1 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:05,660 There are over half a million people 2 00:00:05,660 --> 00:00:10,980 in Britain who experience the world very differently to the rest of us. 3 00:00:10,980 --> 00:00:13,420 These are people with autism. 4 00:00:14,620 --> 00:00:19,100 A puzzling condition which, 70 years after it was first given a name, 5 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:21,740 we still know very little about. 6 00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:26,180 My name is Uta Frith. 7 00:00:26,180 --> 00:00:28,820 I'm a psychologist and I've spent my career 8 00:00:28,820 --> 00:00:32,340 trying to unravel the mysteries of the autistic mind. 9 00:00:32,340 --> 00:00:37,180 By spending time with many different people on the autistic spectrum, 10 00:00:37,180 --> 00:00:40,020 I want to show you what a complex condition it is. 11 00:00:40,020 --> 00:00:42,660 I want you to join me as I reveal 12 00:00:42,660 --> 00:00:45,420 what I've discovered about these amazing people. 13 00:00:45,420 --> 00:00:48,140 23rd of May. CHILDREN SHOUT OUT 14 00:00:48,140 --> 00:00:50,780 16th of August 2001. 15 00:00:50,780 --> 00:00:52,620 It was a Thursday. 16 00:00:52,620 --> 00:00:54,500 Kenny, how do you do it? 17 00:00:54,500 --> 00:00:57,900 How is it possible to have this extraordinary ability? 18 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:01,340 And how do people with autism cope with relationships? 19 00:01:01,340 --> 00:01:03,780 I don't know. Why are we together? You tell me. 20 00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:07,420 You're my...required amount of social contact. 21 00:01:07,420 --> 00:01:08,860 SHE CHUCKLES 22 00:01:08,860 --> 00:01:12,700 These fascinating people that I've met over the years 23 00:01:12,700 --> 00:01:16,380 have shown me that another kind of reality exists, 24 00:01:16,380 --> 00:01:20,100 that is full of immense challenges, mysteries... 25 00:01:20,100 --> 00:01:22,260 but also joy. 26 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:24,460 Mum always wears blue because of the dolphin thing. 27 00:01:24,460 --> 00:01:27,340 He thinks I'm a dolphin! Why? You've got the dolphin smile. 28 00:01:27,340 --> 00:01:30,180 It's the smile! And you love fish, like dolphins. I do love fish. 29 00:01:30,180 --> 00:01:32,500 You like us to throw you sea bass when you're in bed. 30 00:01:32,500 --> 00:01:37,300 I want to show you that by understanding their world, 31 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:40,140 we can learn more about OUR world. 32 00:01:54,780 --> 00:01:57,820 In my quest to understand the autistic mind, 33 00:01:57,820 --> 00:02:01,180 I've spent a lifetime conducting rigorous experiments. 34 00:02:02,300 --> 00:02:04,100 OK, let's have a look. 35 00:02:04,100 --> 00:02:06,940 By comparing people with autism to the rest of us, 36 00:02:06,940 --> 00:02:10,380 we can start to see what autism really is. 37 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:15,980 My fascination with autism began 50 years ago 38 00:02:15,980 --> 00:02:18,140 when I met some autistic children, 39 00:02:18,140 --> 00:02:21,020 while I was training to be a clinical psychologist. 40 00:02:22,180 --> 00:02:26,260 I was immediately fascinated of the paradox of how these beautiful, 41 00:02:26,260 --> 00:02:30,060 bright-eyed children could be so detached from the world. 42 00:02:30,060 --> 00:02:33,740 When I asked a question, an autistic child would repeat it 43 00:02:33,740 --> 00:02:37,820 and not answer it. And I couldn't engage them in a conversation. 44 00:02:37,820 --> 00:02:41,380 And I couldn't engage them with toys, either. 45 00:02:41,380 --> 00:02:45,340 An autistic child might rapidly complete a jigsaw puzzle 46 00:02:45,340 --> 00:02:50,420 but show absolutely no interest in a game of teddy bears' picnic. 47 00:02:50,420 --> 00:02:53,780 I passionately wanted to find out what was going on here. 48 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:58,140 Back in the 1960s, 49 00:02:58,140 --> 00:03:03,020 these children were being given the new diagnosis of autism. 50 00:03:03,020 --> 00:03:05,860 "Autos" in Greek means "self" 51 00:03:05,860 --> 00:03:09,100 and refers to their apparent self absorption. 52 00:03:09,100 --> 00:03:11,300 Autism takes on many forms 53 00:03:11,300 --> 00:03:14,180 and exists on a wide spectrum, from mild to severe. 54 00:03:15,820 --> 00:03:17,420 It was, and still is, 55 00:03:17,420 --> 00:03:20,580 characterised by the difficulty these children have 56 00:03:20,580 --> 00:03:23,740 communicating and interacting with others 57 00:03:23,740 --> 00:03:26,980 and by and their tendency to have very narrow interests 58 00:03:26,980 --> 00:03:30,420 and to repeat activities over and over again. 59 00:03:33,500 --> 00:03:36,940 What's this, Joe? What's... 60 00:03:36,940 --> 00:03:39,780 One of these children was Joe Allison. 61 00:03:39,780 --> 00:03:41,620 'And this? Bowl. 62 00:03:41,620 --> 00:03:43,420 'Bowl. And this? 63 00:03:43,420 --> 00:03:45,500 'Box. Box. And this?' 64 00:03:47,700 --> 00:03:49,900 Who is that? Yes. 65 00:03:49,900 --> 00:03:52,340 It's... Joe Allison. 66 00:03:52,340 --> 00:03:54,780 It's Joe Allison learning to talk. 67 00:03:54,780 --> 00:03:55,820 Yes. 68 00:03:55,820 --> 00:03:59,500 'What's this, Joe? Money. Money. 69 00:03:59,500 --> 00:04:02,140 'What's this, Joe? Money. Yes, money.' 70 00:04:02,140 --> 00:04:04,300 Joe is now 57 71 00:04:04,300 --> 00:04:08,220 and this is the first time I've seen him since he was a young boy. 72 00:04:11,900 --> 00:04:15,540 Do you remember her, Joe? Yes. She was very kind. 73 00:04:15,540 --> 00:04:16,540 What is this, Joe? 74 00:04:18,140 --> 00:04:19,980 HE MUTTERS What is it? 75 00:04:19,980 --> 00:04:23,460 Ba-ma. A barrow. A bu-bbow. 76 00:04:27,700 --> 00:04:29,980 Back then, we thought that 77 00:04:29,980 --> 00:04:33,660 if only we could teach these children to speak, 78 00:04:33,660 --> 00:04:36,940 then everything would be OK and the autism would go away. 79 00:04:38,540 --> 00:04:42,060 'Joe understood about the Christmas story, 80 00:04:42,060 --> 00:04:44,780 'about Father Christmas and Christmas dinner. 81 00:04:44,780 --> 00:04:47,420 'And it's the first time we've been able to have a tree 82 00:04:47,420 --> 00:04:49,460 'and none of the ornaments have been broken.' 83 00:04:49,460 --> 00:04:51,980 And who's this? Mum. 84 00:04:51,980 --> 00:04:54,740 Is it Mum? Yes. 85 00:04:54,740 --> 00:04:57,180 'So now you have some hope for Joe? I certainly do. 86 00:04:57,180 --> 00:05:00,300 'I don't know how far he will go but one feels if he's gone this far, 87 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:02,940 'why shouldn't he go a great deal further?' 88 00:05:02,940 --> 00:05:04,900 That's nice, isn't it? Yes. 89 00:05:07,620 --> 00:05:09,380 'But 50 years on, 90 00:05:09,380 --> 00:05:13,700 'we now know that autism is a lifelong brain abnormality. 91 00:05:16,900 --> 00:05:21,220 'Half of those affected have significant learning disabilities 92 00:05:21,220 --> 00:05:25,380 'and well over 80% are unable to live independently.' 93 00:05:36,980 --> 00:05:41,260 When I tell people what I do, the first thing they ask about 94 00:05:41,260 --> 00:05:44,260 are the autistic individuals known as savants, 95 00:05:44,260 --> 00:05:46,540 who have remarkable gifts. 96 00:05:46,540 --> 00:05:49,300 Many people with autism have talents 97 00:05:49,300 --> 00:05:52,620 that appear to be at odds with the rest of their abilities. 98 00:05:56,380 --> 00:06:00,540 And occasionally, these skills can be quite extraordinary. 99 00:06:00,540 --> 00:06:02,380 Start with the easy one... 100 00:06:02,380 --> 00:06:04,820 and work your way down through these operations 101 00:06:04,820 --> 00:06:06,620 to get your answer at the bottom. 102 00:06:08,900 --> 00:06:12,100 This is 15-year-old Kenny Mpanga, 103 00:06:12,100 --> 00:06:15,740 who was diagnosed with autism when he was eight. 104 00:06:15,740 --> 00:06:17,820 Unlike many other autistic children, 105 00:06:17,820 --> 00:06:20,660 Kenny is able to attend a mainstream secondary school, 106 00:06:20,660 --> 00:06:23,140 with a specialist autism unit. 107 00:06:23,140 --> 00:06:25,780 Would anybody else be able to have a go using that method now, 108 00:06:25,780 --> 00:06:28,660 Kenny's method, for doing this? 24 squared. 109 00:06:28,660 --> 00:06:30,660 Watch what he did again. 110 00:06:30,660 --> 00:06:33,260 Kenny has a gift for mental arithmetic... 111 00:06:33,260 --> 00:06:36,100 How many could multiply 9 by 36 in your head, though? 112 00:06:36,100 --> 00:06:39,100 ..and constantly amazes his classmates. 113 00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:41,380 Kenny, you're too smart! HE CHUCKLES 114 00:06:41,380 --> 00:06:44,100 You are actually too smart! You got all of them correct. 115 00:06:44,100 --> 00:06:49,460 Why are you in this set? Why? He's so smart! Seriously, how, how? 116 00:06:49,460 --> 00:06:52,100 What do you do? It's a secret? 117 00:06:52,100 --> 00:06:53,620 It's an African thing! 118 00:06:53,620 --> 00:06:55,220 THEY CHUCKLE 119 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:04,340 And Kenny has one very unusual talent. 120 00:07:04,340 --> 00:07:06,980 22nd of February. Oh, that was a Thursday. 121 00:07:06,980 --> 00:07:09,820 23rd of May. It was a Wednesday. 122 00:07:09,820 --> 00:07:12,260 16th of August 2001. 