ChapterPDF Available

Monotropism – An Interest Based Account of Autism

Authors:
M
Monotropism An Interest
Based Account of Autism
Dinah Murray
National Autistic Taskforce, London, UK
Synonyms
Attention tunneling,Hyper/hypo responses,
Intense interests,Passionate minds,Splinter skills
Definition
The central idea of monotropism (a word coined
for Murray in 1992 by Jeanette Buirski) is that in
autism, processing resource strongly tends to
localize and concentrate to the exclusion of other
input; an atypicality from which many other dif-
ferences can be seen to follow. Understanding this
concept fully requires a view of mind as a system
of interests which inform cognitive, perceptual,
and emotional processes. Hence this denition
briey sketches that model.
Interests are what we care about, what we
spontaneously give attention to, and what we
value (if only briey). In our model they are
fueled by a scarce resource (N =interestor
attention) of highly and dynamically varying
distribution both within and between different
individuals (see Murrays PhD, 1986), Language
structures interest systems (guaranteeing mental
overlap) and is an expressive tool for manipulat-
ing ones own or othersinterests. This dynamic,
ecological, model of minds (and sets of minds)
can help us see how the pattern of autistic intense
interests (in all DSMs and ICDs) leads to such a
complex and varied range of people and activity;
this model predicts innite neurodiversity, with
emergent patterns of resource distribution.
We hold this can make sense of a wide range of
autistic phenomena: all or nothingthinking;
coordination and integration issues at every
level; executive function and mentalizingchal-
lenges; hyper and hypo sensibilities; difculties
set switching; enhanced perceptual processing; in
addition, splinter skills(Dawson 2018) and
early language regression, particularly singled
out as puzzling anomalies by Rutter and Pickles
(2016). A scarce resource account, spoon the-
ory(Miserando 2003), which overlaps with an
interest model, has become popular among autis-
tic people (Memmott 2018).
The key implication reintervention of this way
of thinking has long been summed up in the old
autism as, Start where the child [person] is.
Some Significant Features of the Model
For anyone, the more intensively localized is
N (at any given time) the more keenly experienced
the current interest will be.
Endogenous absorption is likely to yield high-
performance within-interest:
#Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
F. R. Volkmar (ed.), Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102269-1
The more absorbing the ow, the more disrup-
tive diversion is likely to be and the more potential
there is for resource absence (inattention/zero pro-
cessing) elsewhere
Cross-ow intrusions across the switched on
area will tend to be highly turbulent and may
abruptly use up and replace available N and/or
become expressed in ways that may seem
angry or frightening to others.
Feedback via expression in rehearsal or real
action in the outside world may be trapped”–
unable to invoke wider activation, instead
feeding back to the same locus, risking over-
stimulation and a disabling crisis.
When ow is obstructed and spoilt, recovery
time is needed; turbulence needs to settle and
levels of N be restored and available for distri-
bution; this will take longer the more powerful
the disrupted ow.
Or a owstate may be achieved and in-ow
processing will ultimately replenish
N throughout the system.
Co-ordinating distinct interests (to forge a new
whole) will require extra effort.
Moving out of an endogenous focal interest
will require overcoming turbulence and
re-aligning: it will take extra effort; undergoing
that may be a strongly aversive experience. It is a
main use of speech and language to reach into
ones headand do things there; therefore, speech
can be powerfully aversive unless it goes with
the ow/starts where the person is.Also,
because ones own speech has an impact on others
too but one has minimal control over its effects,
those who do take up speech may give it up later.
The pattern of action above may predict long
term
Very uneven development of connections
Denser than typical, instantly available
connections
Sparser than typical long-reach connections
Continuing developmental increases of
especially long-reach connections
Less blurriness, less room for manoeuvre,
and less socially oriented structuring of con-
nections than a more typical person
A strong drive for certainty derived from
personal investigation, as all else appears
unreliable.
Qualities of ow, turbulence, activation, inhi-
bition, expression, and connection seem likely to
have physical correlates. This model suggests
some possible meanings for those. Murray et al.
(2005) compared monotropic distribution of N to
a torch beam vs. a lantern but we now prefer a
water analogy, as water has ow and turbulence,
and nds its way through any gap: monotropic
people appear especially good at spotting the
cracks and gaps. To seed the dry zonessuccess-
fully, irrigate them with interest rst.
On the basis of a monotropic, interest-based
interpretation of autism, of much research and of
our own long-term observations, we recommend:
encouraging and sharing delights, only redirecting
(going off-ow) when essential (as it often is),
building learning through interests and permitting
recovery time for all redirection (See also Lawson
2011). Shared interests foster mutual understand-
ing and fellow feeling, and help overcome what
Milton (2012) characterizes as the double empa-
thy problem,in which neither party grasps the
others intent. Instead people are equally engaged
with each other.
