#uncited

[mikufunfacts]

miku fun fact #149

miku may have created minecraft

[hopefulkidweaseleclipse]

"Autonomy does not frighten a winner."

[procrastiposting]

Systematising brain

Today we are mad that systemitisation- the cognitive tendency to uncover the underlying rules and expalinations governing observable data- is literally only discussed in juxtaposition with "empathising"

This is fucking Simon Baron-Cohen bullshit, and more specifically, here is why I am mad:

I have a systematising brian. Systematising is a super legit thing that some people (Per SBC himself, Autistic people,which I about 3/4 agree with**) naturally do quite a lot. Anecdotally, I also know an abundance of people who absolutely could not give less of a shit about why things work or how they work- they simply care that they work, or more common still, they only notice when they stop working.

Anyways- I am fully willing to give my personal cognitive support (*for now*) (Essay pending) to the idea that some people systematise more easily or more intutively than others.

What I Will Not be lending any fucking support to, however, is the neurotrash nonsense idea that systeitisation is the opposite of empathy, and that this dissociation characterises differences in the "male brain" and "female brain". I hate this. You were doing so well and then you had to make it blue and pink and for what

Anyways Do I systematise because I am autistic or is it because both my parents were engineers? Or is it because both my parents were autistic engineers? [diagnoses pending /hj]

something something systemetysation and empathy are both very much destributed processes requiring overlapping areas of cortex

yaddah yaddah just because you think autistic brain are highly systematic and lower empathisisng doesn't mean that these things have anything to do with one another beyond drawing on a shared and limited pool of cognitive resources

boo hoo literally the prevalence of emotional hypervigilance and "hypersensitivity" within certain groups of autistic people* is literally testament to the fact that empathy and systemetysation can not only cooccur, but can covarry across populations.

(*incidentally mostly girls, but this doesn't prove anyone right)

I think this all has to do with more global frameworks in which cognitive resources are selectively hyper-concentrated on specific concepts- this is the special interest thing, this is the systemetisation of whatever is being attended, this is hypervigilance, this is social anxiety, this is high empathy, it's literally just amplified cognitive and cortical processing (hello oversaturation of white matter tracts) and what and however its focused, - both in terms of item selectivity and prefered handling method (systematising, reitterating, attenuating)

Basically, systematisation is the natural consequence of focused cognitive attention to specific information, for those whose brains got used to systematising.

brains think more or feel more depending on which processes they are focused on. This preference is modulated by Learning! Which is subject to social conditioning!

It's possible a preference for systemetising processes is due to excess cortical connectivity, and weakened limbic circuitry (ASD)

However! This doesn't really universally reflect a dichotomy between systematising and empathising?

unless we are looking to redefine the term based on neuro-reductivism (which I do love to do, but will refrain from here don't @ me) Empathy multiple components distributed across neocortical, paleocortical, and subcortical areas! Reduction in one does not deplete the others,- especially if they compensate with hyperconnectivity!

systemetisation can act on literally any representations/objects- including people, body language, feelings, relationships... probably most objects involved in "empathy" (albeit I would wonder how much of this may be modulated by social attention wich is observably depleted in autism relative to NT controls)

SO in conclusion can we please just talk more about systemetisation without making it a boy thing? We can make it an autistic thing* but we gotta stop using it to make autism a boy thing.

*I do find the discretisation here a bit tiring as well (future essay)

A systematising brain is not a Male Brain.

The autistic brain is not an Extreme Male Brain.

*dies imminently*

****Disclaimer time!: Lots of big takes in this rant that I have not cited because i am LAZY- I reserve the right to revisit, revise, redact, or retroactively source any of the above claims if I read something that makes me realise I'm a moron or I develop a spontaneous desire to elaborate on anything in a more formal or structured tone. Feel free to point out my mistakes or send me articles

[v-o-i-d]

[prettygirlfood]

[alldayfoodporn-blog]

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