123 00:07:12,260 --> 00:07:13,980 It was a Thursday. 124 00:07:13,980 --> 00:07:16,700 He's a calendrical calculator... 125 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:18,620 That was a Saturday. 126 00:07:18,620 --> 00:07:23,180 ..which means you can give him a date in the past or future 127 00:07:23,180 --> 00:07:26,260 and he'll tell you which day of the week it falls on. 128 00:07:26,260 --> 00:07:28,460 Thursday. 129 00:07:28,460 --> 00:07:31,980 ..1936. Er, that was a Tuesday. 130 00:07:33,860 --> 00:07:36,820 Kenny's of huge interest to psychologists, 131 00:07:36,820 --> 00:07:40,500 who want to know how he has acquired this remarkable skill 132 00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:42,540 despite his language difficulties. 133 00:07:44,140 --> 00:07:46,380 He and his mum Harriet have come to 134 00:07:46,380 --> 00:07:50,820 the Institute of Education in London, so that he can be assessed. 135 00:07:50,820 --> 00:07:53,900 Then in 1878... 136 00:07:53,900 --> 00:07:58,420 Professor Richard Cowan studies calendrical calculators, like Kenny. 137 00:07:58,420 --> 00:08:02,220 1889, it was a Wednesday. Yeah. 138 00:08:02,220 --> 00:08:04,740 March the 14th 1985. 139 00:08:05,980 --> 00:08:09,300 I would say that was a Thursday. Absolutely right. 140 00:08:09,300 --> 00:08:14,180 And how about April the 22nd 1977? 141 00:08:14,180 --> 00:08:16,540 That was a...Friday. 142 00:08:16,540 --> 00:08:17,940 Absolutely right again. 143 00:08:17,940 --> 00:08:23,020 And the 6th of July 1987? That was a Monday. 144 00:08:23,020 --> 00:08:24,260 Brilliant, yeah. 145 00:08:24,260 --> 00:08:26,500 I mean, it's remarkable, isn't it? 146 00:08:26,500 --> 00:08:30,660 So you're very... It's almost like you're taking no time at all! 147 00:08:32,700 --> 00:08:35,540 I mean, do you see anything in your head? 148 00:08:35,540 --> 00:08:39,980 I mean, do you have a mental image of the calendar or...? No, I don't. 149 00:08:39,980 --> 00:08:44,860 So it's just... You hear the date and you know the answer? Yeah. 150 00:08:44,860 --> 00:08:47,740 It does blow you away sometimes, you know, 151 00:08:47,740 --> 00:08:49,540 the way he just knocks those off. 152 00:08:49,540 --> 00:08:53,660 But it can be quite an amusing party trick when, er, 153 00:08:53,660 --> 00:08:57,700 he tells people these things and they all go, "What, what, what?!" 154 00:08:57,700 --> 00:09:00,300 It is quite amusing but, er, yes, it does keep him busy. 155 00:09:00,300 --> 00:09:02,020 It's good to have a hobby. 156 00:09:02,020 --> 00:09:06,220 How did you go about working out the dates in the future? 157 00:09:06,220 --> 00:09:10,260 It all started when I was about seven or eight. 158 00:09:10,260 --> 00:09:14,300 I didn't look in any diaries or calendars. OK. 159 00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:16,180 I just, er... 160 00:09:16,180 --> 00:09:18,580 I think I just remembered that, er... 161 00:09:20,220 --> 00:09:24,500 Certain dates being a certain day 162 00:09:24,500 --> 00:09:28,300 and remembering that and, er, 163 00:09:28,300 --> 00:09:31,420 knowing that, er, every... 164 00:09:31,420 --> 00:09:35,940 Every year a day goes forward, apart from leap years. 165 00:09:35,940 --> 00:09:39,140 OK, so that's the "one year, one day" rule. 166 00:09:39,140 --> 00:09:42,020 That's when I also found out that, er, 167 00:09:42,020 --> 00:09:46,420 in one century every 28 years are the same. 168 00:09:46,420 --> 00:09:50,300 OK, so within a century every 28 years repeat. 169 00:09:50,300 --> 00:09:55,540 What's remarkable is that Kenny has identified complex patterns in the calendar, 170 00:09:55,540 --> 00:09:59,300 including the irregularities caused by leap years. 171 00:10:00,740 --> 00:10:03,980 And he works the answers out in a second. 172 00:10:03,980 --> 00:10:07,540 The 20th of December in 1994. 173 00:10:07,540 --> 00:10:10,420 That was a Tuesday. Yep. 174 00:10:10,420 --> 00:10:13,220 And the 3rd of August in 1980? 175 00:10:13,220 --> 00:10:16,700 Er, that was a Sunday. Yes, again. 176 00:10:16,700 --> 00:10:20,340 Kenny's excellent memory and his desire to practise obsessively 177 00:10:20,340 --> 00:10:23,500 are two features of the autistic mind. 178 00:10:23,500 --> 00:10:27,660 But his skill goes far beyond just memory and practice. 179 00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:31,340 He's able to spot patterns and he's devised his own system 180 00:10:31,340 --> 00:10:36,220 for coming up with the correct answers to date problems. 181 00:10:36,220 --> 00:10:38,620 This is very creative. 182 00:10:43,300 --> 00:10:47,780 Only about 10% of people with autism are as gifted as Kenny, 183 00:10:47,780 --> 00:10:51,620 but as many as a third have unexpected abilities - 184 00:10:51,620 --> 00:10:54,580 like perfect musical pitch 185 00:10:54,580 --> 00:10:56,700 and being able to recite from memory. 186 00:11:00,260 --> 00:11:01,380 Well done. 187 00:11:01,380 --> 00:11:04,300 So what does Kenny think about his autism? 188 00:11:04,300 --> 00:11:10,020 I see things in a different way than my other peers do and, er... 189 00:11:12,940 --> 00:11:17,580 And sometimes they think I'm, sort of, weird, the way I, er... 190 00:11:17,580 --> 00:11:22,300 I express my thoughts and opinions and, er, 191 00:11:22,300 --> 00:11:25,540 I guess some of my peers don't understand. 192 00:11:25,540 --> 00:11:29,500 I just... I think about things a different way. 193 00:11:31,900 --> 00:11:34,900 Can we ever discover what it is about the autistic mind 194 00:11:34,900 --> 00:11:38,740 that enables such remarkable talents to develop, 195 00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:41,020 aside from memory and practice? 196 00:11:43,020 --> 00:11:44,500 Hello, Peter. 197 00:11:44,500 --> 00:11:46,860 'I've devised a task, 198 00:11:46,860 --> 00:11:49,740 'using the popular children's game Where's Wally?, 199 00:11:49,740 --> 00:11:52,860 'to help explain the way autistic minds work. 200 00:11:54,380 --> 00:11:57,300 'The challenge is to find a tiny picture of Wally 201 00:11:57,300 --> 00:11:59,580 'in amongst this chaotic scene. 202 00:12:05,580 --> 00:12:09,740 'Peter, who doesn't have autism, struggles to find Wally.' 203 00:12:11,860 --> 00:12:13,660 Yeah, where's Wally? 204 00:12:13,660 --> 00:12:15,700 Come on, Wally, where are you? 205 00:12:20,020 --> 00:12:21,980 OK, let's have a look. 206 00:12:21,980 --> 00:12:26,220 'Paul, who is autistic, finds him really rather quickly...' 207 00:12:26,220 --> 00:12:32,180 That his archenemy. I obviously know that. And his girlfriend there! 208 00:12:32,180 --> 00:12:36,420 Oh, there he is. Wow! That was amazingly fast! That's amazing. 209 00:12:37,620 --> 00:12:40,620 '..whereas Peter's still trying to find Wally. 210 00:12:45,860 --> 00:12:49,020 'Next up is Chloe, who is also autistic.' 211 00:12:51,020 --> 00:12:54,300 Amazing! That was fabulously quick. 212 00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:56,380 Well done! Well done! 213 00:12:57,580 --> 00:13:00,620 'And then Laurie, who's also on the autistic spectrum.' 214 00:13:00,620 --> 00:13:04,540 That's it! That's amazing. Yeah! Amazing! 215 00:13:04,540 --> 00:13:06,700 'Peter needs some help.' 216 00:13:06,700 --> 00:13:12,580 Do you want, er, a kind of vague clue, or not really? Er, yes. 217 00:13:12,580 --> 00:13:14,580 A vague clue. Sort of like... 218 00:13:14,580 --> 00:13:15,940 Oh, he's up, is he? 219 00:13:15,940 --> 00:13:18,300 The boats are a good clue. 220 00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:20,260 Yes, right, OK. 221 00:13:20,260 --> 00:13:22,780 That him? Yeah! 222 00:13:22,780 --> 00:13:26,220 'The one thing we've noticed time and time again 223 00:13:26,220 --> 00:13:30,100 'is that autistic people see details that escape the rest of us. 224 00:13:31,900 --> 00:13:34,900 'This gives us clues to understanding the condition, 225 00:13:34,900 --> 00:13:38,220 'because it means that they often miss the bigger picture - 226 00:13:38,220 --> 00:13:42,620 'focusing instead on the details that are the same whatever context they're in.' 227 00:13:45,180 --> 00:13:48,140 And it doesn't just apply to Where's Wally? - 228 00:13:48,140 --> 00:13:52,700 it shows us how differently autistic people experience the world. 229 00:13:52,700 --> 00:13:55,460 And it explains why they get upset 230 00:13:55,460 --> 00:13:58,500 when an ornament in their house has been moved a fraction, 231 00:13:58,500 --> 00:14:01,940 and also why their interests seem so narrow. 232 00:14:04,180 --> 00:14:06,220 This intense focus on detail 233 00:14:06,220 --> 00:14:10,060 and the abilities that sometimes emerge from 234 00:14:10,060 --> 00:14:12,540 it is a strange quirk of our mind - 235 00:14:12,540 --> 00:14:16,340 and it's a quirk that's very frequent in autism. 236 00:14:16,340 --> 00:14:20,260 But it doesn't begin to tell us what autism is really like. 237 00:14:22,100 --> 00:14:25,700 Sidney, can you start it for us, sending a clap in one direction? Thank you. 238 00:14:30,020 --> 00:14:32,860 The serious problems people with autism face 239 00:14:32,860 --> 00:14:36,500 are when they have to interact and communicate with others. 240 00:14:39,140 --> 00:14:42,180 I've come to meet acting student Jules Robertson, 241 00:14:42,180 --> 00:14:45,940 who has a form of autism known as Asperger syndrome. 242 00:14:47,660 --> 00:14:51,100 People with Asperger syndrome do not have language problems 243 00:14:51,100 --> 00:14:53,980 and are of average or above-average intelligence. 