303 - How Does the Autistic Brain Work?

Tito, a remarkable autistic teenager, joins three brain experts in a search for the causes and effects of autism, a mysterious developmental and behavioral disorder that severely impairs a person’s communication and cognitive skills.  While Tito cannot speak verbally, he writes compelling and moving poetry and can articulate his experiences in extraordinarily vivid ways.   Based on his feedback, and what research has so far revealed about autism, the guests speculate about how the breakdown in brain functioning and integrating sensory inputs occurs.   They note that studies strongly indicate that autism is a genetic disorder and that a cure might arise in the form of a relatively simple biological intervention, something that manages to correct the chemical imbalance in the brain.