Autism

From the perspective or point of view of the speaker the object is [name] but based on the perspective or point of view of the listener the name is [object].

I’ve never thought if this!

As cooperation transitioned to cognitive problem-solving, with its known cultural and survival advantages, further neurobiological specialization could evolve within the Homo genus and sapiens species.

Wowwww. So cooperation came before problem-solving. That makes so much sense. I always wondered why animals that are typically independent weren’t the best problem-solvers since they were on their own. Being completely self-reliant would make me think that they would benefit from problem-solving skills since there isn’t anyone else to teach them. But as these authors argue, they need cooperation first as an evolutionary step to develop the capacity to problem-solve because they need to develop relational thinking and be able to apply that relational perspective to other items.

This seemingly intractable mind-body problem has been famously illustrated in Nagel (1974) essay entitled, what is it like to be a bat. Chalmers (1995) later described this as the hard problem to describe the explanatory gap between the physical world and the subjective experience.

I’m totally going to read those two articles!

In his principles of psychology, William James (1890/1983) posited that awareness of the self (self- awareness) implies that the self is both object and subject, because there is an aspect of the self that knows (i.e., the knower) and an aspect that wants or needs to be known.

Added this to my library check out books!

This basic idea of GWTs are that sensory information gains access to consciousness when it is ‘broadcast’ within an anatomically widespread neuronal workspace that is implemented across higher-order cortical association areas, with a particular emphasis on the prefrontal cortex (Mashour et al., 2020). Access to the global workspace is achieved through nonlinear network ‘ignition’ in which recurrent processing amplifies and sustains neuronal representations (Dehaene, Sergent, & Changeux, 2003). Once ignited, signals are then amplified, allowing them to enter the workspace (and thus become conscious). I would love to read about these theories as applied to autistic individuals.

Contingencies of reinforcement become contingencies of meaning based on how consequences are interpreted. Personhood is more easily judged and categorized in oneself and others (“I am like this, while you are like that”) while at the same time pure awareness as an aspect of consciousness is experienced as featureless (“I am”) which moves that aspect of self beyond the realm of judgment and closer to domains that are usually called spiritual or transcendental.

This blew my mind!

the brain will set about filtering basic sensory and sensorimotor information to fit a self-narrative or will open these gates under the influence of mindfulness or attentional training, or with the influence of psychedelic assisted therapy producing changes in sense of self (Hayes, Law, Malady, Zhu, & Bai, 2020).

I would love to see scientists apply this to autistic minds.

It is not possible to know what it is like fully to be unconscious, at least not consciously.

lol These authors are throwing in jokes.

That means that human consciousness is not thing-like and it cannot fully be the object of reflection because it is the very context of reflection which helps explain spirituality, the noetic quality of consciousness, and altered state of consciousness (Hayes, 1984).

Interesting!! Are they saying that consciousness is not a thing? Totally going to read that Hayes article too.

Human cognitive abilities can give rise to a more content-based sense of self, which is almost the exact opposite of its noetic qualities. This is one reason our model may be important in an applied sense. It is easy for awareness of one’s own experience to establish a kind of “ego tunnel” in which first-person experience creates an illusion of self in a content-based sense (Metzinger, 2010). A full-blown narrative emerges that then psychologically and neurobiologically narrows the full range of conscious experience and ancient brain systems can be mobilized to protect this narrative-based self, creating greater psychological rigidity and psychopathology.

I would love to see this applied to Cluster B personality disorders

Relationally speaking “here” implies “there” and “now” implies “then” just as much as “big” implies “little” or “hot” implies “cold.” What is a polarity at the level of content, however, is a unity at the level of process. The spatial content of “here” and “there”, for example, is a single spatial perspective that when viewed as a process can collapse into “everywhere.” Anything that is literally everywhere cannot be distinguished from nowhere. In the same way “now” and “then” can collapse into “always / never” at a process level; “this thing” or “that thing” into “everything / nothing”; or “me” and “you” into “everyone / no one”.

I really needed someone to say this! It’s now one of my favorite quotes.

That can help explain why, under extraordinary psychological conditions, such as those being explored in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, spiritual experiences, or a sense of oceanic awareness, fosters a sense of absolute conscious unity across time, place, and person.

I completely agree with this. They described what it’s like to take psychedelics so well.

From you:

There is a whiff of ableism when the authors discuss extensions of their model to “developmentally delayed” children. I think they are mistaken here; and I don’t think this mistake undermines the core argument.

I totally agree. It's almost implied in my comments above where I wonder how their ideas would work when applied to autistic minds. Aside from that, I think that their ableism is rooted in their evolutionary approach where becoming a conscious human is the peak of consciousness. Despite the ableism, I still think they made a valid contribution to the literature, and I'm happy they did. We can address the ableism now that it's out in the open lol. I rather people freely share it rather than pretend it doesn't exist and consequently gaslighting everyone that says it does exist.

This was an extraordinary article for me to read. It is full of a lot of scientific and personal insight that is going to take me awhile to process and respond thoroughly. I’ve placed my initial reactions above in the meantime. I really appreciate you sharing it! Thank you so much