Autism: An evolutionary perspective, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, 1st Symposium of EPSIG, 2016

'Lack of empathy' is such a poor way of framing it. Just because we have difficulty recognizing & defining the emotions of others doesn't mean we don't care!

In my experience and as a Autistic woman, with 3 Autistic boys. We have more empathy than neurological people and often end up partnered with narcissistic people, romantically and or friendships. Especially because we struggle to pick up on obvious social cues, all the whilst believing we are reading the room correctly. And those that avoid narcs tend to get burned in the school system and the sensory overload of it all, with a seamingly low pay off for efforts. Once the pattern is recognised tho, alot of Autistic people then realize that its more peaceful to isolate to a certain degree. Once burned, twice shy as they say...

People with autism do experience empathy. I'm autistic and I am a HSP. I feel everything all the time. It's very overwhelming.

Small side note: if an adult patient in diagnosis asks to leave their parents out of the process because they won't be of much help, by all means please do humour them. My own diagnosis had been held off for several decades because every time I made an attempt to get what I knew to be true written and stamped on a certificate so I'd qualify for getting help/meds/therapy, the doc insisted that parental input be very important and proceeded to allow them to ruin the diagnosis. "No, my son isn't crazy, he isn't an autist, there never were any problems. I have a perfectly normal son, nothing wrong with him!" Especially among the elderly you're going to find many parents who view having an autistic child, especially one that wasn't diagnosed during childhood, as an accusation of bad parenting, one so strong that they have to deflect it, even to the detriment of the child.

Hyper-empathy. We are blessed/cursed with this.

People with autism feel emotions and read a room more deeply than you'll ever understand. It's in the expression of them and how to handle the intensity of them where we struggle. Autism = hypersensitivity, does that sound like we're unfeeling robots?

Some say that he still holds that cup till this day.

I am autistic and LOVE patterns and repetition. I'm also a weaver, and can't help but think that long ago when we were still hunters and gatherers (which was a much larger period of time in human evolution than agricultural societies) that the "skilled" craftspeople probably tended to be those with some form of autism. Things like weaving, making flints, bows and arrows, pottery etc. all require intense periods of focus for long hours and most of all the repetition. Most people don't have the patience for these types of tasks and would rather be with the rest of the group socializing, hunting etc. So if each little group had a few people who were very skilled at things like weaving, it would makes sense that this ability to focus and less need of socializing became a trait that stayed in our genome and has stayed with us.

Microsoft, the company, at least on the main campus in Redmond, WA, has an entire separate suite for people with autism/Asperger's that is literally designed differently (providing for low noise distractions, privacy, etc.) because the company and beyond that, the field of competing science, really can utilize the special gifts of those whose brains are structured in this way. Their groups make huge contributions to the R &D side of the company's endeavors.

I’m an Aspie... people been fkn with my perfect universe since day 1.

Being aspie I really wish these vids would start with the lecture and not with the preamble!

"It's about the dose of social interaction a person needs." Yes, yes. So much yes. I hate excess socialising. But doesn't mean I'm not happy to hang out on zoom with a bunch of people. ...Probably about half of whom are every bit as autistic as me. There's a good analogy with introverts and extroverts, where the main difference is how you recharge your batteries by being alone, or by being with people. We all have different levels of interaction or alone time we can stand. As a side note, people with very high empathy can be at risk of being taken advantage of by narcissists and predators.

I believe Im awake at night not only to avoid socializing but it cuts down on the amount of natural light (the dreaded sun lol) and noise I have to deal with. Not sure if anyone else feels the same.

This group of people makes me feel at home. So calm, very polite, curious about the brain.

My two year old son has just being diagnosed with Autism and as a first time father found this very difficult to accept and understand, this lecture has helped to reach a better understanding and appreciate my son is not “Broken” he is just different, thank you 🙏🏻

People with Asperger suffer a great deal of anxiety all their lives. Worried about the pass and future and not being able to express their feeling is exhausting. Loneliness is the only safe place to be. Just think why asperger people feel depress ... Man has gone to the moon and medicine still don't figure out how the brain works.

Omg, he said, "finding them very confusing". Uh, no. It's he and others who find us very confusing. We are more repelled than confused. We see what's going on and it's shocking and horrifying. We choose to not participate in what is dysfunctional. When we are forced to in order to survive it takes a savage toll.

Our empathy is so good, we know when our mother hates us !! We know what the truth is but we don't want it to be true or we look for ways of keeping toxicity away from us even though this methodology backfires !!

We have empathy, we just relate to people in different ways

Growing up with Asperger's, it was difficult to read subtle social ques, not obvious ones but as I got older I started applying that pattern recognition skill to social interactions, so I've gotten a lot better at it. Simply put, I made Social interactions into math equations lol