An interest system is a biologically grounded
value system. Executive function and social
adjustment challenges make demands on our pro-
cessing resource and interfere with our doing the
things we do most sweetly. Some of those things
may involve shared experiences with meanings
passionately connected to a common weal and
transcending issues of prot or gain. In contrast
to the notion of reading other individualsminds
in order to guess what they are thinking, or where
you stand in relation to them and using language
effectively to manipulate othersinterest systems,
this way of sharing experience is not about pre-
sentation of self to self but about a freedom of
shared joy and wonder that entirely transcends
self. Its difcult being a human, whoever you are.
2 Monotropism An Interest Based Account of Autism
References and Reading
Dawson, M. (2018). Splinter skills and cognitive strengths
in autism. In E. B. Braaten (Ed.), The SAGE encyclo-
pedia of intellectual and developmental disorders.
Lawson, W. (2011). The passionate mind: How individuals
with autism learn. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Milton, D. E. M. (2012). On the ontological status of
autism: The double empathy problem.Disability &
Society, 27(6), 883887.
Miserandino, C. (2003). Cited in Memmott, A (2018),
Autism and spoon theory. http://annsautism.blogspot.
com/2018/02/autism-and-spoon-theory.html. Accessed
28 Feb 2018.
Murray, D. K. C. (1992). Attention tunnelling and autism.
In Living with autism: The individual, the family, and
the professional.Durham conference proceedings,
obtainable from autism research unit. School of Health
Sciences, University of Sunderland, UK.
Murray, D. K., Lesser, M., & Lawson, W. (2005). Atten-
tion, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for
autism. Autism, 9, 139156.
Rutter, M., & Pickles, A. (2016). Annual research review:
Threats to the validity of child psychiatry and psychol-
ogy. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57,
398416.
Monotropism An Interest Based Account of Autism 3
... They concluded that the two phenomena are descriptively similar or synonymous, and identified four common features: (1) an intense state of concentration, (2) a diminished 4 and monotropism, [16][17][18] and how they intersect with one another in the extant literature. Apparently shared characteristics across conditions are presented on the same row. ...
... 142) leaves fewer resources for other processes, and is thought to be a gateway to achieving intense experiences and flow. 18 Disregard for the theory of monotropism,* and autistic testimony in general, has likely hampered progress in examining the association between autism and flow experiences. ...
... Their reports also correspond to descriptions of the monotropic state, 18 which is thought to be a precursor to achieving intense experiences and flow. Consistent with monotropism, participants repeatedly recounted experiencing intense ''tunnel vision,'' where their attention is captured on a small number of interests at any time to the extent that they ''lose touch with everything else.'' ...
... An individual in such intense absorption can be characterized as being in an "attention tunnel", where Page 5526 attentional resources are allocated toward a closed and narrow range of preferred activities to the exclusion of other input (Murray et al., 2005;Murray, 2019), hence the hyper-awareness and high task performance within the tunnel, along with hypo-awareness outside the tunnel, potentially leaving large areas of information relevant to other tasks outside the tunnel unregistered and making it hard to perceive the value of anything outside that tunnel (Murray et al., 2005;Murray, 2018). ...
... This work also has important implications for practice. Autistic inertia is a double-edged sword: while difficulty in handing attentional shifts and interruptions is obviously undesirable, intense focus can be a major asset to those in technical fields like IT -being in an "attention tunnel" can lead to hyperawareness and high task performance (Murray et al., 2005;Murray, 2018). IT managers should play a facilitative role and minimize unanticipated interruptions in the work environment to allow employees' deep immersion in their tasks. ...
... Tasks requiring additional cognitive processing demands in previous research may have also affected the capacity for participants to fully engage with their social partner, preventing the pair from closely synchronizing. In particular, tasks requiring constrained movements or additional cognitive demands may not sufficiently capture the attention and motivation of autistic participants, who can show more localized attention patterns than non-autistic people (Murray et al., 2005;Murray, 2018). For instance, it is possible that elements of previous tasks have drawn the attention of the autistic partner away from the interaction, including constrained movements, such as rocking chair motion (Marsh et al., 2013), explicit imitation of a partners' movements (Brezis et al., 2017), or following instructions to build a puzzle (Delaherche et al., 2013). ...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Some research indicates that neurodivergent people are less likely than “neurotypical” people to adapt their movements to a partner’s movements to facilitate interpersonal motor synchrony. Researchers therefore suggest synchrony deficits underlie the social differences associated with autism and other neurodivergences. Intensive Interaction (II) is a client-led approach, where Learning Support Workers (LSW) follow the lead of learners to create balanced and reciprocal interactions. Methods We aimed to examine the balance of synchrony in learners with autism and Severe Learning Disabilities and their LSWs in a special education college where learners had prior experience with II. Using Motion Energy Analysis, we assessed the degree to which each partner acted as a leader, and hence which partner acted as a follower, during moments of close synchrony. Results Overall, learners and LSWs showed higher than chance synchrony. There were no differences in the degree to which each partner led the moments of synchrony, or the amount pairs synchronized with zero-lag, where there was no delay between each partners’ movements. Discussion The equal balance of leading and following in the learner and LSW pairs demonstrates that both partners consistently adapted their movements to their partner’s movements to facilitate synchrony. The findings tentatively challenge the notion of a synchrony deficit in autism and suggest synchrony can be present in cross-neurotype pairs in comfortable and engaging conditions. We discuss the potential for client-led, movement-based approaches to support smooth interactions across neurotypes.
