Аутизм и дети гиков
Набрела на забавную старую статью в Wired про то, что в Кремниевой долине у детей практически эпидемия синдрома Аспергера - мягкой формы аутизма. Проблема в том, что аутизм более или менее передается по наследству. Точнее, передаются некоторые "усторойство мозга", которое в совсем крайних случаях выдает это расстройство (некоторые его типы). И вообще, я пишу и пересказываю плохо - а Стивен Пинкер и Саймон Барон-Коэн - хорошо. Так что за подробностями к ним. Вот, кстати, что пишет Барон-Коэн в NYT:
According to what I have called the "extreme male brain" theory of autism, people with autism simply match an extreme of the male profile, with a particularly intense drive to systemize and an unusually low drive to empathize. When adults with Asperger's syndrome (a subgroup on the autistic spectrum) took the same questionnaires we gave to non-autistic adults, they exhibited extreme Type S brains. Psychological tests reveal a similar pattern.
And this analysis makes sense. It helps explain the social disability in autism, because empathy difficulties make it harder to make and maintain relationships with others. It also explains the "islets of ability" that people with autism display in subjects like math or music or drawing - all skills that benefit from systemizing.
People with autism often develop obsessions, which may be nothing other than very intense systemizing at work. The child might become obsessed with electrical switches (an electrical system), or train timetables (a temporal system), or spinning objects (a physical system), or the names of deep-sea fish (a natural, taxonomic system). The child with severe autism, who may have additional learning difficulties and little language ability, might express his obsessions by bouncing constantly on a trampoline or spinning around and around, because motion is highly lawful and predictable. Some children with severe autism line objects up for hours on end. What used to be dismissed by clinicians as "purposeless, repetitive behavior" may actually be a sign of a mind that is highly tuned to systemize.
One needs to be extremely careful in advancing a cause for autism, because this field is rife with theories that have collapsed under empirical scrutiny. Nonetheless, my hypothesis is that autism is the genetic result of "assortative mating" between parents who are both strong systemizers. Assortative mating is the term we use when like is attracted to like, and there are four significant reasons to believe it is happening here.
FIRST, both mothers and fathers of children with autism complete the embedded figures test faster than men and women in the general population. Second, both mothers and fathers of children with autism are more likely to have fathers who are talented systemizers (engineers, for example).
Third, when we look at brain activity with magnetic resonance imaging, males and females on average show different patterns while performing empathizing or systemizing tasks. But both mothers and fathers of children with autism show strong male patterns of brain activity.
Fourth, both mothers and fathers of children with autism score above average on a questionnaire that measures how many autistic traits an individual has. These results suggest a genetic cause of autism, with both parents contributing genes that ultimately relate to a similar kind of mind: one with an affinity for thinking systematically.
И тут Wired очень смешно добавляют:
That's not to say that geeks, even autistic ones, are attracted only to other geeks. Compensatory unions of opposites also thrive along the continuum, and in the last 10 years, geekitude has become sexy and associated with financial success. The lone-wolf programmer may be the research director of a major company, managing the back end of an IT empire at a comfortable remove from the actual clients. Says Bryna Siegel, author of The World of the Autistic Child and director of the PDD clinic at UCSF, "In another historical time, these men would have become monks, developing new ink for early printing presses. Suddenly they're making $150,000 a year with stock options. They're reproducing at a much higher rate."
Кстати, решила из любопытства посмотреть на цифры. Статистики по синдрому Аспергера отдельно я не нашла, зато нашла статистику по количеству детей 3-5 лет с диагнозом "аутизм". Решила слегка расистки взять только white non-hispanic (чтобы посмотреть на Калифорнию ту же). В первой колонке количество аутистичных детей 3-5 лет на 100,000 населения в 2007 году, во второй увеличение пропорции по отношению к 2001 году, а в последней - общее количество случаев. После ката остаток таблицы.
Autism in 3-5 y.o per 100,000 of people (White Not Hispanic) State2007increase
over 2001
overall1Maine 29.112.33692Massachusetts 27.512.31,4353California 24.742.14,0114Oregon 24.381.77525Minnesota 22.822.71,0286Nevada 21.373.03277Pennsylvania 19.212.81,9698Rhode Island 15.832.21349Connecticut 15.332.940310Indiana 14.121.6756
Autism in 3-5 y.o per 100,000 of people (White Not Hispanic) State2007increase over 2001
overall (2007)11Delaware 13.281.98012Michigan 13.051.81,03513New Hampshire 12.212.215114Hawaii 11.391.75315Illinois 11.301.995716New Jersey 11.021.960217Wisconsin 10.951.952918Utah 10.942.124419North Carolina 10.572.665520South Dakota 10.341.77221Maryland 10.341.534522Texas 10.201.81,18923Nebraska 10.173.315424New Mexico 9.876.38425Washington 9.264.346926New York 8.87 x1,05627Virginia 8.722.446128Idaho 8.613.211229Tennessee 8.542.641130Vermont 8.523.4 -31Wyoming 8.433.13932Kentucky 8.121.930633Florida 8.091.791134Arkansas 7.182.215735South Carolina 6.932.620236Georgia 6.911.939237Louisiana 6.482.117938North Dakota 6.382.73739Kansas 6.092.513940Missouri 5.782.628441Colorado 5.764.820342Montana 5.603.14843Arizona 5.382.220644Alabama 5.062.616345Mississippi 4.423.77746Alaska 4.411.12147Iowa 3.043.58348West Virginia 2.573.14449Oklahoma 2.285.16250Ohio 2.080.7200
Ну про Массачусетс и Калифорнию в свете вышеизложенной теории все понятно, а что в Мэне? (Миннесота упоминается в статье в связи с IBM. А Орегон? )
Кстати вот здесь немного другая статистика, но там общее количество детей и общее количество народа. (Понятно, что динамику лучше отслеживать на более узкой возрастной группе)
According to what I have called the "extreme male brain" theory of autism, people with autism simply match an extreme of the male profile, with a particularly intense drive to systemize and an unusually low drive to empathize. When adults with Asperger's syndrome (a subgroup on the autistic spectrum) took the same questionnaires we gave to non-autistic adults, they exhibited extreme Type S brains. Psychological tests reveal a similar pattern.