244 00:14:56,380 --> 00:14:59,060 Jules has recently enrolled on a drama course 245 00:14:59,060 --> 00:15:00,860 because he wants to be an actor. 246 00:15:02,300 --> 00:15:05,140 So, Sidney, can we have you sitting on the bus? 247 00:15:08,180 --> 00:15:12,460 I join him and his mum, the novelist Kathy Lette, 248 00:15:12,460 --> 00:15:17,540 for what turns out to be an interesting and unusual conversation. 249 00:15:17,540 --> 00:15:21,180 Jules has this idea that everybody has an animal. Oh! 250 00:15:21,180 --> 00:15:24,940 They have a totem animal. Mum always wears blue because of the dolphin. 251 00:15:24,940 --> 00:15:27,460 He thinks I'm a dolphin cos of my big... What about me? 252 00:15:27,460 --> 00:15:31,780 What do you think? What animal am I? Like a flamingo. A flamingo head. 253 00:15:31,780 --> 00:15:35,780 You've got a face like a flamingo. Like a flamingo! Why am I a dolphin? 254 00:15:35,780 --> 00:15:38,260 Why? You've got a dolphin smile. Smile. It's the smile! 255 00:15:38,260 --> 00:15:40,860 And you love fish. I do love fish! You love sea bass. 256 00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:43,300 You like us to throw you sea bass when you're in bed. 257 00:15:43,300 --> 00:15:45,540 And I jump up and catch it! 258 00:15:45,540 --> 00:15:50,860 I just wanted to ask you, what is it like for you to have this chat here? 259 00:15:50,860 --> 00:15:52,460 Well, yeah. Having... 260 00:15:52,460 --> 00:15:56,420 I can tell you what it's like having Asperger's, as well. That's very... 261 00:15:56,420 --> 00:16:00,060 Well, please. So hard. Er... 262 00:16:00,060 --> 00:16:04,220 It's really hard. People don't understand how hard it is. 263 00:16:04,220 --> 00:16:06,380 They just... They just don't. 264 00:16:06,380 --> 00:16:08,900 They just expect me to be able to... 265 00:16:08,900 --> 00:16:13,540 get on with life really easily and it's not easy for me to do that. 266 00:16:13,540 --> 00:16:18,660 But is that also why it's difficult just to chat and... 267 00:16:18,660 --> 00:16:24,340 You know, just to chat for no reason? Yeah, it's hard to... 268 00:16:24,340 --> 00:16:29,740 to, er...make effort with people. To be engaging with people. Yes. 269 00:16:29,740 --> 00:16:31,660 It's really challenging. 270 00:16:32,900 --> 00:16:34,900 THEY CHUCKLE 271 00:16:36,540 --> 00:16:40,980 Jules, do you want to go in and make... OK. ..Becka disappear? 272 00:16:40,980 --> 00:16:43,340 Do you like Steve Martin? 273 00:16:43,340 --> 00:16:45,300 THEY LAUGH 274 00:16:48,020 --> 00:16:49,940 What's remarkable about Jules 275 00:16:49,940 --> 00:16:52,820 is that he's able to use his acting classes 276 00:16:52,820 --> 00:16:56,140 to help him cope with the social world. 277 00:16:56,140 --> 00:16:57,260 Oh! 278 00:16:59,860 --> 00:17:03,540 You can leave any time you want, Jules. Well done! 279 00:17:03,540 --> 00:17:06,340 What we're seeing, really, here 280 00:17:06,340 --> 00:17:09,460 is a little universe of social interactions - 281 00:17:09,460 --> 00:17:12,300 little miniature scenes are being enacted. 282 00:17:12,300 --> 00:17:17,060 And we see how much reciprocity there is between these young people. 283 00:17:17,060 --> 00:17:18,140 Freeze! 284 00:17:20,620 --> 00:17:23,300 This acting class gives Jules an opportunity 285 00:17:23,300 --> 00:17:28,620 to learn about social interactions and the natural flow of everyday conversation, 286 00:17:28,620 --> 00:17:33,020 which is precisely what autistic people struggle with. 287 00:17:33,020 --> 00:17:35,620 I was one foot from the ball! 288 00:17:35,620 --> 00:17:39,540 I think that Jules really has taken advantage of this 289 00:17:39,540 --> 00:17:44,980 and he's able to learn a lot about what's going on 290 00:17:44,980 --> 00:17:51,140 in a very relaxed and playful way, that situations can be rehearsed. 291 00:17:51,140 --> 00:17:53,500 YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! Freeze! 292 00:17:56,580 --> 00:17:58,780 Dad, you need to seriously stop wearing my clothes! 293 00:17:58,780 --> 00:18:00,620 LAUGHTER 294 00:18:00,620 --> 00:18:02,220 Mom's going to freak out again! 295 00:18:02,220 --> 00:18:04,780 You remember she drove herself to drink last night! 296 00:18:04,780 --> 00:18:08,580 Well, I am a transvestite! No, but Mom doesn't need to know that. 297 00:18:08,580 --> 00:18:09,580 Freeze! 298 00:18:11,060 --> 00:18:13,740 Jules copes really well in his acting class 299 00:18:13,740 --> 00:18:16,660 and his lack of filter helps the other students 300 00:18:16,660 --> 00:18:18,700 to lose their inhibitions, too. 301 00:18:18,700 --> 00:18:21,340 But it's real-life social interactions 302 00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:23,580 that are the challenge for him. 303 00:18:23,580 --> 00:18:27,620 I observed you being with the other drama students 304 00:18:27,620 --> 00:18:30,500 and you seemed really happy there. Was that true? 305 00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:32,140 I was very happy there. 306 00:18:32,140 --> 00:18:34,740 I'm not so happy now but I was really happy then. 307 00:18:36,500 --> 00:18:38,860 Jules will always tell the truth. 308 00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:42,340 I used to try and explain to Jules that you couldn't always be truthful - 309 00:18:42,340 --> 00:18:44,860 you know, that you had to be more diplomatic... 310 00:18:44,860 --> 00:18:47,740 That is a problem, isn't it? Can you sometimes tell a lie? 311 00:18:47,740 --> 00:18:49,980 Is it sometimes all right to tell a lie? 312 00:18:51,020 --> 00:18:54,260 He used to say to me, "Are you teaching me to lie?" 313 00:18:54,260 --> 00:18:56,020 And it's a hard concept, isn't it? 314 00:18:56,020 --> 00:18:57,900 What do you think, Jules? Do you... 315 00:18:59,100 --> 00:19:00,340 Er... 316 00:19:03,020 --> 00:19:04,580 Er... 317 00:19:04,580 --> 00:19:06,660 No, I think it's good to tell the truth. 318 00:19:06,660 --> 00:19:09,300 So I'm always in favour of that. 319 00:19:09,300 --> 00:19:11,660 Where does it come from? 320 00:19:11,660 --> 00:19:14,940 Why does it happen? Autism? Yes. What do you think? 321 00:19:16,180 --> 00:19:19,060 What's your explanation? I just think... 322 00:19:19,060 --> 00:19:21,140 I just think people's brains are different. 323 00:19:21,140 --> 00:19:23,900 Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head. 324 00:19:23,900 --> 00:19:27,020 People's brains are different. Yeah. 325 00:19:27,020 --> 00:19:29,380 And that's how the world is. 326 00:19:35,740 --> 00:19:41,180 Jules is so likeable and charming, and really good company. 327 00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:44,620 But it is clear that often he just does not get it. 328 00:19:45,660 --> 00:19:47,660 He dances to a different tune. 329 00:19:49,100 --> 00:19:54,580 What I've learned over the last 50 years is that not having 330 00:19:54,580 --> 00:19:57,660 a special kind of social navigation system 331 00:19:57,660 --> 00:20:01,900 is what sets autistic people apart from the rest of us. 332 00:20:25,860 --> 00:20:30,980 So why can't people with autism fully share in our social world? 333 00:20:30,980 --> 00:20:35,380 Is there an extra social sense beyond sound, sight and touch 334 00:20:35,380 --> 00:20:36,620 that they don't have? 335 00:20:38,860 --> 00:20:42,740 Here is a deceptively simple task that I helped devise in the 1980s. 336 00:20:46,180 --> 00:20:49,700 It gives some insight into how most of us who don't have autism 337 00:20:49,700 --> 00:20:55,180 instinctively understand the complex to and fro of social interactions. 338 00:20:55,180 --> 00:20:59,380 So, I'm going to tell you a little story about these two dolls. 339 00:20:59,380 --> 00:21:01,820 This one is Sally... 340 00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:05,660 ..and this one is Ann. 341 00:21:07,660 --> 00:21:10,380 Sally has a basket 342 00:21:10,380 --> 00:21:11,780 and Ann has a box. 343 00:21:14,020 --> 00:21:14,940 And Sally... 344 00:21:16,420 --> 00:21:21,940 ..has a marble and she's putting that marble into her basket. 345 00:21:21,940 --> 00:21:23,140 Keep it safe. 346 00:21:23,140 --> 00:21:28,020 Now Sally wants to go out to play 347 00:21:28,020 --> 00:21:30,860 and she's going right out of the room. 348 00:21:30,860 --> 00:21:32,860 Now, Ann... 349 00:21:34,540 --> 00:21:35,780 ..naughty Ann... 350 00:21:37,740 --> 00:21:39,780 ..takes that marble 351 00:21:39,780 --> 00:21:41,420 out of the basket... 352 00:21:43,060 --> 00:21:48,100 ..and puts it into her box. 353 00:21:48,100 --> 00:21:49,260 There it is. 354 00:21:52,020 --> 00:21:55,420 Now it's time for Sally to come back... 355 00:21:56,460 --> 00:21:59,620 ..and she wants to play with her marble. 356 00:22:02,220 --> 00:22:04,500 Where will Sally look for her marble? 357 00:22:05,980 --> 00:22:08,020 In her basket. 358 00:22:08,020 --> 00:22:09,340 Of course! 359 00:22:09,340 --> 00:22:13,020 Why does she look in her basket? Cos she put it there. 360 00:22:13,020 --> 00:22:14,420 She did, and...? 361 00:22:16,220 --> 00:22:19,420 She didn't know that the other girl took it. 362 00:22:19,420 --> 00:22:21,660 Yes. 363 00:22:21,660 --> 00:22:23,100 Why didn't she know? 364 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:27,540 Cos she was out. She was outside. She didn't see it, did she? No. 365 00:22:27,540 --> 00:22:29,140 Ha! 366 00:22:29,140 --> 00:22:30,380 Well done. 367 00:22:33,220 --> 00:22:36,500 We'd expect most normally developing four-to-five-year-olds 368 00:22:36,500 --> 00:22:40,100 to correctly identify where Sally will look for her marble 369 00:22:40,100 --> 00:22:42,580 when she returns. 