Could Asperger's be caused by cities? It's a weird question. I know, but hear me out. One of the biggest mantras of the autism spectrum is sensory issues. Light, noises, smells, and even touch become sources of discomfort and/or pain. It's so bad that many people with autism want to hide away in a darkened quiet room away from everyone for a while to get some rest/relief.
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| Courtesy NASA |
So what do cities have to do with this? People have been living in cities for millennia. That's true. Just over 100 years ago, western civilizations went into an activity that created jobs and made millionaires. It was called the industrial revolution. With it came noises, chemical smells, rough textures, long hours of work, and electrical lighting. Street lamps could stay on 24 hours a day. Then World War I happened and World War II also. After that, more industry, noise, gas, lights, and modern living to include the suburb.
Have you ever seen the stars at night? You think you have. But go out 50 miles away from any city like the middle of Nebraska, Kansas, or Wyoming. At 2 am in the morning with all lights out, look up at the sky on a clear day. You will be amazed at what you've been missing all your life. Most of us live in a suburb, town, or city and cannot see all the stars because the lights obscure our vision. We've been living with these lights for over 100 years and we’ve never come to realize what we’ve been missing. What has it done to our brains? What about the noise? Urban life and industry have much louder noise than in the forest where we evolved and the farm where we planted seeds by hand for centuries. What has all that noise done to our brains over the generations in a hundred years?
I was born in the late 1960s. My great grandmother was born just before 1900. That's 4 generations going through this light, noise, and smells over just 60 years. Could evolution have kicked in and the autistic brain be a response to the light, noise, smells, and whatnot from the industrial revolution onward? Could the industrial revolution just be one of the causes of autism while there are other earlier causes? Could none of these be the cause of autism after all? I don't know. I do find it interesting that the sensory issues with autism and the problems with city life pair together remarkably well.
Of course, autism is more than just sensory issues. There are social issues, cognitive issues, and many others. I just took sensory issues as an example. In the National Institute of Mental Health website, it states:
“While scientists don’t know the exact causes of ASD, research suggests that genes can act together with influences from the environment to affect development in ways that lead to ASD.”
You be the judge.