Consider autistic persons who have reached a high degree of recognition–I can quickly name a few in a variety of careers. For instance, there is John Elder Robison, author; Temple Grandin, Animal Activist and speaker/author; Elon Musk, Entrepreneur; Greta Thunberg, Environmental Activist; Susan Boyle, Songstress; and Anthony Hopkins, knighted actor. This diversity would seem to indicate that autism has many different facets–thus the term “autism spectrum”.
A recent article in the Washington Post, December 26, 2025, reports findings from recent studies[i] indicating evidence of at least four autism phenotypes, having both a specific set of behaviours and genetic traits as well as overlapping origins and characteristics.
This work leads to a greater understanding of the complexities and the range of autism’s many forms, suggesting that common variants found in the general population can “in certain combinations and under certain environmental conditions” result in the development of some forms of Autism at different stages of life.
It occurs to me that limiting autism to only four types is like reducing the colour spectrum to the primary colours: red, yellow and blue. And that makes me think of rainbows.
Rainbows are caused by two everyday elements: sunlight and raindrops. These elements are natural and we see them often. However, when an individual ray of light enters a raindrop, the light bends or refracts. This separates the white light into its component colours inside the droplet. But before exiting the raindrop, the light bends again, reflecting off the back of the droplet. This final bend or dispersion reveals a particular colour—one of the primary or secondary colours, or a shade thereof.
The findings in this study indicate that autism is somewhat similar in origins. Like a ray of sunlight entering a droplet of water, there are myriad environmental[i], industrial, medicinal, hereditary and prenatal influences. These can effect change in a person’s DNA, affecting the way we develop and subsequently, the way in which we interact with our environment.
A lead author of the subtype study, Natalie Sauerwald, is quoted as saying “There are many autisms.”
One of the studies reported, using an unrelated research team and different data found that genetically distinct forms of autism can be expressed later—after age six[ii]. These diagnoses appeared “strikingly different” from that diagnosed in early childhood. According to the article “…hundreds of genetic mutations have been identified as being linked to autism.”
Only half appear to be inherited, the rest arise spontaneously, either from random copying errors in DNA or from external influences like air pollution, paternal age, maternal diabetes, and prenatal infections. These types of autism appear later, and look more like depression, ADHD or PTSD.
The Washington Post article also mentions James McPartland[iii]’s research at Yale involving brain synapses of autistic adults. Synapses are the vehicles for transporting messages from one nerve cell to another, allowing for the assimilation of more, and more varied information by the brain.
It is important to note that McPartland, over years of study, found that adult autists had fewer synapses than neurotypicals, and the fewer the synapses, the greater the struggle with the social aspect of life.
Like water droplets in a rainbow, each of us reflects a combination of events and influences that make us unique. These may be a result of inherited DNA or of our body’s reaction to outside stimulu or events. The important thing to remember is that in our uniqueness, we bring special attributes into this world. Celebrate them!
Litman, A., Sauerwald, N., Snyder, L. G., Foss-Feig, J., Park, C. Y., Hao, Y., Dinstein, I., Theesfeld, C. L., & Troyanskaya, O. G. (2025). Decomposition of phenotypic heterogeneity in autism reveals underlying genetic programs. Nature Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02224-z
[i] David Mandell, Professor of psychiatry, U of Pennsylvania.
[ii] Olga Troyanskaya, director of Princeton Precision Health and Co-Author of Flatiron Institute Study noted above.
[iii] James McParland, director of the Center for Brain and Mind Health at the Yale School of Medicine.
For more information on this study see;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/26/autism-research-diagnosis-subtypes/
Margaret Jean 