370 00:22:42,580 --> 00:22:46,820 They understand that Sally has no knowledge of the marble being moved 371 00:22:46,820 --> 00:22:49,500 and so she will look for it where she put it, 372 00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:51,100 rather than where it really is. 373 00:22:53,340 --> 00:22:58,220 What this shows is that most of us instinctively know that other people 374 00:22:58,220 --> 00:23:03,100 have their separate beliefs, wishes and intentions - minds of their own. 375 00:23:04,260 --> 00:23:08,220 It turns out that this is the key to understanding other people, 376 00:23:08,220 --> 00:23:12,580 to explain why they're doing what they're doing. 377 00:23:12,580 --> 00:23:17,740 It's our extra social sense that we haven't had a name for 378 00:23:17,740 --> 00:23:19,940 but I called it "mentalising", 379 00:23:19,940 --> 00:23:25,620 because beliefs, wishes and intentions are mental states. 380 00:23:25,620 --> 00:23:28,500 Could you please hide that coin somewhere? 381 00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:33,980 All right, I shall hide it in the special pyramid box. 382 00:23:33,980 --> 00:23:35,980 There it is. OK. 383 00:23:35,980 --> 00:23:39,420 Back in the 1980s we discovered that autistic children 384 00:23:39,420 --> 00:23:43,900 had a very different response to Sally/Ann-type tests. 385 00:23:43,900 --> 00:23:46,740 This is ten-year-old Aurelius, who is autistic. 386 00:23:48,580 --> 00:23:50,900 I take the coin from here... 387 00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:54,940 My then colleague, Dr Alan Leslie, asks Aurelius where he thinks 388 00:23:54,940 --> 00:23:57,940 I will look for my coin after it's been moved. 389 00:23:57,940 --> 00:24:00,260 And when Uta comes back in... Yes. 390 00:24:00,260 --> 00:24:03,420 ..where will Uta look for her coin? 391 00:24:03,420 --> 00:24:05,580 In the triangle box. 392 00:24:05,580 --> 00:24:08,900 'Aurelius says that I will look for the coin where it really is, 393 00:24:08,900 --> 00:24:11,500 'rather than where I must believe it is. 394 00:24:11,500 --> 00:24:15,380 'He doesn't understand that I can't know the coin has been moved 395 00:24:15,380 --> 00:24:17,580 'and that I now have a false belief, 396 00:24:17,580 --> 00:24:22,380 'because he doesn't take into account that I have a mind of my own 397 00:24:22,380 --> 00:24:25,980 'with beliefs and thoughts that are different to his. 398 00:24:25,980 --> 00:24:30,460 'And this is the key to understanding the social problems of autism.' 399 00:24:30,460 --> 00:24:32,460 Well, my coin is here, isn't it? 400 00:24:32,460 --> 00:24:34,300 No! 401 00:24:39,380 --> 00:24:43,340 I believe that mentalising is that extra social sense 402 00:24:43,340 --> 00:24:46,700 that most of us are born with and that makes us 403 00:24:46,700 --> 00:24:50,540 so curious to know what's in each other's minds. 404 00:24:50,540 --> 00:24:56,420 Also, it enables us to change other people's minds through persuasion 405 00:24:56,420 --> 00:25:01,300 and sometimes to manipulate other people's minds through deception. 406 00:25:01,300 --> 00:25:04,020 You won't find autistic people doing that. 407 00:25:04,020 --> 00:25:09,020 Autistic people don't have that extra social sense 408 00:25:09,020 --> 00:25:13,100 and that explains why they're often so frustrated 409 00:25:13,100 --> 00:25:16,340 when we don't know already what's in their minds. 410 00:25:18,380 --> 00:25:22,420 The challenges caused by the absence of this extra social sense 411 00:25:22,420 --> 00:25:24,780 never go away for people with autism. 412 00:25:30,300 --> 00:25:33,820 Hello, Cathy, I'm Francesca. Hi, nice to meet you. 413 00:25:33,820 --> 00:25:37,860 My collaborator of 20 years, Professor Francesca Happe, and I 414 00:25:37,860 --> 00:25:41,540 hit on the idea of using animated cartoons 415 00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:44,580 that give the compelling impression of social scenarios. 416 00:25:46,140 --> 00:25:48,860 Would autistic people interpret the scenarios 417 00:25:48,860 --> 00:25:51,460 in a different way from the rest of us? 418 00:25:54,460 --> 00:25:57,820 You'll see two triangles moving around, interacting on the screen, 419 00:25:57,820 --> 00:26:01,020 and I just want you to tell me what you think is going on. 420 00:26:01,020 --> 00:26:02,460 As it unfolds, let me know 421 00:26:02,460 --> 00:26:05,140 what you think's going on between the triangles. 422 00:26:05,140 --> 00:26:08,300 The actors in these movies are two little triangles 423 00:26:08,300 --> 00:26:12,180 and the challenge is to work out what the story is. 424 00:26:12,180 --> 00:26:13,940 Try it for yourself. 425 00:26:29,980 --> 00:26:31,900 Cathy is not autistic 426 00:26:31,900 --> 00:26:36,420 and she has just watched this story about persuasion unfold. 427 00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:39,020 The big triangle is trying to persuade the little triangle 428 00:26:39,020 --> 00:26:41,460 to come somewhere with him and he's trying to encourage him 429 00:26:41,460 --> 00:26:42,940 and now he's pushing him along. 430 00:26:42,940 --> 00:26:45,300 The little triangle is quite reluctant, I think. 431 00:26:46,740 --> 00:26:50,660 Oh, and he's just been barred from re-entering, hasn't he? 432 00:26:50,660 --> 00:26:53,860 These animations invite the spontaneous use 433 00:26:53,860 --> 00:26:57,100 of our extra social sense, mentalising, 434 00:26:57,100 --> 00:27:00,700 and most of us immediately get the gist of what is going on. 435 00:27:00,700 --> 00:27:03,940 It's almost like a parent pushing their kid out 436 00:27:03,940 --> 00:27:07,460 or persuading them to leave the little pen. 437 00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:11,700 Fantastic. That's lovely. OK, we've got another one now. 438 00:27:24,540 --> 00:27:27,540 The second movie was about the little triangle 439 00:27:27,540 --> 00:27:29,180 playing a game of knock and run. 440 00:27:29,180 --> 00:27:31,620 The little blue one's coming... He's knocking on the door. 441 00:27:33,100 --> 00:27:35,700 The red one's going to open the door and he's gone, hidden. 442 00:27:35,700 --> 00:27:38,660 Oh, it's like a knock-knock and then hide round the corner 443 00:27:38,660 --> 00:27:42,780 like a kid knocking and running on the front door of the house. 444 00:27:42,780 --> 00:27:44,220 Gone back inside. 445 00:27:44,220 --> 00:27:47,060 Sat down, relaxing, and the kid's knocking again. 446 00:27:49,020 --> 00:27:50,900 There we go - open the door and he's gone, yep. 447 00:27:52,900 --> 00:27:55,100 It's knock and run. Oh, he's going inside now. 448 00:27:57,780 --> 00:28:00,260 Yeah, like a child playing a trick on their mum or dad 449 00:28:00,260 --> 00:28:02,700 while they're relaxing, watching telly or something, 450 00:28:02,700 --> 00:28:04,060 they get a knock on the door 451 00:28:04,060 --> 00:28:06,540 and then they're running round the corner. Fantastic. 452 00:28:06,540 --> 00:28:08,900 ..and I'll move you in on your chair 453 00:28:08,900 --> 00:28:11,020 so that you're just in the shot. 454 00:28:11,020 --> 00:28:12,860 Can you edge forward a little bit more..? 455 00:28:12,860 --> 00:28:14,940 When the same movie is shown to autistic people, 456 00:28:14,940 --> 00:28:17,940 they miss the point of what is going on. 457 00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:20,540 They tell a story, but it doesn't fit the action. 458 00:28:21,780 --> 00:28:25,620 Yeah, so the big, red triangle looks like it's trapped 459 00:28:25,620 --> 00:28:28,100 in the big, blue square. 460 00:28:28,100 --> 00:28:30,700 Then the small, blue triangle comes. 461 00:28:32,380 --> 00:28:35,500 It looks like he's trying to look for a way... 462 00:28:35,500 --> 00:28:38,380 He unlocked the door for the red triangle and then... 463 00:28:38,380 --> 00:28:41,900 We showed these animations to people in a brain scanner 464 00:28:41,900 --> 00:28:47,020 and found that autistic people had less activity in those brain regions 465 00:28:47,020 --> 00:28:50,220 that are now known to be dedicated to mentalising. 466 00:28:50,220 --> 00:28:54,100 I think it was a boxing ring and one of the opponents was sizing up 467 00:28:54,100 --> 00:28:55,940 the other one before he'd let him in. 468 00:28:55,940 --> 00:28:57,300 And then when they got in, 469 00:28:57,300 --> 00:28:58,940 they decided they didn't want to fight. 470 00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:04,260 It's more like an opening and closing of something 471 00:29:04,260 --> 00:29:05,660 for that one. 472 00:29:08,740 --> 00:29:10,500 I think that's it for that one. 473 00:29:11,780 --> 00:29:14,420 Ah, that's interesting - the red one's escaped. 474 00:29:17,020 --> 00:29:19,140 Oh, what's he going to do now? 475 00:29:19,140 --> 00:29:23,420 Ah, I thought that would happen. The red one's slipped back in. 476 00:29:23,420 --> 00:29:26,380 Maybe he's been taken prisoner 477 00:29:26,380 --> 00:29:28,500 by the blue triangle. 478 00:29:28,500 --> 00:29:30,220 "You will like your dungeon!" 479 00:29:32,180 --> 00:29:36,940 Oh, now they're having a bit of a barney and fighting with each other. 