Monotropism

Russian translation

Autism (Part 1) • Autism (Part 2) • Autism and job • ADHD • Monotropism • Questions to AI

Many autism and ADHD traits are different manifestations of the same phenomenon

Monotropism is a pattern of attention and interest, or a cognitive strategy, proposed as a central underlying feature in neurodivergent individuals. In one video, monotropism was described as the cause of autism. While this statement may sound exaggerated, there is a significant degree of truth in it. Of course, monotropism is not the root cause, as it itself arises from specific physiological characteristics of the neurodivergent brain.

So what is it, in simple terms?

Since a person's attentional resources are limited, cognitive processes must compete for them. In the monotropic mind, attention is distributed among fewer tasks than in most individuals, and the interest that is active at any given moment tends to consume most of the available attention (as opposed to a more evenly distributed focus in the neurotypical majority). The term "monotropism" describes a restricted "attention tunnel" — a narrow and intense focus on a limited number of topics, or even a single topic at a time, while overlooking information outside this tunnel. Instead of being spread across multiple interests or stimuli, attention is deeply engaged in a very limited range of subjects, occupying the entire cognitive focus. As a result, monotropic individuals may struggle to process multiple streams of information simultaneously. While monotropism can lead to a highly specialized perspective and introduce challenges where a broad or flexible view is needed, it also provides certain advantages.

"Monotropism" means "tendency to one" in Greek. While it can be simply a tendency to focus on a single object of interest, in many cases, it is a physical inability to focus on multiple things at once — or an ability that is limited and requires significant effort and energy.

Conversely, polytropism is a broader attentional pattern that processes multiple information channels simultaneously. It involves both the ability and tendency to distribute attention across a wider range of interests or stimuli, a trait inherent in most neurotypical individuals. Some theorists suggest that polytropic attention provides an evolutionary advantage for social species like humans. By attending to a broad range of stimuli, people can navigate complex social environments, pick up on various cues, and respond to changing circumstances, including potential dangers.

This does not mean that a monotropic mind lacks advantages. Deep focus can lead to profound insights and expertise in specific areas. When monotropic individuals become engrossed in an area of interest, they may explore it more deeply than polytropic individuals, leading to a high level of understanding and mastery in a particular domain. Monotropism is neither an abnormality nor a medical condition — it presents both challenges and strengths. Human society as a whole benefits from a diversity of cognitive processing styles and ways of interpreting the world.

While the concept of monotropism provides a useful framework for understanding certain traits in autism and ADHD, it is important to recognize that these conditions exist on a spectrum. Not all individuals within these spectrums experience attention in the same way or to the same degree. As with any generalization, individual variations exist. However, even though some neurodivergent individuals have a highly polytropic mindset, monotropism remains a common and defining characteristic in neuro-minorities.

Some of the autism and ADHD traits associated with monotropism

1. Immersion in Activity and Intolerance to Multitasking (Autistic Inertia):

   • Special interests:
     Monotropic individuals tend to immerse themselves deeply in narrow interests and tasks. They may develop a strong passion for a specific topic, dedicating extensive time to studying it, gathering detailed information, creating articles or websites, and engaging with like-minded individuals. This deep engagement can result in unique knowledge and expertise in their chosen field. Due to monotropism, individuals on the spectrum may have a more limited range of interests compared to neurotypicals, often manifesting as Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors (RRBs).
     
     
   • Deep Focus and Shifting Attention:
     Autistic inertia refers to the difficulty an individual may experience when starting, stopping, or transitioning between activities. This is not due to a lack of motivation or effort but rather an inherent aspect of how neurodivergent individuals process and allocate attention. When a monotropic person is deeply engaged in a task or interest, they become fully immersed.
     
     Multitasking inherently requires frequent and rapid shifts in attention, forcing individuals to repeatedly disengage from one task and reorient to another. This process can be disruptive, inefficient, and mentally exhausting, potentially leading to sensory or information overload, heightened stress, or anxiety.
     
     Creating predictable and structured environments can help minimize the need for abrupt shifts in focus, reducing the impact of inertia. Providing clear, advance notice of transitions between activities can help individuals prepare for changes, making shifts in focus easier to manage. Recognizing the intensity and value of a neurodivergent person's focus allows for more effective strategies in engagement and learning, acknowledging that this deep focus is a strength, even if it comes with challenges in shifting attention.



2. Intolerance to Uncertainty:

   • Need for Clear Instructions:
     Vague, imprecise, or ambiguous instructions can be confusing and disruptive, pulling individuals out of their focused state and leading to misunderstandings or unexpected outcomes. People with a monotropic mindset tend to immerse themselves deeply in a specific interest or task, making it challenging for them to switch to another "attention tunnel" to fill in gaps or intuit the expected outcome. Clear and precise instructions help prevent unnecessary attention shifts (which can be mentally exhausting) and ensure sustained focus. Reducing ambiguity allows individuals to complete tasks efficiently and correctly the first time, without frequent context switching to resolve misunderstandings.
     
