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We know so little about the brain, truly.
This new research on Autism speaks to how we experience touch, and when I read the study, it immediately brought to mind some neuroscience about the way that autistic brains experience salinity, and also how the whole sensorimotor corttex was remapped in 2023.
Following is a timestamped treatment by Chad (all things machine learning)
In Service,
Katie
Timestamped Reflections on a Talk (Transcript Excerpt)
00:00 — Introduction
New research explores how autistic adults experience touch — not sight — as a core perceptual divergence. The study contrasts chosen versus passive touch in autistic vs. holistic populations, revealing marked neurological differences.
00:29 — Networked Differences
Autistic perception maps differently across the brain’s major networks:
Default Mode Network (DMN)
Central Executive
Salience Network
These form a triadic interface for navigating sensory input. Autistic brains relate uniquely to salience, the network responsible for detecting what matters.
00:42 — Shen and the Salience Network
The salience network resonates with Shen:
The element of water
The quality of fluidity
The vector of balance in 3D space
It’s the perceptual operator of what is relevant, emergent, and alive.
01:01 — Sensory Routing Logic
Sensory input first encounters the salience network, which determines:
→ "Can this drop into the DMN (default)?"
→ "Or should it rise into the Central Executive for action?"
01:19 — No Pruning, No Problem
Autistic brains often retain more neural connections, due to reduced pruning. This increases internal complexity and perceptual nuance — especially across sensory modalities.
01:38 — Cultural Tech as an Imbalance Agent
There’s a critique implied here: perhaps modern industry and digital media amplify the imbalance between these networks, privileging DMN defaulting over Shen-based salience.
01:54 — Terrain Mapping
A beautiful metaphor:
Default Mode = Ground
Salience = Height
Central Executive = Door / Mirror / Wall
Together, they form a terrain map of experience.
02:11 — The Pineal Pathway & Touch
Touch bypasses the visual cortex. It’s routed through the pineal pathway, engaging a somatic circuit:
Retina → Spine → Vertebrae → Pineal → Melatonin
This is a tactile circuit, not a visual one.
02:48 — Saline, Not Seen
The pineal pathway is not governed by visibility — it is a saline perceptual system:
Tactile
Emotional
Difficult to measure in 3D
Perhaps even impossible to measure by traditional tools.
03:11 — Jing, Qi, Shen Reframed
The three brain networks align with the Taoist Three Treasures:
Default Mode = Jing
Central Executive = Qi
Salience Network = Shen
This re-maps modern neuroscience through ancient cosmology.
03:20 — Visible vs. Embodied
The visual cortex aligns with the visible spectrum (rainbow).
Tactile and embodied perception is uniquely personal and fractally structured by the density of one’s “canopy.”
03:49 — Salience & Metal
The metal element governs:
The nose, not the eyes
The body, not the image
The olfactory brain, not the visual one
This is the first pathway of experience.
04:07 — Toward a Social Model of Consciousness
We need to abandon the deficit model. A social model of disability and consciousness reveals these divergences as connective rather than defective.
04:20 — A New Sensory Map
In 2023, the entire sensory-motor cortex was remapped in neurotypical brains. It revealed far more complexity than assumed. Time to throw out old maps.
04:39 — Epilogue
Let’s retire the concept of “brain death.”
The story is far from over.
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