I hope emerging research that divides the autism spectrum into four phenotypes[0] eventually gets recognized and incorporated into research like this. I still believe comparing the entire spectrum at once is the wrong approach, especially since the variants of autism express so differently.

As an example: I'm autistic and I learn inside-out, building larger new concepts out of smaller existing ones; those with Asperger's on the other paw, learn outside-in instead, breaking down larger existing concepts into smaller new ones; both are part of the "autism spectrum", but differ very fundamentally.

Given that the origin of "autism" is simply "thinking that differs from usual", there's no evidence that there is a single underlying cause to find, nor that generalizations across the entire spectrum will reveal much of anything other than coincidence.

I believe we need to individualize new research to the variants that we now know exist, because otherwise we will continue to all-but erase anything that isn't common to the entire spectrum.

[0]: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.15.24312078v...