[mikebrave]

It was my understanding that Autism was more or less that the neurons in the brain expanded further than they could support and the parts that weren't supported atrophied, kinda like a tree that overgrew, think what happens to a fruit tree that isn't pruned. Everyone's brain does some growth and pruning as needed, but something happens with autism that more or less it goes too far and then the parts that atrophy are less controlled than an average brain. This is why savants etc.

This process could express completely different in people that were more or less the same genetically, just one day in a womb where they got different amounts of nutrition could cause differences to manifest, then a lifetime of small differences would further manifest differently.