You’d think r/singularity of all places would be home to more people like us lol

But yeah, the sheer amount of.. everything is disturbing. Bad faith arguing, baseless conjecture, drawing broad conclusions from novel research, failing to authentically engage with objections to the framing of the research itself (couched in the broad terms of a “cure” rather than the much better framing of a “treatment for distressing social deficits”). I really hate this place (Reddit as a whole, I mean).

Speaking for myself, I already got treatment in the form of social training when I was young. Simple, even less invasive, and based soundly on the principle of neuroplasticity. Has enduring effects, while the persistent effects of this approach are unclear. Many - but not all - autists who object to the notion of “treatment” are generally strongly against the treatment of the core characteristics (“symptoms”) of autism, and the implicit pathologicalization of it; frequently, those speaking of treatment refer mainly/only to social difficulties, and sometimes sensory overwhelm, but almost never the more integral parts of the autistic mind. That’s what I either failed to fully communicate or the repliers failed to understand in my now-deleted downvoted comments earlier in the thread. This issue is also an emotionally charged one for many of us, which one can perhaps see in the significant engagement with that comment and others very similar to it in this thread.

Honestly, a lot of us would rather this post just go away. Aside from your comment and a handful of others, this thread has devolved into a cesspool, of which I evidently played a role. This discussion is better reserved for another forum, but I digress. Sorry for deviating from your question.

Nah, sensory deprivation chambers are cooler imo

Also, I think your second point falls outside the scope of the research. That wasn’t established, at least according to the abstract.

The thing is, I was actually treated for my social deficits when I was very young. It worked very well, and - according to my parents - was not very expensive, either. It is well-understood that altered mTOR function in autism results in heightened synaptic plasticity, which may make autistic brains more receptive to more direct, psychology-based treatments for social deficits. It appears so in my case, but I - of course - am not a double-blind, placebo controlled study, so I’ll leave that to the researchers with better-placed grant money to examine.

I do also happen to be trans, too

I’d tend to agree here, if I’m being honest. I was one of those highly downvoted comments further up, and got my throat jumped on. I really don’t understand why this post even belongs here, let alone why so many people outside of the community have come out of the woodwork to talk about it.

This thread is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I pulled my comment because I was tired of getting a litany of notifications about this godforsaken thread, nor did I want to give anyone here the opportunity to argue further. Better to just let this thread flounder and die with less engagement, so we can get back to the fun parts of this sub.

Edit: Jesus Christ people

Except… it doesn’t? The study would need to be replicated to merely strongly suggest that the proposed procedure would ameliorate social deficits. No further inferences may be made beyond the scope of the study. It simply suggests that these chambers may treat one negative facet of autism, nothing more. It may provide a potential research direction, but it has been repeatedly shown that autism - like many areas of neurodivergence - is highly polymorphic in cause, manifestation, and other characteristics. I’d go further and say the study doesn’t even suggest brain damage, if I’m being honest. That would have to be studied on its own.