     
   • Routine and Predictability:
     Autistic individuals often find comfort in routine and predictability. Providing clear and structured instructions helps maintain this stability, reducing anxiety and minimizing the disruptive need to shift from one "attention tunnel" to another.



3. Limited Abstract Thinking and Holistic Perception ("Seeing the Big Picture"):

   • Literal Thinking:
     Many autistic individuals can be quite literal in their thinking. They perceive only what they see "in the here and now". This tendency might, at times, pose challenges when it comes to interpreting abstract concepts.
     
     
   • Focus on Details Overshadows the Overarching Theme:
     Holistic perception involves the ability to integrate and synthesize information from various sources to form a comprehensive understanding. Monotropism may make it challenging since monotropic individuals are highly detail-oriented - they might dive too deeply into one separate nuance of a situation and become so absorbed that there is no room left in the consciousness for anything else. While this is very advantageous in tasks that require precision or in-depth analysis of a particular minute detail, it might cause these people to inadvertently overlook other crucial aspects of a situation, neglect the interconnections between various elements and fail to see how individual details fit into the broader context. That impedes the abstract conceptualization of the bigger picture and limits effective analytical and strategic thinking. Based only on narrow, isolated information, without consideration of the more general context, a person makes an incomplete assessment of a situation, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions and making wrong decisions.
     
     
   • Difficulty in Identifying of Complex Cause and Effect Relationships:
     Despite heightened logical thinking, some autistic individuals experience difficulty in determining the causes of a given outcome when a complex sequence of events has occurred. Even if each individual event is concrete — and monotropism does not hinder comprehension but may even enhance it — the entire sequence constitutes an abstract set of multiple stimuli. The tendency to focus intensely on a single sub-problem reduces cognitive flexibility, specifically the ability to perceive interrelationships between different elements and to understand how changes in one part of a system may impact other parts. This challenge makes it difficult to analyze and comprehend intricate systems involving multiple variables and factors, as well as to resolve technical issues that arise as indirect consequences of distant root causes.
     
     
   • Not Necessarily!
     Not every autistic or ADHD individual experiences challenges with abstract thinking or holistic perception. Abilities and experiences vary widely within these populations. While the process of understanding abstract concepts or seeing the big picture might differ from neurotypical approaches, it does not mean that all neurodivergent individuals are incapable of abstract thinking. Many simply take different cognitive paths to arrive at the same conclusions, which may require more time or effort. In fact, some reach an equally deep or even deeper understanding. While their initial perception may be more focused on small details, many individuals on the spectrum can construct a holistic understanding by meticulously piecing together the details they have analyzed. Some may even excel in abstract thinking and recognize broader patterns that are less apparent to neurotypicals. There are numerous examples of autistic professionals providing highly innovative and unexpected solutions in their work.



4. Limited working memory and difficulties in oral business communication:

   • Limited working memory
     Humans have two types of memory:
     
     Working memory: short-term storage of a small amount of active information that either comes from the environment or is retrieved from long-term memory. This information is directly used for ongoing cognitive activities such as reasoning, solving logical problems, comprehending complex information, and decision-making.
     
     Long-term memory: passive information storage, which is activated only when necessary. It provides long-term retention of information received from working memory and can be reloaded into working memory at a later time.
     
     These terms were introduced in the 1960s in the context of theories that compared the brain to a computer.
     
     Working memory is a system with very limited capacity. Because monotropic individuals can focus intensely on a narrow range of interests, their working memory can quickly fill up with information related only to those interests. This can lead to difficulties in perceiving, retaining, and processing new information.
     
     
   • Problem with memorizing a sequence of actions
     When a monotropic person focuses on the current step of a multi-step process, that step occupies the entire working memory. This can result in losing the overall context — the connection to the process as a whole — and forgetting the next steps. To manage this challenge at work or in daily life, it can be helpful to create detailed instructions or checklists with step-by-step descriptions of the required actions.
     
     
   • Difficulties in oral business communication
     Business communication often requires rapid processing of incoming information and adaptation to changes in the evolving topic. During a discussion, new information may "erase" ("overwrite") previous information, making it difficult to follow the conversation and leading to a loss of the narrative thread. Alternatively, new information may not be perceived at all because the brain is still processing the previous information. For a person with monotropism, retaining multiple aspects of a discussion can be exhausting, overwhelming, or even impossible.
     
     Listening, processing new information by integrating it with previous knowledge, applying it to a problem, and formulating a response simultaneously is challenging. The awareness that this difficulty may be noticeable to others and affect professional reputation is not only distressing but also adds an additional cognitive load, further straining working memory and exacerbating the situation.
     
