Neuro-diversity

That STEM fields have an over-abundance of individual on the Autism spectrum is a stereotype played up both in popular media and within STEM itself. Indeed, there is evidence that this is not just aprocychal, and taht there really is an over-abundance of individual on the spectrum in STEM. STEM is particularly accommodating to ASD since it plays to the strengths of those individuals, such as their attention to detail, their methodical way of thinking, and a strong focus on systematic pattern recognition. All these skills are highly valued in a wide variety of STEM disciplines. The difficulty comes in the characterized behaviors of individuals on the spectrum, which relate to communication.

These are difficulties and impairments in:

  1. Impaired reciprocal social interaction,
  2. Impaired Communication, and,
  3. Focus on restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities.

How is this a problem?

How can it be improved?

Poor face-recognition capabilities

Although the deficit in face identity recognition is not a defining characteristic of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis (APA 2000), a large body of evidence has demonstrated that individuals with ASD are selectively impaired in their face processing abilities (e.g., Serra et al. 2003; Scherf et al. 2008; Wolf et al. 2008; Wilson et al. 2010a, b; Tanaka et al. 2010; McPartland et al. 2011; Tanaka et al. 2012). On one hand, it is conceivable that the face processing difficulties experienced by people with ASD play a contributing role to the core social and communication deficits that characterize the autism condition (Dawson et al. 2005; Schultz 2005). However, the reverse relationship is also plausible. Poor social and p1043 in Comprehensive Guide

Dealing

This paper #Chasson2014 describes some common Impairments in the Use of Multiple Nonverbal Behaviors:

  • Facial Recognition.
  • Emotion Recognition.
  • Social Gaze and Eye Contact.

Although people on the spectrum may have a harder time exhibitin emotion empathy, they are quite capable of cognitive empathy

Amygdala. Located in the medial temporal lobes, a brain structure that is respon- sible for processing emotions Emotion recognition. Ability to recognize and identify others’ emotions based on nonverbal cues Facial recognition. Ability to recognize individuals based on their facial characteristics Fusiform face area. Brain area located in the temporal lobe on the fusiform gyrus that is responsible for face recognition Fusiform gyrus. Brain area in the temporal lobe that is responsible for face and body recognition Gestures. A type of nonverbal communication in which the body is moved in a way to communicate a message to another person Global processing (holistic approach). Gestalt approach that allows one to combine all the features of the face and to perceive them as one entity Inferior temporal gyri. Brain area in the temporal lobe that is responsible for recognizing objects Joint attention. Cluster of behaviors that are used to nonverbally communicate to another person about a third stimulus in the setting Local processing. Approach in which stimuli are processed by attending to specific details instead of global features Meta-representation. Alternative representation of an object Nonverbal communication. Communicating to another via facial expressions, eye contact, body gestures, and touch Social orienting. Turning one’s eyes or body in response to a social stimulus Social reciprocity. Responding to another person’s action/behavior with a similar action/behavior; mutual exchange of appropriate turn-taking interactions with others Weak central coherence theory. Theory that suggests that individuals with ASD have a perceptual and cognitive style that is biased toward attending to minor details in lieu of the bigger picture