Lynn Waterhouse Rethinking Autism: Variation and Complexity

Chapter 1 Autism Heterogeneity content outline

Autism Heterogeneity is Extensive and Unexplained 3
Autism Heterogeneity has Blocked Medical Treatment Discovery 4
Diagnostic Criteria have not Constrained Autism Heterogeneity 4
Variation in Autism Diagnostic Features 6
Variation in Autism Brain Deficits, Medical Conditions, and Non-Diagnostic
Symptoms 8
Variation in Genetic Risk Factors for Autism 9
Variation in Environmental Risk Factors for Autism 10
Summary: Variation Exists in all Autism Domains 11
Autism Subgroups and Unifying Theories for Autism have Addressed Heterogeneity 12
Competing Proposals for Autism Subgroups 13
Competing Brain Deficit Theories of Autism 14
Autism is Unified by a Shared Brain Disruption in Social Information Processing 15
Autism is Unified by a Failure to Sparsify Information to Prototypes 15
Autism is Unified by the Failure to Have a Theory Of Mind 16
Autism is Unified by Brain Underconnectivity 16
Autism is Unified by Impaired Attention to Biological Motion 17
Competing Genetic Risk Factor Theories of Autism 18
Competing Speculative Environmental Cause Theories of Autism 20
The Wakefield Vaccine Theory Fraud 20
Two Harmful Theories of Environmental Causes for Autism 21
Four Foolishly Speculative Theories of Environmental Causes for Autism 21
Competing Gene–Environment Interaction Theories of Autism 22
Subgroups and Unifying Theories have not Explained the Variation in Autism 23
Has Autism been Reified? 24
Saving the Phenomena of Autism Variation 27
How Should We View the Variation in Autism? 27
Serious Concerns for Maintaining the Autism Diagnosis 30
Eight Claims Concerning Autism Variation and the Autism Diagnosis 31
Chapter 1 Claim 1: Autism Heterogeneity is Meaningful 31
Chapter 2 Claim 2: Autism Symptom Heterogeneity Exists in Family Members 32
Chapter 3 Claim 3: The Social Brain is a Complex Super-Network 33
Chapter 4 Claim 4: Genetic Risk Factors Link Autism to Many Other Disorders 33
Chapter 5 Claim 5: Environmental Risk Factors Link Autism to Many Other Outcomes 35
Chapter 6 Claim 6: Savant Skills, Special Skills, and Intelligence Vary Widely in Autism 36
Chapter 7 Claim 7: Increasing Prevalence and the Problem Of Diagnosis 37
Chapter 8 Claim 8: Autism Symptoms Exist but the Disorder Remains Elusive 37
Summary of the Eight Claims Regarding Autism Variation 40