Puzzles in Perspective: Navigating Neurodiversity in Thought Patterns

Imagine looking at a picture filled with jumbled colorful shapes. At first glance, this chaotic array may appear disordered, but with a moment's reflection, you might start to identify familiar objects like trees or buildings. If we relied solely on bottom-up processing, however, those shapes would remain an indecipherable blur, devoid of distinct features. Top-down thinking allows us to swiftly interpret and understand these chaotic forms, transforming them into recognizable elements of our environment and enabling us to make sense of the visual information around us. 

Perhaps the jumbled colorful shapes remain chaotic or blurred. For individuals with neurodiverse brains, though, this top-down processing can be a challenge, often resulting in a persistent chaotic perception of the jumbled colors. This difficulty can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, confused, and exhausted.

Neurotypical individuals generally approach life from a big-picture perspective, or a top-down approach. Picture this as viewing a completed puzzle: with the final image in mind, a neurotypical brain can glance at individual pieces to grasp the overall concept. Typically, neurotypical individuals can draw on their external environment, past experiences, and expectations while remaining aligned with the larger picture.

In contrast, neurodiverse individuals often perceive life and concepts from a bottom-up perspective. Unlike the completed puzzle thinking of the top-down approach, this individual puzzle piece thinking processes information driven solely by data, independent of prior knowledge or experiences. It unfolds in real-time as events occur. Think of this as walking through life with a bucket filled with unassembled puzzle pieces; until each piece is connected, the underlying concept of the puzzle remains elusive.

To comprehend the world, individuals must absorb energy from their environment and convert it into neural signals through sensation. The thought processes of neurodiverse individuals are profoundly influenced by their surroundings and the stimuli around them. As such, gathering the individual pieces of the puzzle—complete with sensory details—requires significant effort. Often, this sensory information later needs to be filtered in order to construct a coherent understanding of the bigger picture or the completed puzzle. Consequently, the neurodiverse perceptual experience relies heavily on sensory data collected through our senses.  Additionally, other neurodiverse traits—such as Alexithymia, interoceptive dysfunction, commitment to routines, language-related peculiarities, aversion to change, atypical movement patterns, difficulty in understanding others' feelings (cognitive empathy), and the formation of repetitive behaviors—can further complicate the process of piecing together the puzzle.

It’s important to recognize that not all neurotypical and neurodivergent brains process and perceive information in the same way. Like many aspects of life, our cognitive functions exist on a spectrum of beautiful diversity. One doesn’t need to be neurodiverse to be an individual puzzle piece thinker—nor does one need to be neurotypical to be a completed puzzle thinker. Being an individual puzzle piece thinker means you thrive on understanding the fine details first before seeing the overarching picture take shape, whereas top-down thinkers prefer to start with the general vision and then delve into the specifics. Regardless of whether you are neurodiverse or neurotypical, understanding your unique cognitive style can foster greater empathy and connection in our diverse world.