A study led by researchers in Canada from the University of Montreal and Massachusetts General Hospital gives further evidence that we should look at autistic people as simply different rather than inferior. The research team looked at more than 24 studies between 1995 and 2009, and conducted an analysis on the data in front of them.

The research involved more than 700 people and the brain analysis of them while they were given visual-processing tasks to do. The analyses showed that when an autistic brain processes visual stimuli, it has more activity in the temporal and occipital regions of the brain, and less activity in the frontal cortex, as compared to non-autistic brains.

The temporal and occipital areas of the brain, located at the back of a person’s head, control perception and recognition. The frontal cortex controls activities like planning and decision-making. Because of this, even autistic people at very young ages have incredible abilities to recognize patterns, and many learn to read at a very young age. However, because there is a decreased function in the frontal cortex, they also sometimes have difficulty functioning in social situations.

Laurent Mottron, lead researcher of the study from the University of Montreal, said “We should not try to assimilate or break the difference (between autistics and non-autistics), but just admit that it’s a difference that has good and bad consequences”.