480 00:29:36,940 --> 00:29:42,180 When it comes to interpreting the triangles as agents, 481 00:29:42,180 --> 00:29:46,860 they really can get hold of the wrong end of the stick and then, 482 00:29:46,860 --> 00:29:50,540 of course, that leads them into a completely different kind of script. 483 00:29:50,540 --> 00:29:52,580 But it's really a wonder, isn't it, 484 00:29:52,580 --> 00:29:56,420 how we can actually agree with each other 485 00:29:56,420 --> 00:30:02,140 about our interpretations of things that are just geometric shapes? 486 00:30:02,140 --> 00:30:04,780 Yes, or particularly to think that we made up 487 00:30:04,780 --> 00:30:08,020 the scripts of those animations on the train 488 00:30:08,020 --> 00:30:10,060 and we thought, "How should they move?" 489 00:30:10,060 --> 00:30:11,700 We made them so they looked that way to us 490 00:30:11,700 --> 00:30:14,140 and when we first showed them to ordinary people, 491 00:30:14,140 --> 00:30:16,980 we had no idea whether they'd see them in the way that we'd seen them. 492 00:30:16,980 --> 00:30:20,500 It was amazing that even children as young as four or five 493 00:30:20,500 --> 00:30:21,620 could get the gist. 494 00:30:21,620 --> 00:30:23,060 We were very surprised at that. 495 00:30:27,100 --> 00:30:31,620 We seem to share a way of interpreting each other's actions, 496 00:30:31,620 --> 00:30:35,500 so imagine being autistic and not having this nifty piece 497 00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:39,940 of mental machinery that instantly tracks social interactions. 498 00:30:39,940 --> 00:30:42,980 Just watching a cartoon or listening in to a chat 499 00:30:42,980 --> 00:30:44,980 can be a baffling experience. 500 00:30:46,020 --> 00:30:48,660 You don't know why people say what they say 501 00:30:48,660 --> 00:30:51,100 and you don't get the point of jokes and banter. 502 00:30:51,100 --> 00:30:53,940 Likewise, if you don't know what's going on, 503 00:30:53,940 --> 00:30:58,020 you tend to say things that others can't comprehend. 504 00:30:58,020 --> 00:31:02,140 All this can make you anxious, frustrated and vulnerable. 505 00:31:05,300 --> 00:31:08,460 Is anyone here anxious now? 506 00:31:08,460 --> 00:31:12,420 Anybody feeling particularly anxious or worried now? 507 00:31:12,420 --> 00:31:13,660 Why not? 508 00:31:13,660 --> 00:31:15,460 Why aren't you anxious? 509 00:31:15,460 --> 00:31:16,860 You should be. 510 00:31:16,860 --> 00:31:18,100 Anxiety, really, 511 00:31:18,100 --> 00:31:21,380 is the feeling that you're probably not going to be able to cope 512 00:31:21,380 --> 00:31:23,740 with something that is about to happen, 513 00:31:23,740 --> 00:31:27,020 something in the future... This is Sarah Hendrickx. 514 00:31:27,020 --> 00:31:30,700 She's an accomplished public speaker on the challenges of autism. 515 00:31:30,700 --> 00:31:32,660 Anxiety is about, "I can't handle it." 516 00:31:32,660 --> 00:31:36,380 When I saw that, I thought it was a penguin. 517 00:31:36,380 --> 00:31:39,420 I didn't think it looked like a penguin. 518 00:31:39,420 --> 00:31:42,060 I thought it was a penguin. 519 00:31:42,060 --> 00:31:45,540 I thought that a penguin by the side of the road 520 00:31:45,540 --> 00:31:47,340 was possible in Brighton. 521 00:31:49,340 --> 00:31:52,420 Your world has got lampposts in it. 522 00:31:52,420 --> 00:31:54,020 Mine's got penguins. 523 00:31:56,020 --> 00:31:59,700 And she has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. 524 00:31:59,700 --> 00:32:02,700 It's not all bad. It's much more interesting. 525 00:32:02,700 --> 00:32:04,820 Thank you very much for your time. 526 00:32:07,380 --> 00:32:09,300 So how can someone with autism, 527 00:32:09,300 --> 00:32:12,140 who finds social situations challenging, 528 00:32:12,140 --> 00:32:15,180 get up in front of hundreds of people to give a speech? 529 00:32:17,620 --> 00:32:20,420 This is a functional communication, 530 00:32:20,420 --> 00:32:22,700 and I'm very good at those situations. 531 00:32:22,700 --> 00:32:25,740 I'm good at doing my talks, I'm good at doing training 532 00:32:25,740 --> 00:32:29,380 because it is prescribed. The topic is prescribed, it's my topic, 533 00:32:29,380 --> 00:32:30,980 it's my script. 534 00:32:30,980 --> 00:32:33,220 It's not two-way - you have to listen, 535 00:32:33,220 --> 00:32:35,700 I've got the microphone, I've got the stage. 536 00:32:35,700 --> 00:32:37,620 It's a completely different dynamic. 537 00:32:39,940 --> 00:32:41,340 Just like Jules, 538 00:32:41,340 --> 00:32:44,540 Sarah has no problem performing in front of others. 539 00:32:44,540 --> 00:32:48,700 But off the stage, chance encounters and interactions with other people 540 00:32:48,700 --> 00:32:50,340 are unbearable for her. 541 00:32:52,140 --> 00:32:56,220 INTERVIEWER: What are people to you in this sort of situation? 542 00:32:56,220 --> 00:32:58,460 Frightening. 543 00:32:58,460 --> 00:33:01,100 Most people are frightening. Most people who... 544 00:33:03,060 --> 00:33:05,140 ..who don't have a purpose are frightening. 545 00:33:05,140 --> 00:33:06,380 If I know who they are - 546 00:33:06,380 --> 00:33:10,020 so, the bar staff, or the people who organise the conference - 547 00:33:10,020 --> 00:33:12,060 I know who they are, they're not frightening, 548 00:33:12,060 --> 00:33:15,500 because the type of communication that we're going to have 549 00:33:15,500 --> 00:33:18,780 is pretty set, is pretty limited, is pretty inflexible 550 00:33:18,780 --> 00:33:22,860 and I can fairly well predict what that will be. 551 00:33:22,860 --> 00:33:27,060 But a completely unknown person that I either don't know 552 00:33:27,060 --> 00:33:29,700 or I fail to recognise, 553 00:33:29,700 --> 00:33:31,980 I have absolutely no idea what's coming next 554 00:33:31,980 --> 00:33:35,060 or what they're going to want or what they're going to say 555 00:33:35,060 --> 00:33:38,300 or whether I can respond appropriately quickly enough. 556 00:33:39,500 --> 00:33:43,340 Sarah is highly intelligent and is one of the rare people 557 00:33:43,340 --> 00:33:48,700 who are able to describe exactly why social situations are so baffling. 558 00:33:48,700 --> 00:33:52,500 This gives us a real insight into her condition. 559 00:33:52,500 --> 00:33:56,140 Every day I try to wake up about an hour before 560 00:33:56,140 --> 00:33:58,380 I actually need to get up 561 00:33:58,380 --> 00:34:03,860 and I spend that hour running through what's likely to happen, 562 00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:07,460 what types of people I might meet, if I'm having a meeting 563 00:34:07,460 --> 00:34:10,780 or something like that, what kind of conversation. 564 00:34:10,780 --> 00:34:16,460 I will run, re-enact a potential conversation over and over again 565 00:34:16,460 --> 00:34:19,500 before I get out of bed to try and have a kind of sense 566 00:34:19,500 --> 00:34:21,940 of what the whole day is going to be like. 567 00:34:24,180 --> 00:34:28,340 What's amazing about Sarah is that she very consciously studies 568 00:34:28,340 --> 00:34:34,180 and imitates the way people respond to each other in social situations. 569 00:34:34,180 --> 00:34:39,100 That enables her to effectively mask her autism when she's in public. 570 00:34:39,100 --> 00:34:41,220 What do I do? Do I sit here? 571 00:34:41,220 --> 00:34:42,660 Sit there. 572 00:34:42,660 --> 00:34:44,900 Sit there? 573 00:34:44,900 --> 00:34:47,940 'I've had to watch people, I've had to study people,' 574 00:34:47,940 --> 00:34:52,420 because it's not there intuitively and if I didn't do that, 575 00:34:52,420 --> 00:34:54,860 I'd be completely lost. 576 00:34:54,860 --> 00:34:59,500 But my failure rate is quite high because my learning is rote 577 00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:02,260 and therefore I'm prone to not pick up the subtleties, 578 00:35:02,260 --> 00:35:03,980 the nuances of situations, 579 00:35:03,980 --> 00:35:05,580 so although I'm trying very hard 580 00:35:05,580 --> 00:35:08,460 to apply all this stuff that I've learned, 581 00:35:08,460 --> 00:35:11,780 I do get it wrong and I get it wrong with frequency. 582 00:35:11,780 --> 00:35:14,740 And that's very, very stressful. 583 00:35:14,740 --> 00:35:20,020 So it could be that imitation is the key to Sarah's success. 584 00:35:21,060 --> 00:35:22,580 Do you like my nose? 585 00:35:24,100 --> 00:35:27,100 But there are different kinds of imitation 586 00:35:27,100 --> 00:35:30,460 and one kind might not be so easy for people with autism, 587 00:35:30,460 --> 00:35:33,860 but might be crucial to the way most of us bond with each other 588 00:35:33,860 --> 00:35:36,260 and fit into the social world. 589 00:35:42,180 --> 00:35:46,820 It can be seen in an experiment by my colleague Dr Antonia Hamilton. 590 00:35:46,820 --> 00:35:50,500 Here, children are asked to complete some simple tasks. 591 00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:53,020 Hi, Joel. Hi. Thank you for coming in today. 592 00:35:54,260 --> 00:35:59,220 Here I've got a big box and hiding inside this box I've got a boat. 593 00:35:59,220 --> 00:36:02,100 First, I'll show you how I get the boat out, then you'll get a turn. 594 00:36:07,940 --> 00:36:11,220 There's my boat. It's a nice red boat, isn't it? 595 00:36:11,220 --> 00:36:13,260 I'll put that back in there. 596 00:36:13,260 --> 00:36:17,300 Ordinary children mimic exactly what their instructor has done, 597 00:36:17,300 --> 00:36:19,940 even the pointless finger tapping. 