, and found specific impairments in your ability to speak about states such as thinking, knowing, and believing.

In short, Hobson proposes to rescue the importance of interpersonal-affective disorders that are at the base of the problem of autism.

1.5. Baron-Cohen theory of mental blindness

According to this theory, closely related to the theory of mind, people affected by an autism spectrum disorder do not understand the intentions of others and experience anxiety when certain behaviors seem unpredictable to them, since they are unable to anticipate the events.

Baron-Cohen proposes a delay in the development of the theory of mind, producing varying degrees of "mental blindness."

This theory would explain the social and communication difficulties of people who are not neurotypical and by extension who are autistic. This limitation also occurs in another series of pathologies such as schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic behaviors and people in a psychotic phase.

1.6. Extreme Male Brain Theory (Baron-Cohen)

This author proposes an excess of testosterone during pregnancy that ends up causing an overly masculinized brain (good to systematize and bad to empathize). It has never been proven.

2. Biological theories

On the other hand, within biological theories we find the following theories about autism:

2.1. Anatomical theories

Some authors have found lesions of the right hemisphere in autistic children, and they have related it to alterations in the functions of the speech and in affectations in the non-verbal language. All this makes it difficult to understand different attitudes in others (for example, understanding the sarcasm, irony or double meanings), as well as empathy and the power to infer and attribute aspects of others.

Thus, the right hemisphere has important implications for understanding perception, emotional appearance, non-verbal language, face recognition, and emotions. Structural alterations have also been found in the amygdala and the temporal lobe and anterior cingulate cortex.

Specifically, the amygdala has been linked to the regulation of emotions, especially the feelings of anger and fear and the physiological reaction that these emotions produce. For its part, the anterior cingulate enables people the "ability to establish solutions to a novel problem by carrying out predictions of the consequences."

2.2. Other biological theories

In addition to the aforementioned anatomical theories, we find: genetic hypotheses (Fragile X Syndrome with autistic characteristics), immunological (infectious processes, such as congenital rubella), metabolic (phenylketonuria), seizures (eg. Eg West syndrome), pre / peri / postnatal conditions and finally the hypothesis of hyperserotoninemia (excess serotonin in the cerebrospinal fluid).

Bibliographic references:

• Garcia, D. & Muñoz, P. (2000). Executive functions and school performance in primary education. An exploratory study. Complutense Journal of Education, 11 (1), 39-56.
• Tirapu-Ustárroz, J., Pérez-Sayes, G., Erekatxo-Bilbao, M. & Pelegrín-Valero, C. (2007). What is the theory of mind? Journal of Neurology, 44, 479-489.
• Gómez, I. (2010). Cognitive Science, Theory of Mind and autism. Psychological Thinking, 8 (15), 113-124.
• Liliana Calderón, L., Congote, C., Richard, Sh., Sierra, S., Vélez, C. (2012). Contributions from the theory of mind and executive function to the understanding of autism spectrum disorders. CES Psychology Magazine, 5 (1), 77-90.