Autism: Creativity Higher In Some Autistic Patients

Researchers are just scratching the surface when it comes to the complexity of autism, a behavioral disorder that typically becomes apparent during early childhood, with symptoms ranging from difficulties in social interactions, communication behaviors and reasoning abilities.

Yet more recent research has also revealed significantly more insight into certain indicators that may showcase extremely high levels of intelligence, attention to detail and enhanced working memory in some with the behavioral disorder.

A team of researchers from the University of East Anglia and Scotland's University of Stirling looked to test out the creativity in some with autistic tendencies.

The Background: In the study, researchers examined 312 participants who were found with "subthreshold autistic traits," or those who were categorized under borderline autism but were not actually diagnosed with autism, according to The Guardian. Out of the 312, however, only 75 of the participants were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 

During the study, participants were asked to answer a series of questions in which researchers asked them to list down as many alternative uses for paper clips or bricks as they could. Researchers based their answers on quantity, unusualness and elaborateness, according to The Autism Daily Newscast. 

While individuals diagnosed with autism typically had fewer answers regarding alternative uses for these objects, their answers were more unique than those who did not exhibit traits of the disorder.

"We think that perhaps the people with autistic traits use more effortful methods to produce answers to divergent thinking tasks (not based on obvious word associations or common uses for similar items) and therefore come up with fewer but better responses," lead author Dr. Catherine Best of the University of Stirling in the U.K., wrote in email to Reuters Health.

Autism spectrum disorders today:  Autism diagnoses' have significantly grown. Estimates show that roughly 1 in 68 children will be identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with new estimates roughly 30 percent higher than previously reported back in 2012 (at 1 in 88 children.) The behavioral health issue is also significantly more common in boys than girls. However, researchers are still uncertain whether these higher numbers mean that the behavioral health issue is becoming more common or if diagnoses are simply more accurate?

Furthermore, someone with autism or autistic traits will not always have higher signs of intelligence. In fact, while an individual with an autism spectrum disorder or autistic trait may show accelerated signs of creativity, he or she may be extremely challenged in other aspects of life.

The study authors also examined the survey responses of the 75 participants with an autism spectrum diagnosis and the 237 without (though some of those without a diagnosis did display autistic traits during the study.)

The researchers also found that autistic traits, in some cases, were linked to an ability to see more than one image in abstract drawings that participants were asked to interpret. However, as the sample size in the study was lumped together of those diagnosed with autism and some who just exhibited autistic traits, researchers cannot be certain if the results may have been disproportionately influenced.

"Mild autism can provide some intellectual advantages and severe autism is a great handicap," Temple Grandin, an autism activist and livestock researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, wrote by email to Reuters Health. "If all the autism traits were removed, we would lose many creative minds in music, art, math and science."

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