What is cognition? There a various accounts. It resides in neural circuitry is one account. It resides in an embodied mind, embedded in an environment. My favoured theory is the enactivist position: cognition emerges from the interaction between person and environment.

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How one defines cognition is important. Autism is sometimes described as a manifestation of atypical cognition. If one believes the 4E account, issues of intersectionality are placed central stage. Members of the LGBT+ and BAME communities interact

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in an often aversive environment. Except for those with grazed knuckles, I don’t think this a controversial claim.
Consider also the intersectionality of co-occurring conditions. Take 2 of the most common - gastrointestinal and immunological.

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If, as most progressive accounts of autism (4E, ecological, active inference, etc) claim, homeostatic/allostatic processes are an important constituent of cognition, is it not possible that these co-morbidities are also an intrinsic part of the person’s autism?

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Both sides of medical/social model dichotomy appear to disallow this for reasons of categorisation. These categories are human constructs and anything, imo, that segments human experience cannot be considered a holistic approach.

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This thread is explorative in nature. I would appreciate any comments that may illuminate my in/correctness.

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