4 ms·

The autism spectrum may have originally been construed as one dimensional, from minor to profound autism. However, I would say now that 'spectrum' is predominat

The autism spectrum may have originally been construed as one dimensional, from minor to profound autism. However, I would say now that 'spectrum' is predominately understood in the autism research community as meaning "diverse." Diverse presentations, diverse symptoms, diverse co-occurring symptoms, diverse lived experiences, diverse outcomes, a la if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism. The Autism Phenome Project is predicated on the idea that there may be some underlying homogeneity so that we might identify clinically meaningful subgroups within the autism "spectrum"/"diversity", which may help us develop better targeted interventions, support services, etc. Great question.

CarVac 5y ago
So in keeping with the light analogy, it's a gamut then.
- gowld 5y ago
  No, gamut : discrete :: spectrum : continous
  - CarVac 5y ago
    Since when is a gamut discrete?
    - thedailymail 5y ago
      I think the original meaning of gamut - the full set of musical notes in a scale – refers to a discrete series. But in color theory the gamut is the complete set of colors that can be reproduced by a device (or which is present in an image), and is continuous (although you could probably argue for discrete depending on how colors are defined in a particular model.)
waterhouse 5y ago
I think there's a lot of history of using the term "spectrum" to mean a single dimension. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum for some examples and counterexamples. I suspect it will create confusion to use the same word for a multi-dimensional meaning, especially when there is preexisting literature about the "autism spectrum" that used the single-dimensional meaning. I think it would be ideal to use another term. It seems that the thing we're talking about is "a cluster of imperfectly correlated traits". Googling a bit, I see "syndrome" as one possibility (although it may carry the connotation of a disease, although that may be inevitable with autism). "Trait cluster"? (If one wants to dig into the light metaphor: The thing you're looking at is a beam of light. You use a prism, and that splits the beam into its constituent frequencies. When you shine the light through a prism onto paper, the resulting image is a spectrum. But the original light beam itself is not a spectrum. Thus, the most appropriate way to use "spectrum" in connection with autism would be for someone to take a test that measures several different traits, and then the test results are the "spectrum". I'm not going to try to fight for that definition, though.)
- SubiculumCode 5y ago
  Definitely. Scientific understanding, thankfully, evolves!

CarVac 5y ago

So in keeping with the light analogy, it's a gamut then.

gowld 5y ago
No, gamut : discrete :: spectrum : continous
- CarVac 5y ago
  Since when is a gamut discrete?
  - thedailymail 5y ago
    I think the original meaning of gamut - the full set of musical notes in a scale – refers to a discrete series. But in color theory the gamut is the complete set of colors that can be reproduced by a device (or which is present in an image), and is continuous (although you could probably argue for discrete depending on how colors are defined in a particular model.)

waterhouse 5y ago

I think there's a lot of history of using the term "spectrum" to mean a single dimension. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum for some examples and counterexamples. I suspect it will create confusion to use the same word for a multi-dimensional meaning, especially when there is preexisting literature about the "autism spectrum" that used the single-dimensional meaning. I think it would be ideal to use another term. It seems that the thing we're talking about is "a cluster of imperfectly correlated traits". Googling a bit, I see "syndrome" as one possibility (although it may carry the connotation of a disease, although that may be inevitable with autism). "Trait cluster"? (If one wants to dig into the light metaphor: The thing you're looking at is a beam of light. You use a prism, and that splits the beam into its constituent frequencies. When you shine the light through a prism onto paper, the resulting image is a spectrum. But the original light beam itself is not a spectrum. Thus, the most appropriate way to use "spectrum" in connection with autism would be for someone to take a test that measures several different traits, and then the test results are the "spectrum". I'm not going to try to fight for that definition, though.)

SubiculumCode 5y ago
Definitely. Scientific understanding, thankfully, evolves!