Polytropic

Our hypothesis is that the difference between autistic and non-autistic is a difference in the strategies employed in the distribution of scarce attention. That is to say, it is the difference between having few interests highly aroused, the monotropic tendency, and having many interests less highly aroused, the polytropic tendency. An aroused interest is an interest charged with feeling.

Where polytropic minds comfortably entertain many simultaneous interests, each moderately aroused, the monotropic mind will maintain only very few simultaneous interests, with each one highly aroused and intensely focused upon.