The potential role for emergence in autism.
Some tough autism behaviors may be new blends, not hard-wired symptoms, so shift the blend to reduce them.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Richman (2008) wrote a theory paper. No kids were tested. No genes were sequenced.
The author asked: what if severe autism behaviors do not come from one broken gene? What if they pop up when many small traits mix?
What they found
The paper says self-injury or savant skills may emerge later. They are not baked in from birth.
Like mixing red and yellow paint makes orange, the orange is new. It was not in either color alone.
How this fits with other research
da Silva Montenegro et al. (2020) found 23% of autism cases get a clear gene read. That leaves most kids without a single gene tag. The emergence idea helps explain the gap.
Niego et al. (2021) show ASD and Williams syndrome share some gene activity in blood, yet the kids act very differently. This fits: the same raw part can join new mixes and make new outcomes.
Minster et al. (2011) taught kids word pairs. Later the kids picked new pairs that were never rewarded. The relations emerged from how items were linked, not from direct rewards. The same logic may apply to autism traits.
Why it matters
If a behavior is emergent, you can shift the mix. Track sensory issues, motor quirks, and social interests as separate pieces. Change one piece and watch the severe behavior fade. Do not wait for a single gene fix that may never come.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Although most research on autistic behavior has considered autism categorically, the increasingly apparent genetic and phenotypic complexities of autism are prompting a more dimensional approach to this area. The long-standing interest in a less categorical approach is made clear from a review of literature. The accumulating empirical support for viewing autism-related phenomena as separable and fractionable is outlined and includes data indicating that many of the behaviors occur in isolation in family members and the general population, are not highly correlated within individuals, and appear to be inherited separately. However, it is emphasized that some of the most common and characteristic phenomena observed in individuals diagnosed with autism do not run in their families. It is suggested that these novel, "emergent," phenomena may arise in the individual from interacting configurations of co-occurring traits or from the interaction of genetic and biological factors underlying the traits. A number of autism-related phenomena including intellectual disability, seizures, persistence of primitive reflexes, stereotypies, self-injurious behavior, savant abilities, and morphological abnormalities, among others, are discussed as potentially being emergent. It is concluded that consideration of the role of emergence in autistic behavior and related phenomena should complement a reductionist approach and might help illuminate the components and complexities of autism.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2008 · doi:10.1002/aur.2