Monotropism

Monotropism and polytropism are according to Murray, Lesser and Lawson different strategies in distributing attention in the human brain. Monotropism refers to an attention-tunnel (undivided attention or attention-tunnel), while polytropism refers to multiple divided attention in the brain.

The Monotropism hypothesis was developed by Murray, Lesser and Lawson, a Doctor of Philosophy, a mathematician and a social worker, and regards attention-tunnels as the central feature of autism.

Autists don't have the ability to "multi-task".

In this model of mind, mental events compete for and consume attention. In a polytropic mind, many interests have a moderate amount of attention put into them, while in a monotropic mind, the person's attention is put into a few more specialized interests. The theory argues that when many interests are aroused, multiple complex behaviors emerge, but if only a few interests are aroused, fewer—but more intense—behaviors emerge.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Murray D, Lesser M, Lawson W (2005). "Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism" (PDF). Autism 9 (2): 139–56. doi:10.1177/1362361305051398. PMID 15857859. http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/139.pdf. Retrieved 2007-07-24.