Monotropism
The monotropism hypothesis argues that the central feature of autism is
attention-tunneling, or monotropism. The hypothesis is founded on the
model Mind as a Dynamical System: Implications for Autism. In this model
of mind, the fundamental and limited resource is mental attention. Mental
events compete for and consume attention. In a polytropic mind, many interests
are aroused to a moderate degree. In a monotropic mind, few interests
are very highly aroused. When many interests are aroused, multiple complex
behaviours emerge. When few interests are aroused, a few intensely motivated
behaviours are engendered. From monotropism hypothesis, autism results
from different strategies of distributing attention in the brain.
Underconnectivity Theory
The underconnectivity theory indicates a deficiency in the coordination
among brain areas (the brain is known to be modular). With the aid of
(fMRI), it was seen that white matter, which connects various areas of
the brain like cables, has abnormalities in people with autism.
The underconnectivity theory holds that autism is a system-wide brain disorder that limits the coordination and integration among brain areas. This theory is parsimonious, in that it explains why autistic people are matured on certain dimensions eg: visual information processing and logical analysis, and yet are socially and sometimes neuro-physiologically, significantly younger than their chronological age. The underconnectivity theory can be regarded as monotropism in the brain.
Mindblindness theory
The analysis of autism as "mind blindness"—the inability
to create models of other people's thoughts. The typical example of this
is "where does X look for the object they stored, but which was moved
by Y"—see theory of mind. Not all autistics fit this pattern,
however.
Other Theories
Other theories address the rise of autism in recent times. They suggests
the rise of visual media and thereby the increasing central role of visual
information processing in the breakdown of language and the rise of autism.
