Autism and the Predictive Brain

Book excerpt: What if our previous teachings and beliefs regarding processing stimuli, reading emotions and understanding human behaviour is all untrue? In this book, Peter Vermeulen investigates new findings on the predictive brain and what these insights mean for autism and current interventions. Recent research has shown that the classic ideas about how the human brain first needs to process incoming information about the world before it can react are no longer tenable. Rather, to survive in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment of modern society, what we need is a brain that predicts the world quickly and unconsciously, while taking proper account of the context. This book explains the new theories relating to the predictive brain, summarising some of the more recent highly technical research studies about the predictive mind and autism into as accessible and understandable language as possible. Shedding new light on the predictive brain and its relation to autism, the chapters lead readers to the inevitable conclusion that many of the current interventions used in connection with autism urgently need updating and outline possibilities for revising. This approachable book synthesises advanced research for professionals across disciplines working with people with autism spectrum disorder along with readers who have or have family members with ASD.