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AUTISM AD A DOWNSTREAM EFFECT OF PRIMARY DIFFICULTIES IN INTERSUBJECTOVITY INTERACTING WITH ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN CONNECTIVITY
No full textABSTRACT. Autism is a ‘spectrum’ of conditions all of which disturb the development of
interpersonal sympathy. We suggest that differences in behavior, emotion or brain functions are
downstream effects of impairments in primary or secondary intersubjectivity. Several research
projects have shown that the lack of intersubjective behaviors is the best way to discriminate
children with autism from those with typical development during the first year of life.
According to new findings on biological maturation of the brain after birth, it is supposed that
these difficulties do not allow the neurological experience-dependent system to develop in
autism. In this paper we consider early dyadic interactions observed in the home movies of
children later diagnosed with autism, of sequential maternal approach and infant’s responses to
these approaches. We hypothesize that children with autism show fewer contingent responses to
their mothers than non-autistic children, and that episodes of contingency are a function of the
type of approach used by the caregiver. It is supposed that more contingent behaviors happen
when the caregiver approach is high in intensity and rich in non-verbal behaviors, as motherese.
Motherese is supposed to play an important role in creating interactive sequences which are the
expression of new cortical and sub-cortical networks in brain development. When these
linkages are not properly formed early in life, a variety of downstream effects may occur
Autism as a downstream effect of problems in intersubjectivity going with difficulties in brain connections
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