And this analysis makes sense. It helps explain the social disability in autism, because empathy difficulties make it harder to make and maintain relationships with others. It also explains the "islets of ability" that people with autism display in subjects like math or music or drawing - all skills that benefit from systemizing.
People with autism often develop obsessions, which may be nothing other than very intense systemizing at work. The child might become obsessed with electrical switches (an electrical system), or train timetables (a temporal system), or spinning objects (a physical system), or the names of deep-sea fish (a natural, taxonomic system). The child with severe autism, who may have additional learning difficulties and little language ability, might express his obsessions by bouncing constantly on a trampoline or spinning around and around, because motion is highly lawful and predictable. Some children with severe autism line objects up for hours on end. What used to be dismissed by clinicians as "purposeless, repetitive behavior" may actually be a sign of a mind that is highly tuned to systemize.
One needs to be extremely careful in advancing a cause for autism, because this field is rife with theories that have collapsed under empirical scrutiny. Nonetheless, my hypothesis is that autism is the genetic result of "assortative mating" between parents who are both strong systemizers. Assortative mating is the term we use when like is attracted to like, and there are four significant reasons to believe it is happening here.
FIRST, both mothers and fathers of children with autism complete the embedded figures test faster than men and women in the general population. Second, both mothers and fathers of children with autism are more likely to have fathers who are talented systemizers (engineers, for example).
Third, when we look at brain activity with magnetic resonance imaging, males and females on average show different patterns while performing empathizing or systemizing tasks. But both mothers and fathers of children with autism show strong male patterns of brain activity.
Fourth, both mothers and fathers of children with autism score above average on a questionnaire that measures how many autistic traits an individual has. These results suggest a genetic cause of autism, with both parents contributing genes that ultimately relate to a similar kind of mind: one with an affinity for thinking systematically.
И тут Wired очень смешно добавляют:
That's not to say that geeks, even autistic ones, are attracted only to other geeks. Compensatory unions of opposites also thrive along the continuum, and in the last 10 years, geekitude has become sexy and associated with financial success. The lone-wolf programmer may be the research director of a major company, managing the back end of an IT empire at a comfortable remove from the actual clients. Says Bryna Siegel, author of The World of the Autistic Child and director of the PDD clinic at UCSF, "In another historical time, these men would have become monks, developing new ink for early printing presses. Suddenly they're making $150,000 a year with stock options. They're reproducing at a much higher rate."
Кстати, решила из любопытства посмотреть на цифры. Статистики по синдрому Аспергера отдельно я не нашла, зато нашла статистику по количеству детей 3-5 лет с диагнозом "аутизм". Решила слегка расистки взять только white non-hispanic (чтобы посмотреть на Калифорнию ту же). В первой колонке количество аутистичных детей 3-5 лет на 100,000 населения в 2007 году, во второй увеличение пропорции по отношению к 2001 году, а в последней - общее количество случаев. После ката остаток таблицы.
Autism in 3-5 y.o per 100,000 of people (White Not Hispanic) State2007increase
over 2001
overall1Maine 29.112.33692Massachusetts 27.512.31,4353California 24.742.14,0114Oregon 24.381.77525Minnesota 22.822.71,0286Nevada 21.373.03277Pennsylvania 19.212.81,9698Rhode Island 15.832.21349Connecticut 15.332.940310Indiana 14.121.6756
Autism in 3-5 y.o per 100,000 of people (White Not Hispanic) State2007increase over 2001
overall (2007)11Delaware 13.281.98012Michigan 13.051.81,03513New Hampshire 12.212.215114Hawaii 11.391.75315Illinois 11.301.995716New Jersey 11.021.960217Wisconsin 10.951.952918Utah 10.942.124419North Carolina 10.572.665520South Dakota 10.341.77221Maryland 10.341.534522Texas 10.201.81,18923Nebraska 10.173.315424New Mexico 9.876.38425Washington 9.264.346926New York 8.87 x1,05627Virginia 8.722.446128Idaho 8.613.211229Tennessee 8.542.641130Vermont 8.523.4 -31Wyoming 8.433.13932Kentucky 8.121.930633Florida 8.091.791134Arkansas 7.182.215735South Carolina 6.932.620236Georgia 6.911.939237Louisiana 6.482.117938North Dakota 6.382.73739Kansas 6.092.513940Missouri 5.782.628441Colorado 5.764.820342Montana 5.603.14843Arizona 5.382.220644Alabama 5.062.616345Mississippi 4.423.77746Alaska 4.411.12147Iowa 3.043.58348West Virginia 2.573.14449Oklahoma 2.285.16250Ohio 2.080.7200
Ну про Массачусетс и Калифорнию в свете вышеизложенной теории все понятно, а что в Мэне? (Миннесота упоминается в статье в связи с IBM. А Орегон? )
Кстати вот здесь немного другая статистика, но там общее количество детей и общее количество народа. (Понятно, что динамику лучше отслеживать на более узкой возрастной группе)