What We Can Learn from Programming a Computer to Be Autistic

Neuroscientists from Baylor University have successfully programmed an artificial neural network to exhibit autistic behavior. In doing so, they've shown how a theorized general root of autism--related to a concept known as divisive normalization--in the brain leads to the disorder's specific symptomatic manifestations. One of the main hypotheses of autism is that the disorder has to do with a neurophysiological excitation-to-inhibition (E/I) imbalance. An autistic brain is overexcited, generall...