... In recent years, a growing amount of non-pathologizing approaches to autism, often championed by autistic researchers themselves (e.g. Arnold 2020; Milton & Bracher 2013;Murray 2018;Murray, lesser, and lawson 2005;yergeau 2013), have gradually begun receiving more attention. one such approach is the theory of double empathy, a novel approach to autism and empathy first proposed and developed by Milton (2012Milton ( , 2014. ...
Article
Full-text available
The notion that autistic individuals suffer from empathy deficiencies continues to be a widespread assumption, including in many areas of philosophy and cognitive science. In response to this, Damian Milton has proposed an interactional approach to empathy, namely the theory of the double empathy problem. According to this theory, empathy is fundamentally dependent on mutual reciprocity or salience rather than individual, cognitive faculties like theory of mind. However, the theory leaves open the question of what makes any salient interaction empathic in the first place. The aim of this paper is to integrate core tenets of the theory of the double empathy problem specifically with classical, phenomenological descriptions of empathy. Such an integration provides further conceptual refinement to the theory of the double empathy problem while recognizing its core tenets, but it also introduces important considerations of neurodiversity to classic, phenomenological descriptions of empathy.
... Many autistic children and young people will also have single attention: otherwise known as monotropism (Murray, 2018(Murray, , 2020Murray et al., 2005). The typical cognitive styles of non-autistic individuals tend to comfortably entertain multiple simultaneous interests, each moderately engaged, whereas those of autistic individuals tend to maintain only very few simultaneous interests: each one highly engaged and intensely focused upon. ...
Article
(OPEN ACCESS PAPER - Please visit DOI below) Poor mental health—compared to that of the neurotypical child population—is a serious concern for many autistic children and young people around the world. In the UK, we have an increasing number of autistic young people receiving care in NHS funded in-patient mental health facilities. While sensory processing differences have now been added to international diagnostic criteria for autism, recent autistic-led and co-produced, practice-based research commissioned by the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce and delivered by National Development Team for Inclusion has identified that knowledge of autistic sensory differences and needs is institutionally absent. In particular, the sensory environments of NHS England-funded in-patient facilities were found to present sometimes extreme challenges for autistic young people that at best hinder wellbeing and at worst exacerbate existing mental health problems: instigating a cycle of progressing upwards through increasingly restrictive settings for some. This paper shares some of this learning, gained from the consultation with young autistic people who have experience of inpatient services and autistic Experts by Experience working on novel sensory ward environment reviews. We first introduce the framing of autism as primarily shaped by sensory and social processing differences and outline the significance of this perspective for the in-patient care of autistic young people and children. We then provide an overview of the current sensory challenges that exist in inpatient mental health facilities for autistic children and young people. Finally, we conclude with some suggestions for areas of future research around the impact of adapting ward environments, that have promise for broader and international settings.
Chapter
This chapter introduces autism beginning with its history as a diagnosis to its revolution as the central focus of the neurodiversity movement. The variety of aspects of human development that are explored in autism are unpacked and the tension between this clinical view of autism and the lived experience is also discussed. The core for the Sensory Accommodation Framework for Technology is introduced as an abstraction of a learning skills pyramid that is used to understand development in clinical fields. The view from an autistic perspective is added to this model and layers are discussed in each subsequent chapter, building to a full framework that describes a user-centered, sensory-centered approach to design. Direct connections remain to the clinical perspective with the aim of building a bridge.
Article
The purpose of this study was to reexamine research that used verbal fluency tasks to reinforce assumed deficits in word knowledge and retrieval in the autistic population. We identified seventeen articles that compared the performance of autistic and non-autistic people on verbal fluency measures and provided an interpretation of the observed performance. In this narrative review, we summarize many components of these studies, including a comprehensive account of how authors framed their research findings. Overall, results of the studies showed variation both between and within groups in terms of total number of correct words, how many subsequent words fell into subcategories, and how frequently participants switched between subcategories. Despite wide variation in findings across studies, authors consistently interpreted results as revealing or reinforcing autistic deficits. To contrast the deficit narrative, we offer an alternative interpretation of findings by considering how they could provide support for the autistic-led theory of monotropism. This alternative interpretation accounts for the inconsistencies in findings between studies, since wide individual variation in performance is an expected feature of the monotropic theory. We use our review as an exercise in reframing a body of literature from a neurodiversity-affirming perspective. We propose this as a case example and model for how autism research and clinical practice can move away from the consistent narrative of autism deficits that has pervaded our field for decades. Accordingly, we offer suggestions for future research and clinical practice.