     
   • Recommendations
     Direct participation in discussions that require analyzing a situation and identifying possible solutions can be challenging for individuals with monotropism, and the need to respond in real time is often a highly distressing experience. Exempting them from such meetings respects their natural communication needs and preferences.
     
     If attendance at a meeting is unavoidable, providing written information in advance, including the agenda, can be beneficial. This allows the individual to review the material in a calm environment, prepare for the discussion, and formulate their thoughts.
     
     After the meeting, it is highly advisable to provide a written summary, outlining the conclusions reached and clear instructions for action. Analyzing the meeting’s outcomes in a relaxed setting without the pressure of immediate verbal processing can greatly improve planning and execution. This enables monotropic workers to contribute more effectively to projects and tasks by leveraging their unique ability to focus deeply on areas of interest. Such an approach helps retain the valuable insights and observations they can provide.



5. Decidophobia:

   • The material has expanded to the extent that it needed to be moved to a separate page. It first describes decidophobia and then explores its connection to monotropism.



6. Social life:

   • Reduced Awareness of Surroundings:
     Some monotropic individuals may be less aware of their immediate environment or social cues due to their intense focus on their current thoughts. This can hinder their ability to understand broader social dynamics.
     
     Social gathering neglect is an example of this behavior — individuals may fail to notice social cues around them. They might not recognize when others are trying to join a conversation or when someone is introducing them to new acquaintances. As a result, they may miss valuable social interactions and fail to perceive the broader social dynamics at play. Many autistic individuals have found themselves inadvertently excluded from the neurotypical "social dance," leading them to be perceived as rude, even though they had no intention of offending anyone. This is a prime example of judging others based on one's own perspective and exhibiting prejudice and disrespect toward those with different cognitive styles.
     
     Workplace interaction oversights can also be an issue. Consider monotropic individuals working in an office environment, particularly those with deep expertise in a specialized field, such as software development. While they often engage in detailed technical discussions with colleagues, their intense focus on their specific tasks may lead them to overlook broader workplace dynamics. They might not notice subtle changes in team dynamics, office politics, or shifting project priorities, which can make it challenging to adapt to workplace changes or collaborate effectively with colleagues who maintain a more holistic perspective. The narrow monotropic focus on their expertise may limit their awareness of the broader workplace environment.
     
     
   • Avoiding eye contact:
     For some autistic individuals, making eye contact can feel uncomfortable or intrusive, leading them to avoid it. How is this related to monotropism? Eye contact is an important non-verbal cue that conveys a wealth of information, including emotions, engagement level, and intentions. It essentially functions as a separate "attention tunnel." Autistic individuals may look away or down to avoid diverting cognitive resources from the primary communication channel, allowing them to focus entirely on the conversation.
     
     
   • Slow and intermittent speech:
     Some individuals process information deeply and intensively within their focus of attention. As a result, when they express their thoughts or ideas, they may carefully choose every word to ensure accuracy and completeness, believing that every detail is crucial for the listener's understanding. This meticulous approach to speech requires additional cognitive resources, which can slow conversations and lead to brief pauses for processing. To uninformed interlocutors, this may mistakenly appear as hesitation or uncertainty. The tendency to speak "like everyone else" (i.e., quickly and confidently) is an example of autistic masking, much like forced eye contact. However, actively monitoring one's speech is another "attention tunnel" that may exceed the available cognitive resources due to monotropism.
     
     
   • Infodumping:
     The term describes a situation where an individual shares large amounts of information about their special interests without necessarily considering whether others are interested. They may not notice social cues indicating that their audience is not fully engaged, as polite listeners often refrain from interrupting.
     
     As mentioned earlier, monotropic individuals can have difficulty shifting attention between tasks and may process transitions more slowly. Consequently, when they begin discussing their interests, they may continue sharing information without realizing how engaging or relevant it is for the listener. Autistic individuals may also struggle with social awareness, including assessing others' interests and needs. They may not always pick up on non-verbal signals indicating that their information is unwelcome or inappropriate at the moment, as their "attention tunnel" is already occupied.
     
     Autistic individuals have a natural need to discuss their special interests — this is an autistic way of communicating. Infodumping is not merely "overloading" others with unsolicited information; rather, it is often an attempt to connect, form relationships, and find common ground with others.

From Monotropism Questionnaire & Inner Autistic/ADHD Experiences:

Being monotropic can make daily life feel demanding and impact mental health. If you are using so much energy on a single task, it can feel like you need to constantly weigh up and balance your energy resources throughout the day to manage other tasks /channels of attention. If you are highly monotropic, life may feel even more intense as you become fully immersed in your attention tunnels/various tasks/sensory experiences and your entire bodymind energy flow is engaged. Moving in and out of channels of attention can feel challenging, each time costing more energy. If you are in burnout, you are in survival mode; you will likely need to use more energy to meet your basic authentic needs to get through the day; you may not have enough energy left to mask consciously or even subconsciously.

