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Can animals be neurodivergent? (self.askscience)
submitted 2d ago by SirBadgerBoobington
As per title. I am a sociologist researching mental health and illness. I also have ADHD. Broadly speaking, with greater understanding of conditions such as ADHD, ASD, and others, we have begun to categorize them not as illnesses or defects but rather as naturally occurring variations of the human brain. The problem isn't with the brain per se, but rather that human societies are, broadly speaking, structures around the thought processes of neurotypical persons.
Has anything like neurodivergence been observed in wild animals? Things like, say, members of an animal pack being slow, or easily distracted, or irritable? My intuition is to say yes because some animals have rather complex social organization, which is necessarily based around a "mental norm." But that's just a hunch, so I'm asking here for further sources.
Has anything like neurodivergence been observed in wild animals? Things like, say, members of an animal pack being slow, or easily distracted, or irritable? My intuition is to say yes because some animals have rather complex social organization, which is necessarily based around a "mental norm." But that's just a hunch, so I'm asking here for further sources.
dullmonkey1988 10 points 1d ago
My suggestion would be to go back to the DSM and look at the criteria for these conditions.
Animals will lack the complexity to meet the current definitions. Also, the models of behaviour that have been built are just for humans.
From an academic point, I would say they couldn't be diagnosed but it is likely variations in behaviour exist.
Animals will lack the complexity to meet the current definitions. Also, the models of behaviour that have been built are just for humans.
From an academic point, I would say they couldn't be diagnosed but it is likely variations in behaviour exist.
Slazy420420 7 points 1d ago
Neurodivergent is a spectrum of habits based on a bell curve. (In the most simplistic view). There are dogs who have more energy than others in the same breed and or can't pay attention for 2 seconds, and some dogs who "have to do something" for seemingly no reason on a predictable routine scale. If you simplify it to the graph, yes, yes they can be.
NSG_Dragon -3 points 1d ago
Dogs behaving as intended and bred to do so, isn't neurodivergent. These are perfectly normal traits. Quit reaching so hard
Tanagrabelle 4 points 1d ago
Well I'd say the answer is yes. The thing is the degree of neurodivergent. An animal with dyslexia is probably never going to be particularly bothered. Tourette? A predator is going to have trouble hunting because it might give itself away. A prey animal is likely to be unable to hide in silence. Any condition that does not prevent them from keeping themselves alive might be survivable. But they're wild animals, and how are experts to test them?
Bad_DNA 3 points 22h ago
Seeing as (1) we are animals, (2) higher animal species seem to have forms of behavior in social groups, (3) individual animals display observable individual behaviors or 'personalities', (4) we are only on the cusp of learning other species' communication/language forms, (5) the alphabet soup of conditions the OP describes are presently considered to have organic causes in genetic, developmental, and environmentally distinct etiologies (6) none of us are 'neurotypical' if we fine-grain these descriptors sufficiently -- would it not follow to expect other species are as broad-spectrum in behavior, 'disease', conditions, etc.?
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