Article
Full-text available
With the rise of large-scale data-driven innovation in AI, data annotation tasks found in digital work environments present an employment opportunity for neurodivergent individuals. Though work in data annotation can potentially ease the high unemployment rate of neurodivergent individuals, limited research focuses on the experience of neurodivergent workers in data annotation micro-tasks. To aid in understanding the experience of neurodivergent crowd workers, we conducted a user study with ten neurodivergent workers between the ages of 18–30. Participants completed three types of micro-tasks in a custom web-based data annotation platform. With the data collected from the platform, we examined individual responses within data annotations, work completion, the time to complete work, and calculated a potential “effective hourly wage,” for each participant based on their responses. Through a survey and semi-structured interview following each task, we learned about the experience of all participants regarding each of the data annotation tasks. Results of the study show: 1) our participants provide diverse annotations that are valuable for employers in digital data annotation work environments; 2) when calculating the “effective hourly wage” of all participants per task, some of our participants would earn less than minimum hourly wage on tasks; and 3) participant perceptions of the tasks matched their responses in the tasks presented.
Article
Full-text available
In recent decades there has been much debate over the ontological status of autism and other neurological ‘disorders', diagnosed by behavioural indicators, and theorised primarily within the field of cognitive neuroscience and psychological paradigms. Such cognitive-behavioural discourses abstain from acknowledging the universal issue of relationality and interaction in the formation of a contested and constantly reconstructed social reality, produced through the agency of its ‘actors'. The nature of these contested interactions will be explored in this current issues piece through the use of the term the ‘double empathy problem', and how such a rendition produces a critique of autism being defined as a deficit in ‘theory of mind', re-framing such issues as a question of reciprocity and mutuality. In keeping with other autistic self-advocates, this piece will refer to ‘autistic people', and ‘those who identify as on the autism spectrum', rather than ‘people with autism'.
Article
Full-text available
The authors conclude from a range of literature relevant to the autistic condition that atypical strategies for the allocation of attention are central to the condition. This assertion is examined in the context of recent research, the diagnostic criteria for autism in DSM-IV and ICD-10, and the personal experiences of individuals with autism including one of the authors of the article. The first two diagnostic criteria are shown to follow from the 'restricted range of interests' referred to in the third criterion. Implications for practice are indicated.
Chapter
Intellectual disability (or intellectual development disorder) is characterized by deficits incognitive and adaptive abilities that initially manifest during the developmental period. Inthe United States, the prevalence of intellectual disability is estimated to be between 1and 3 out of every 100 individuals in the general population. Most individuals have mildintellectual disability and the cause is generally not identified. A small percentage ofindividuals have severe deficits and who will need lifetime supports. The diagnosis ofintellectual development disorder requires formal psychometric testing to assess theintelligence quotient and adaptive functioning. Management is based on providinggeneral medical care, treatment of specific behavioral symptoms, early intervention,special education, and variable degrees of community based supports.
Article
Background: Suggestions have been made that many claims concern false-positive findings in the field of child psychology and psychiatry. Methods: The literature was searched for concepts and findings on the validity of child psychiatry and psychology. Findings: Substantial progress has been made in some, but not all, areas and considerable challenges remain in all. Conclusions: The two major threats to validity concern the inability to examine brain tissues in life and the evidence that there is a high overlap among disorders. We emphasize the need to follow published guidelines on preplanned analyses and we note the dangers associated with unregulated flexibility in data analysis. We note the very important clinical and developmental findings that have been ignored, perhaps partly because of an excessive focus on technologies. Nevertheless, we are positive about both the accomplishments and the ways in which challenges are being met.
The passionate mind: How individuals with autism learn
  • W Lawson
Lawson, W. (2011). The passionate mind: How individuals with autism learn. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Autism and spoon theory
  • C Miserandino
Miserandino, C. (2003). Cited in Memmott, A (2018), Autism and spoon theory. http://annsautism.blogspot. com/2018/02/autism-and-spoon-theory.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2018.
Durham conference proceedings, obtainable from autism research unit. School of Health Sciences
  • D K C Murray
Murray, D. K. C. (1992). Attention tunnelling and autism. In Living with autism: The individual, the family, and the professional. Durham conference proceedings, obtainable from autism research unit. School of Health Sciences, University of Sunderland, UK.