Why We're Neurodiversity Spectrum Explained: Why We're Not So Different After All

Neurodiversity continues to be a hot topic, especially when it comes to employment rights and obligations.

You may have heard of people being diagnosed as ‘on the spectrum’, normally with regards to autism. But my own work with neurodiverse groups and the research I’ve studed around it suggests we may all do well To consider that most of us are on a spectrum of sorts. I constantly challenge the polarisation of people into neurotypical and neurodiverse groups, as though there is gap in between. Yet the reality is that we are all spread across a spectrum ranging across typical, non-typical and more extreme behaviours.

The balance of the evidence I have uncovered offers another way of looking at this. This evidence suggests that the population is distributed as follows-

32% are considered balanced

32% are cognitively biassed, and

32% are emotionally biassed.

‘Cognitively biased’ means that we tend to experience the world primarily through our own set of rational rules using logic and reasoning to make sense of our lives. ‘Emotionally biassed’ means that we react primarily emotionally to our environments and the people around us. ‘Balanced’ means we operate evenly across both.

So, the mathematic amongst you will have noticed this does not equate to 100%! Clinically diagnosed people with neurodiverse conditions and anxiety disorders tend to operate in the final 4% -

2% being extremely cognitively biased

and the other 2% being extremely emotionally biassed.

See diagram below.

There is a strong correlation between extreme emotional bias and anxiety disorders, where the normal brain filters for handling sensory information are not functioning as well as we would like, conditions often induced by previous traumas.

The 2% extreme cognitive bias is often those diagnosed with autism try to operate. I say ’try’ because their behaviours are coping mechanisms adopted to handle a life which would otherwise feel dominated by sensory overload. This should not be taken to mean they are unemotional, but more that they use rational techniques to cope with their experiences.

The point here Is that only about 32% of us can I claim to be ‘balanced’, whilst the rest of us have a primary tendency to focus on either rational or emotional bias. The only difference between uS and the neurodiverse is that we do not operate at the extremes. We can see the cliff edge ahead, but we are not hanging over it, unlike those with autistic and anxiety conditions who frequently feel they have walked beyond the cliff edge onto a plank without safety net beneath.