How neurodivergent brains differ, why, and what that means. This hub collects the science of neurodevelopmental variation: conditions and their co-occurrence, cognitive architecture, genetics, neurochemistry, and the deep evolutionary history that shaped human neurological diversity.
Conditions and co-occurrence
ADHD · core features, co-occurrence with autism, the mismatch theory.
AuDHD · when autism and ADHD co-occur. Internal contradictions, compounded masking, a profile that is more than the sum of its parts.
The overlap problem · autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and Tourette’s co-occur so often the separation looks more like a filing system than biology.
Alexithymia and autism · difficulty identifying emotions, 50% co-occurrence with autism, the connection to interoception.
Cognitive architecture
Executive function · the cognitive architecture connecting sensory processing to daily functioning. Distinct profiles in autism versus ADHD, and the bidirectional interaction with sensory load.
Predictive processing and autism · the theoretical framework explaining how autistic brains weight sensory information differently: altered precision weighting of predictions versus sensory evidence.
Serotonin system and autism · genetics, blood markers, the 5HT₂A receptor, and the PSILAUT psilocybin trial.
Genetics and evolution
Genetic heterogeneity in autism · autism is not one thing genetically. Four distinct clusters, different developmental pathways, different implications.
Archaic DNA and the braided species · Neanderthal, Denisovan, and ghost population contributions to the modern human genome. How archaic cognitive variants connect to neurodiversity.
Evolutionary origins of neurodivergence · grounding autism and ADHD in deep evolutionary history through Neanderthal DNA and ancient genetics.
Frameworks
Models of disability · medical, social, neurodiversity, capabilities, human rights, and the Foucauldian critique. Where you stand on this shapes everything else.