Different—and Normal
THE NEURODIVERSE BRAIN
Some of humanity’s greatest advances were made by people like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, who today would be considered on the autism spectrum. “Brains come in different types and they’re all normal,” says psychologist Simon Baron Cohen, a world expert on autism and director of Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre. The brains of the neurodiverse, he explains, “just function differently.”
Dr. Cohen believes that autism today is viewed the same way left-handedness once was. “Neurodiversity is the next frontier,” he says, and he envisions a workplace that is not only gender and ethnically diverse, but neurodiverse as well.
A Calmer Interface
“The world used to be such a loud static and now it is more like a moderate hum,” is how one neurodiverse person describes the benefits of neurofeedback. Neurofeedback reduces symptoms like extreme sensitivity to light and sound and repetitive movements called “stimming.” Social situations are less dysregulating and more easily tolerated.