The causes and origins of autism and Asperger's syndrome are subjects of continuing conjecture and debate, and there is still considerable debate on these topics, alongside the broader debate about whether Asperger's and other conditions (such as ADHD) are part of the so-called autism spectrum or not.
Amongst several competing theories are the underconnectivity theory developed by cognitive scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, the extreme male brain theory by Simon Baron-Cohen, the lack of theory of mind, and the Pre-operational autism theory, which states that autistic people are those who get neurologically stuck at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development, where much of information processing is at a holistic-visual level and is largely musical and non-verbal. This also addresses the issue of the theory of mind where children at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development have not attained decentralisation from egocentrism.
The Monotropism hypothesis argues that the central feature of Autism is attention-tunnelling, 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 then a few, intensely motivated, behaviours are engendered. From monotropism hypothesis, autism results from different strategies of distributing attention in the brain.
The underconnectivity theory indicates a deficiency in the coordination among brain areas. With the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was seen that white matter, which connects various areas of the brain like cables, has abnormalities in people with autism. (For those interested in brain studies, see Neuropsychology.)
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, such as 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.
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