598 00:36:19,940 --> 00:36:20,980 Well done. 599 00:36:22,380 --> 00:36:25,020 Now it's your turn. Can you get the boat out? Yeah. 600 00:36:28,460 --> 00:36:29,900 Well done. 601 00:36:29,900 --> 00:36:31,540 TAPPING 602 00:36:35,700 --> 00:36:38,020 There's my boat. It's quite a little boat, isn't it? 603 00:36:38,020 --> 00:36:40,700 Now, autistic kids have a different approach, 604 00:36:40,700 --> 00:36:43,740 cutting straight to the chase. Can you get the boat out of the box? 605 00:36:46,340 --> 00:36:47,780 Well done. 606 00:36:47,780 --> 00:36:50,180 Now it's your turn. Can you get the boat out of the box? 607 00:36:52,860 --> 00:36:55,060 There, number three. 608 00:36:55,060 --> 00:36:56,740 Well done. 609 00:36:56,740 --> 00:36:59,380 So what does your experiment show? 610 00:36:59,380 --> 00:37:03,300 Well, it shows us that typically developing children will copy 611 00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:05,660 even actions that are silly actions 612 00:37:05,660 --> 00:37:08,100 that don't contribute toward the goal. 613 00:37:08,100 --> 00:37:11,340 We think the reason they're copying that is that they want 614 00:37:11,340 --> 00:37:15,220 to be like the adult or they want to do everything that the adult does. 615 00:37:15,220 --> 00:37:18,940 They're not just learning about how this object behaves. 616 00:37:18,940 --> 00:37:22,540 They're learning to be adult-like and to be social, 617 00:37:22,540 --> 00:37:24,980 but autistic children are more selective. 618 00:37:24,980 --> 00:37:27,460 They will do the thing that gets the goal, 619 00:37:27,460 --> 00:37:31,260 gets the boat out of the box or gets the doll out, 620 00:37:31,260 --> 00:37:34,780 but they don't bother to copy all of these extra, unnecessary things. 621 00:37:37,580 --> 00:37:39,420 Sarah is exceptional 622 00:37:39,420 --> 00:37:41,900 and has made a point of studying social scenarios 623 00:37:41,900 --> 00:37:44,860 and has learned to copy other people's behaviour. 624 00:37:44,860 --> 00:37:47,300 This has help her greatly to get on in life. 625 00:37:49,340 --> 00:37:51,460 Back at home here in Worthing, 626 00:37:51,460 --> 00:37:54,180 she's just moved in with her partner Keith, 627 00:37:54,180 --> 00:37:56,900 who is also on the autistic spectrum. 628 00:37:56,900 --> 00:37:59,820 It's the top of the tree that comes from a well-known, 629 00:37:59,820 --> 00:38:03,860 reputable shop where everything costs... How much? 630 00:38:03,860 --> 00:38:05,140 Just a pound! 631 00:38:05,140 --> 00:38:06,980 Is it the top decoration that goes on last? 632 00:38:06,980 --> 00:38:10,580 They're about to spend their first Christmas together in their new home. 633 00:38:10,580 --> 00:38:13,460 Or do you put that on first? Oh, you might put lights on first. 634 00:38:13,460 --> 00:38:15,380 I thought you put lights on first. 635 00:38:15,380 --> 00:38:18,540 So how can these two people forge a relationship 636 00:38:18,540 --> 00:38:21,820 when social interactions cause them crippling anxiety? 637 00:38:23,060 --> 00:38:26,300 INTERVIEWER: How did you find each other, meet each other? 638 00:38:27,740 --> 00:38:29,140 On the internet! 639 00:38:29,140 --> 00:38:34,220 Where all socially awkward people go to find each other. 640 00:38:34,220 --> 00:38:37,660 Was there any rush of love at any point in the early days? 641 00:38:40,740 --> 00:38:42,780 I don't really know what that means. 642 00:38:44,180 --> 00:38:45,940 Erm... 643 00:38:45,940 --> 00:38:48,460 I never expected to fall for him 644 00:38:48,460 --> 00:38:50,740 or be particularly attracted to him or anything. 645 00:38:50,740 --> 00:38:53,500 It was a really logical experiment, 646 00:38:53,500 --> 00:38:57,580 to deliberately go out with someone that I didn't fancy that much 647 00:38:57,580 --> 00:39:00,020 in order to see what it would be like 648 00:39:00,020 --> 00:39:02,660 to have a nice friendship with somebody, 649 00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:05,060 cos that wasn't my kind of history. 650 00:39:05,060 --> 00:39:06,940 What was your thinking? 651 00:39:06,940 --> 00:39:08,940 You wanted someone to have sex with. 652 00:39:08,940 --> 00:39:10,820 Yeah, yeah. And you were largely... 653 00:39:10,820 --> 00:39:14,860 I think that was my initial motivating force, yes. ..unconcerned about who that was. 654 00:39:14,860 --> 00:39:17,460 There wasn't a huge amount of selection process. No. 655 00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:19,700 If someone was willing, then so was I. 656 00:39:21,340 --> 00:39:23,660 So why are we together, then? 657 00:39:23,660 --> 00:39:26,220 I don't know. Why are we together? You tell me. 658 00:39:26,220 --> 00:39:27,620 You're my... 659 00:39:27,620 --> 00:39:29,700 required amount of social contact. 660 00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:31,980 SARAH LAUGHS 661 00:39:31,980 --> 00:39:35,580 I'm your 5ml teaspoon a day? Yes, that's it. 662 00:39:36,780 --> 00:39:41,860 Sarah and Keith constantly struggle to make sense of social activities. 663 00:39:41,860 --> 00:39:45,700 We don't do any socialising whatsoever for Christmas. 664 00:39:45,700 --> 00:39:47,900 I think you've got a Christmas works lunch 665 00:39:47,900 --> 00:39:49,980 that everybody goes to in your office. 666 00:39:49,980 --> 00:39:53,220 Doesn't even occur to me to even think about anything. 667 00:39:53,220 --> 00:39:55,260 It doesn't feel like... 668 00:39:55,260 --> 00:39:58,100 It just doesn't occur to me that we would go somewhere. 669 00:39:58,100 --> 00:39:59,700 Where would we go? What would we do? 670 00:39:59,700 --> 00:40:02,820 What would you do? I don't know. What do you do? I don't know. No. 671 00:40:02,820 --> 00:40:05,620 It wouldn't even occur to me to want to do anything like that, 672 00:40:05,620 --> 00:40:07,940 not at all. I don't miss people. 673 00:40:07,940 --> 00:40:12,020 I don't have the emotion of missing somebody when they're not there. 674 00:40:12,020 --> 00:40:14,380 I might prefer them to be with me... 675 00:40:15,580 --> 00:40:18,180 ..but I don't think it's quite the same emotion 676 00:40:18,180 --> 00:40:21,700 that I understand that other people have in terms of missing people. 677 00:40:22,860 --> 00:40:25,500 And yet you two are in a close relationship. 678 00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:27,660 Yes. We are peas in a pod. 679 00:40:29,780 --> 00:40:33,220 Do you miss me when I'm not there? 680 00:40:33,220 --> 00:40:35,940 I don't think you do. I think we've talked about this before, 681 00:40:35,940 --> 00:40:38,700 haven't we? When I have to interact with others, then yes, 682 00:40:38,700 --> 00:40:41,860 because the interaction that I have with them 683 00:40:41,860 --> 00:40:44,540 is never as satisfying as the interaction I have with you. 684 00:40:45,620 --> 00:40:47,500 Is that "missing"? 685 00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:51,820 You've always said, "I prefer it when you're there," 686 00:40:51,820 --> 00:40:54,980 which suggests to me a sort of absence of a... 687 00:40:56,580 --> 00:41:01,500 I think missing involves abstract imagination. It involves... 688 00:41:02,900 --> 00:41:06,180 ..some kind of ability to picture 689 00:41:06,180 --> 00:41:09,020 another reality other than the one you're in at the moment 690 00:41:09,020 --> 00:41:13,060 and I don't think either of us are particularly capable at doing that. 691 00:41:17,740 --> 00:41:22,020 Sarah and Keith get on really well just the two of them 692 00:41:22,020 --> 00:41:24,660 and are committed to total honesty 693 00:41:24,660 --> 00:41:26,860 in their constant reflection and analysis. 694 00:41:28,660 --> 00:41:31,340 Although Sarah and Keith have restricted 695 00:41:31,340 --> 00:41:33,380 their contact to other people, 696 00:41:33,380 --> 00:41:36,020 they do show us that autistic people 697 00:41:36,020 --> 00:41:39,260 can have meaningful social relationships. 698 00:41:39,260 --> 00:41:42,460 It's often said that autistic people don't have empathy, 699 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:44,780 but that is wrong. 700 00:41:44,780 --> 00:41:47,740 Sarah and Keith really care for each other. 701 00:41:47,740 --> 00:41:51,420 What they find difficult is this social navigation 702 00:41:51,420 --> 00:41:53,980 that the rest of us do automatically. 703 00:41:57,620 --> 00:42:00,980 Since diagnosis has surged in the last two decades, 704 00:42:00,980 --> 00:42:04,660 it's tempting to think of autism as a modern phenomenon. 705 00:42:05,900 --> 00:42:07,860 But is there any evidence in history 706 00:42:07,860 --> 00:42:11,380 to show that autism has been around for longer? 707 00:42:11,380 --> 00:42:14,780 Today, people talk about an autism epidemic. 708 00:42:14,780 --> 00:42:17,660 When I saw the first cases about 50 years ago, 709 00:42:17,660 --> 00:42:21,500 the estimated number was about five in 10,000. 710 00:42:21,500 --> 00:42:25,380 Today it is 100 in 10,000. 711 00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:28,020 This is a huge increase 712 00:42:28,020 --> 00:42:30,020 and yet it does not necessarily mean 713 00:42:30,020 --> 00:42:32,500 that more children with autism are born now. 714 00:42:33,660 --> 00:42:38,180 It does mean that we are much better at diagnosing autism. 