From monotropism.org:

If you care about the wellbeing of autistic people, you need to try to understand autism. If you want to understand autism, you need to understand monotropism

As a trait, monotropism is a tendency to focus on relatively few things, relatively intensely, and to tune out or lose track of things outside of this attention tunnel.

Monotropic minds tend to have their attention pulled more strongly towards a smaller number of interests at any given time, leaving fewer resources for other processes. We argue that this can explain nearly all of the features commonly associated with autism, directly or indirectly. However, you do not need to accept it as a general theory of autism in order for it to be a useful description of common autistic experiences and how to work with them.

Monotropism is just a different strategy for allocating attention, or processing resources, with advantages and disadvantages. There could be good reasons why humankind evolved to feature many people who are quite polytropic – prone to spreading their processing resources widely, better at keeping track of disparate things – while a few people are monotropic, tending to focus intensely and for prolonged periods, at least under the right circumstances.

Most human communication is based on several channels going on simultaneously. People use words, prosody [a set of such phonetic features as tone, volume, tempo, general timbre coloring of speech], eye contact, facial expressions (large and small) and body language, all at once – and they expect us to do the same. All at the same time! And all while keeping track of what it means that you are interacting with this particular person, in this particular capacity, all while resolving ambiguities in each of these channels, often by reference to the others!

If your processing style lends itself to using a small selection of channels at any given time, communication is naturally going to be different. Autistic people tend to miss some of the subtleties, and those of us who use words tend to rely on them much more heavily than many others – saying exactly what we mean, rather than leaving it to our faces and bodies to do most of the talking, or assuming subtext.

All of this means that sometimes, we miss things that seem totally obvious to our conversational partners – and vice versa. What's obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to me!

Eye contact, for example, is not something we're just randomly bad at; it can capture too much of our attention, using up processing resources we could be using to follow your words or notice your facial expressions. Those of us who have 'flat affect' [a reduced emotional expressiveness] might find that modulating our voices and arranging our faces would be too much to handle along with all the other things we're trying to keep track of. If we are 'literal-minded', it's likely to be thanks to a combination of expecting people to communicate more like us (saying what they mean!) and struggling to find the processing power to resolve ambiguities, while simultaneously keeping on top of all the information channels people expect us to be using.

A lot of the difficulty autistic people tend to have with task-switching and initiation is best understood in terms of inertia, which I see as a natural result of monotropism. Flow, or monotropic absorption, means giving yourself over to an activity more-or-less completely – really investing your mental resources in it. Because of that, it takes time to get into gear, and it takes time to get back out of it again. We need to shift a greater load of mental resources, because it is so much harder for us to divide them.

Most of the problems autistic people have with 'executive functioning' can be understood through this lens, and I think it does much more to explain them and suggest strategies than the label of 'executive functioning', which I've always seen as a useful but woolly concept.

There are many things that could help to make life easier for people with spiky skill sets who tend to throw themselves wholeheartedly into what interests them. Unfortunately, none of them are easy to achieve in a neoliberal society.

Employers could come to understand that neurodivergent people can be extremely good at their actual jobs, and that they are losing out by discriminating against people who don't also have a wide range of barely-relevant skills, or who don't fit with their idea of a “team player”. I don't know what it would take for this to come about though, and I think we're probably moving in the opposite direction.

From Monotropism: The Most Accurate Autism Theory You've Probably Never Heard Of:

Whilst most people will subsequently spend their day mentally juggling what to pay attention to, the theory of monotropism proposes that, when the autistic mind reaches maximum capacity, we disassociate, throw up a 'do not disturb' sign and become intensely preoccupied with what we have set our minds to.

According to the theory's founders: Dr Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser, this way of thinking is best illustrated if you imagine that an autistic person has the 'mind of a hunter'; an unquestionably awesome analogy which states that, when in the moment, distractions are not an option.

If it is indeed true that all autistic actions are brought about by an unbreakable concentration of limited priorities, then this fascinating theory provides solid evidence behind some of the most recommended techniques of how to support autistic people.

If autistic people are unlikely to shift from a task once it is set, then it only makes sense that you don't overload us with more jobs than a high school employment fair. This means that, when it comes to organising our workload, longer tasks are preferred over short ones as, speaking from experience, it's exhausting when we have to constantly shift from one chore to another.


You can find more details in Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism.

Autism (Part 1) • Autism (Part 2) • Autism and job • ADHD • Monotropism • Questions to AI