715 00:42:38,180 --> 00:42:40,780 So is autism a new condition, 716 00:42:40,780 --> 00:42:42,620 or has it always been with us? 717 00:42:42,620 --> 00:42:45,060 And how would we ever find out? 718 00:42:50,620 --> 00:42:53,780 I've come to Dumfries & Galloway in the Scottish borders, 719 00:42:53,780 --> 00:42:56,860 where historian Professor Rab Houston 720 00:42:56,860 --> 00:43:00,020 has unearthed the story of a family feud 721 00:43:00,020 --> 00:43:03,180 caused by the very unusual behaviour 722 00:43:03,180 --> 00:43:07,300 of an 18th century Scottish laird called Hugh Blair. 723 00:43:09,060 --> 00:43:11,500 This is the place where Hugh Blair was born 724 00:43:11,500 --> 00:43:13,540 and where he and his family lived 725 00:43:13,540 --> 00:43:15,580 for the first half of the 18th century. 726 00:43:22,860 --> 00:43:28,140 Sometime during the 1740s, when Hugh would have been in his mid-30s, 727 00:43:28,140 --> 00:43:32,780 his brother John and his mother had a tremendous falling out. 728 00:43:32,780 --> 00:43:37,300 As a result of that, his mother cooked up a marriage - 729 00:43:37,300 --> 00:43:42,260 she arranged a marriage for Hugh with the daughter of a local surgeon 730 00:43:42,260 --> 00:43:45,740 who lived in Kirkcudbright, which is the main town quite near to here. 731 00:43:47,420 --> 00:43:51,300 John was furious, absolutely furious, 732 00:43:51,300 --> 00:43:56,380 so he took out a writ against Hugh to have his marriage annulled 733 00:43:56,380 --> 00:43:59,220 on the grounds that he didn't understand what he was doing. 734 00:44:00,500 --> 00:44:03,700 John, the younger son, would lose his inheritance 735 00:44:03,700 --> 00:44:06,900 if there were any children from this marriage. 736 00:44:06,900 --> 00:44:10,780 He needed to prove that Hugh could not be legally married 737 00:44:10,780 --> 00:44:13,220 since he was mentally incapacitated. 738 00:44:14,420 --> 00:44:19,940 It's because of this court case that we have an unprecedented insight 739 00:44:19,940 --> 00:44:22,140 into Hugh Blair's odd behaviour 740 00:44:22,140 --> 00:44:25,740 and how it relates to the modern diagnosis of autism. 741 00:44:27,500 --> 00:44:30,580 It was 5th July 1747 742 00:44:30,580 --> 00:44:34,620 when the case was brought before the Commissary Court of Edinburgh. 743 00:44:34,620 --> 00:44:38,660 260 years on, Professor Houston discovered the documents, 744 00:44:38,660 --> 00:44:42,300 which had clearly been unread since they were first written. 745 00:44:42,300 --> 00:44:46,100 Transcripts of 27 witnesses are very revealing 746 00:44:46,100 --> 00:44:50,140 about Hugh's mental condition and reminiscent of autism. 747 00:44:50,140 --> 00:44:53,420 Here, one witness mentions a strange special interest. 748 00:44:56,180 --> 00:44:59,940 It says that Hugh... "Went to all the burials about, 749 00:44:59,940 --> 00:45:04,020 "whether rich or poor, and that whether he was invited or not, 750 00:45:04,020 --> 00:45:07,460 "and this he did both before and after he was a man 751 00:45:07,460 --> 00:45:09,820 "who arrived at the age of majority." 752 00:45:09,820 --> 00:45:11,740 Oh, that's just a wonderful observation, 753 00:45:11,740 --> 00:45:15,860 because that's an example of a kind of special interest, you know? 754 00:45:15,860 --> 00:45:18,620 A special interest in something that other people 755 00:45:18,620 --> 00:45:23,740 probably would not be interested in, and for him to be able to find out 756 00:45:23,740 --> 00:45:27,260 when all these burials were taking place and then to just turn up 757 00:45:27,260 --> 00:45:29,980 and go there, regardless of who it was - 758 00:45:29,980 --> 00:45:34,300 I think that's extraordinarily reminiscent of autism. 759 00:45:34,300 --> 00:45:39,140 Perhaps the most revealing document is Hugh Blair's written testimony. 760 00:45:43,220 --> 00:45:46,500 Here he was asked questions in writing, 761 00:45:46,500 --> 00:45:50,340 because the court wondered whether perhaps he was deaf and dumb. 762 00:45:50,340 --> 00:45:52,780 So, the clerk of the court wrote out, 763 00:45:52,780 --> 00:45:57,660 "Answer the following question - what brought you to Edinburgh?" 764 00:45:57,660 --> 00:46:00,060 Hugh Blair's answer reads, 765 00:46:00,060 --> 00:46:05,180 "Answer the following question - what brought you to Edinburgh?" 766 00:46:05,180 --> 00:46:09,020 To me, it's really as clear an indication 767 00:46:09,020 --> 00:46:14,300 of what I call a mentalising failure as you could wish for. 768 00:46:14,300 --> 00:46:21,420 It's not understanding that you need to tell another person 769 00:46:21,420 --> 00:46:26,860 something that only you can tell, that they want you to tell. 770 00:46:26,860 --> 00:46:29,140 He just doesn't get that point. 771 00:46:31,620 --> 00:46:35,300 The court was convinced that Hugh was mentally incapacitated, 772 00:46:35,300 --> 00:46:38,420 and his marriage was annulled. 773 00:46:38,420 --> 00:46:42,500 The Blair estate was ruined by the costs of the court case. 774 00:46:46,500 --> 00:46:51,260 The case of Hugh Blair is by far the earliest that I would be confident 775 00:46:51,260 --> 00:46:57,380 in diagnosing as autism, and it's astonishing that you can recognise 776 00:46:57,380 --> 00:47:02,660 the condition across such vast differences of time and of culture. 777 00:47:02,660 --> 00:47:06,940 What's so important to me about this is that it enables us to see 778 00:47:06,940 --> 00:47:11,980 more clearly the common and enduring features of autism. 779 00:47:14,540 --> 00:47:18,300 It's often said that the enduring features of autism 780 00:47:18,300 --> 00:47:20,300 are present in many of us. 781 00:47:20,300 --> 00:47:23,580 Today, we often say someone's "on the spectrum" 782 00:47:23,580 --> 00:47:27,500 as a catch-all phrase to describe anyone who's a bit eccentric, 783 00:47:27,500 --> 00:47:30,900 has unusual hobbies or is socially awkward. 784 00:47:32,100 --> 00:47:34,540 Here at Trinity College Cambridge 785 00:47:34,540 --> 00:47:38,780 stands a statue to one of our greatest scientists, Isaac Newton. 786 00:47:40,620 --> 00:47:43,060 He certainly was eccentric, 787 00:47:43,060 --> 00:47:46,260 and some people have suggested that he may have been autistic. 788 00:47:49,260 --> 00:47:50,620 I'm not convinced. 789 00:47:53,100 --> 00:47:56,780 'I'm here to meet Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, 790 00:47:56,780 --> 00:48:00,900 'who long ago was my PhD student and is now a fellow of Trinity himself.' 791 00:48:02,300 --> 00:48:04,540 There are personal anecdotes about his life. 792 00:48:04,540 --> 00:48:07,020 There are. One of the stories is that his lectures were 793 00:48:07,020 --> 00:48:09,180 very difficult to follow. 794 00:48:09,180 --> 00:48:12,220 And the students stopped coming but he kept teaching, 795 00:48:12,220 --> 00:48:14,980 even though there were no students present. Oh, really?! 796 00:48:14,980 --> 00:48:18,540 Because it was in his job description. So he was very dutiful. 797 00:48:20,020 --> 00:48:24,620 Simon is interested in autistic-like traits in the general population, 798 00:48:24,620 --> 00:48:28,780 so I've come to discuss with him whether autism is in a category 799 00:48:28,780 --> 00:48:33,580 by itself, or whether it's possible to be a little bit autistic. 800 00:48:35,300 --> 00:48:38,340 So can you sort of make this a bit... 801 00:48:38,340 --> 00:48:42,380 You can measure autistic traits, just like any metric, 802 00:48:42,380 --> 00:48:47,620 like a ruler, where if you were down here at zero 803 00:48:47,620 --> 00:48:53,140 or up here at 50, you'd be either low or high or just average. Yeah. 804 00:48:53,140 --> 00:48:56,420 So here you would have no autistic traits at all, 805 00:48:56,420 --> 00:48:58,860 here you would have everything. 806 00:48:58,860 --> 00:49:02,140 Most people in the population are scoring right in the middle. 807 00:49:02,140 --> 00:49:04,780 That's the population average, or the mean. 808 00:49:04,780 --> 00:49:08,420 And people who have a diagnosis on the autistic spectrum 809 00:49:08,420 --> 00:49:11,180 tend to score right up here. 810 00:49:11,180 --> 00:49:15,900 Above 30, or 32, out of a scale of 50. 811 00:49:15,900 --> 00:49:18,740 And actually when you look at the whole population, 812 00:49:18,740 --> 00:49:22,660 it turns out to be quite a beautiful, normal distribution. 813 00:49:22,660 --> 00:49:27,860 Very few people down at zero, very few people at the maximum. 814 00:49:27,860 --> 00:49:31,660 So you could almost say that there might have been a natural selection 815 00:49:31,660 --> 00:49:33,780 to have an average number. 816 00:49:33,780 --> 00:49:37,020 At what point, then, would the diagnosis of autism 817 00:49:37,020 --> 00:49:38,860 become a sort of certainty? 818 00:49:40,140 --> 00:49:43,740 Well, you get your diagnosis when you go to a clinic. 819 00:49:43,740 --> 00:49:45,740 It's not about these metrics. 820 00:49:45,740 --> 00:49:50,820 It's about the clinician looking at how much these traits 821 00:49:50,820 --> 00:49:53,860 are interfering with your everyday functioning. 822 00:49:53,860 --> 00:49:57,420 So some people are developing secondary depression, 823 00:49:57,420 --> 00:50:00,820 because they've got a high number of autistic traits. 824 00:50:00,820 --> 00:50:02,300 Some children are being bullied, 825 00:50:02,300 --> 00:50:04,860 because they've got a high number of autistic traits. 826 00:50:04,860 --> 00:50:06,740 But some people are doing just fine... 827 00:50:06,740 --> 00:50:10,180 If they're doing fine, irrespective of their score, they don't need... 828 00:50:10,180 --> 00:50:13,180 They're not autistic? They don't need the diagnosis. 829 00:50:13,180 --> 00:50:15,820 So you withhold the diagnosis, 830 00:50:15,820 --> 00:50:18,860 unless there's a clear, clinical need. 831 00:50:18,860 --> 00:50:23,340 So now it's not about science, it's about clinical judgment. 832 00:50:23,340 --> 00:50:28,020 So there is something of a grey area where some people might 833 00:50:28,020 --> 00:50:32,220 get the diagnosis if they go to one centre for the diagnostic assessment 834 00:50:32,220 --> 00:50:35,340 and not get the diagnosis if they go to another centre... Absolutely. 835 00:50:35,340 --> 00:50:38,580 ..because it is a judgment call. 836 00:50:38,580 --> 00:50:43,180 The only thing that differentiates people in the general population 837 00:50:43,180 --> 00:50:46,660 from people who have a diagnosis is simply 838 00:50:46,660 --> 00:50:50,100 the number of autistic traits that we have. 839 00:50:50,100 --> 00:50:53,260 That we're all on the same continuum. 840 00:50:53,260 --> 00:50:58,380 And...part of what research needs to do is to try and determine - 841 00:50:58,380 --> 00:51:00,820 is there a qualitative break there? 842 00:51:00,820 --> 00:51:04,380 Or is it the case that it's simply a matter of degree? 843 00:51:10,060 --> 00:51:13,100 I've often imagined myself being a bit autistic. 844 00:51:13,100 --> 00:51:16,100 I'm certainly obsessively focused on my work. 845 00:51:16,100 --> 00:51:19,380 And in my feelings I am often very analytical and detached. 846 00:51:21,020 --> 00:51:24,300 And I certainly have said things that hurt people 847 00:51:24,300 --> 00:51:28,540 without my realising this, and I'm generally baffled 848 00:51:28,540 --> 00:51:32,660 by the complexities of social relationships. But here it stops. 849 00:51:35,460 --> 00:51:39,380 It's easy to confuse autistic-like traits with autism, 850 00:51:39,380 --> 00:51:43,980 so if you think you might be a little bit autistic, 851 00:51:43,980 --> 00:51:47,340 you very probably are not. 852 00:51:47,340 --> 00:51:52,100 But whether there is a precise point at which autism begins 853 00:51:52,100 --> 00:51:56,660 is an open question and for now remains a mystery. 854 00:51:56,660 --> 00:51:59,420 So in the right position for her, basically. 855 00:52:00,860 --> 00:52:05,980 Today, most children with autism will be diagnosed before they go to school, 856 00:52:05,980 --> 00:52:08,380 but some are diagnosed much later. 857 00:52:08,380 --> 00:52:13,820 Like any condition, doctors and parents want to identify it as early as possible. 858 00:52:15,060 --> 00:52:18,940 We know that the autistic brain must be wired differently, 859 00:52:18,940 --> 00:52:21,540 and that there is a genetic reason for this, 860 00:52:21,540 --> 00:52:24,620 but we don't really know the details yet. 861 00:52:28,460 --> 00:52:32,780 Here at Birkbeck College in London, they're running a study to see 862 00:52:32,780 --> 00:52:36,820 if they can detect very early signs of autism. 863 00:52:36,820 --> 00:52:41,380 They're studying babies who have an increased genetic risk of being autistic, 864 00:52:41,380 --> 00:52:44,260 because they an autistic sibling. 865 00:52:44,260 --> 00:52:48,700 And they're comparing them to babies with no increased risk. 866 00:52:48,700 --> 00:52:54,740 We are looking for early signs of autism, early markers. 867 00:52:54,740 --> 00:52:58,180 The reason being that, at the moment, the earliest stage 868 00:52:58,180 --> 00:53:01,900 that a child will possibly get a diagnosis is around two to three years of age. 869 00:53:03,020 --> 00:53:08,060 So the main aim is to find an early marker to enable us 870 00:53:08,060 --> 00:53:11,140 to possibly diagnose the disorder earlier. 871 00:53:16,820 --> 00:53:19,300 They're looking to see how the babies' brains 872 00:53:19,300 --> 00:53:23,500 react to social and non-social images. 873 00:53:23,500 --> 00:53:27,820 They use equipment that gently shines light onto the baby's head 874 00:53:27,820 --> 00:53:31,980 to measure the oxygen level in the blood and, therefore, brain activity. 875 00:53:51,420 --> 00:53:56,260 This is where we're having the response, in this brain region. 876 00:53:56,260 --> 00:53:59,860 And this one example is about visual, social cues, 877 00:53:59,860 --> 00:54:02,700 so this is when the babies are watching the peek-a-boo 878 00:54:02,700 --> 00:54:04,340 and the Incy Wincy Spider. 879 00:54:04,340 --> 00:54:08,220 The graph here on the left is what you would typically have 880 00:54:08,220 --> 00:54:13,180 as a response in infants of this age, so four to six-month-olds. 881 00:54:13,180 --> 00:54:15,620 We've seen in many, many babies 882 00:54:15,620 --> 00:54:18,980 that they would have an increase in oxygen in their blood, 883 00:54:18,980 --> 00:54:22,140 which is this red line here, and this is the response 884 00:54:22,140 --> 00:54:25,660 that we've had in the infants that have a family risk of autism. 885 00:54:25,660 --> 00:54:28,260 So they have the brother or sister with autism. 886 00:54:28,260 --> 00:54:31,660 And what you notice quite strikingly is that the oxygen change 887 00:54:31,660 --> 00:54:35,100 in this brain region is almost absent in comparison to 888 00:54:35,100 --> 00:54:36,540 the low-risk infants. 889 00:54:40,300 --> 00:54:44,340 But the tantalising thing to have emerged from this study so far 890 00:54:44,340 --> 00:54:48,300 is that not all the babies who have the autistic markers 891 00:54:48,300 --> 00:54:50,820 go on to get a diagnosis of autism. 892 00:54:52,900 --> 00:54:55,820 So, the babies we've seen who show 893 00:54:55,820 --> 00:54:58,100 the possible early markers of autism, 894 00:54:58,100 --> 00:55:01,500 but who actually don't go on to develop the disorder, 895 00:55:01,500 --> 00:55:05,180 the ones that fall sort of either side of the line, they... 896 00:55:06,700 --> 00:55:09,140 It's an interesting thing. 897 00:55:09,140 --> 00:55:13,020 That's one of the questions that we hope to answer - why don't they? 898 00:55:13,020 --> 00:55:17,900 Are there protective factors, be that genetic or environmental, 899 00:55:17,900 --> 00:55:21,500 that kick in, or are these children programmed 900 00:55:21,500 --> 00:55:23,220 in a slightly different way 901 00:55:23,220 --> 00:55:26,660 that they're never going to develop the full-blown disorder, 902 00:55:26,660 --> 00:55:30,060 but they may carry these subtle traits of autism 903 00:55:30,060 --> 00:55:32,700 throughout their lives without anyone noticing? 904 00:55:32,700 --> 00:55:35,540 Ready, steady, go! 905 00:55:37,540 --> 00:55:38,780 What's he doing? 906 00:55:38,780 --> 00:55:43,420 The idea of a protective factor might explain another mystery - 907 00:55:43,420 --> 00:55:47,540 why many more boys than girls are diagnosed with autism. 908 00:55:47,540 --> 00:55:52,300 Could it be that girls have some kind of protective factor, 909 00:55:52,300 --> 00:55:55,460 perhaps for some genetic or hormonal reason, 910 00:55:55,460 --> 00:55:58,900 that reduces the impact of autism? 911 00:55:58,900 --> 00:56:02,540 We could even speculate that these protective factors 912 00:56:02,540 --> 00:56:06,940 are why many of us grow up to have an autistic-like personality, 913 00:56:06,940 --> 00:56:09,660 but not actually be autistic. 914 00:56:14,420 --> 00:56:17,100 LAUGHTER 915 00:56:19,020 --> 00:56:21,180 Sorry, you've got the wrong idea. 916 00:56:21,180 --> 00:56:24,700 Despite the insights we've gained over the last few decades 917 00:56:24,700 --> 00:56:28,140 about how people with autism perceive the world, 918 00:56:28,140 --> 00:56:32,620 there are still so many questions that remain unanswered. 919 00:56:32,620 --> 00:56:37,100 How does the brain create these different minds? 920 00:56:37,100 --> 00:56:40,540 And why are some people autistic in the first place? 921 00:56:40,540 --> 00:56:44,620 And why does autism come in so many forms? 922 00:56:44,620 --> 00:56:45,620 Very good. 923 00:56:46,940 --> 00:56:52,340 Joe needs constant care, and will never be able to live by himself. 924 00:56:52,340 --> 00:56:53,780 Good to do. 925 00:56:53,780 --> 00:56:55,740 Are you happy here? Yes. 926 00:56:59,620 --> 00:57:02,700 And sometimes you go out? 927 00:57:02,700 --> 00:57:03,660 Yes. 928 00:57:04,820 --> 00:57:08,860 And you can relax? Relax. 929 00:57:08,860 --> 00:57:10,620 You also work? Yes. 930 00:57:27,340 --> 00:57:28,900 'What's this, Joe? Money. 931 00:57:28,900 --> 00:57:31,540 'Money. And what's this, Joe? 932 00:57:31,540 --> 00:57:33,020 'Butter. Bread. 933 00:57:34,980 --> 00:57:36,180 'And this? 934 00:57:36,180 --> 00:57:38,420 'Milk. Milk. And this?' 935 00:57:38,420 --> 00:57:42,500 Almost 50 years ago, I met a bright-eyed young boy 936 00:57:42,500 --> 00:57:46,620 who had terrible difficulties interacting with the world. 937 00:57:49,820 --> 00:57:52,060 'What is it? Ba-ma. 938 00:57:52,060 --> 00:57:54,580 'A barrow. A barrow. 939 00:57:54,580 --> 00:57:55,700 'What's this?' 940 00:57:55,700 --> 00:57:59,140 Joe sees things very differently, 941 00:57:59,140 --> 00:58:02,820 but he inspired me to dedicate a lifetime 942 00:58:02,820 --> 00:58:04,620 to studying minds like his. 943 00:58:05,820 --> 00:58:11,420 And in its own way, I'm glad that his life has been fulfilling too. 944 00:58:14,180 --> 00:58:15,620 What flowers do you like? 945 00:58:15,620 --> 00:58:17,540 Sunflowers. 946 00:58:17,540 --> 00:58:18,660 Sunflowers. 947 00:58:18,660 --> 00:58:19,860 Yes. 948 00:58:19,860 --> 00:58:22,100 So you just put the seed in, do you? Yes. 949 00:58:22,100 --> 00:58:24,940 And...a plant comes out? Yes.