<p>jaylynn, well I did say it was oversimplified! (somewhat intentionally on my part) 
but yes I also recall reading some articles saying there is more white OVERALL in autistic brains, but in regions where the gray appears, there is also increased gray, compared to typical brains.</p>
<p>I think there is still a lot that is not yet understood. It may come down to where all that extra white matter is located in the autistic brain and what function it plays in those areas. For instance (and this is just me thinking aloud here…) my Aspie S also has a sensory integration disorder which not only made him overly sensitive to/unable to tolerate many sounds, touches, smells, tastes etc but also effected his anxiety level so that he was in a “fight or flight” mode of anxiety all the time…perhaps too much white/too many neural connections in areas that control the senses so that they can no longer be filtered - which in turn prevents the autistic person from being able to function in a normal manner? When he was young S would sometimes completely tune out everything else to the point where you thought he was deaf, he HAD to shut out the rest of the world in order to focus on whatever he was doing, otherwise it was all just too distracting and he would fall apart emotionally. Do not let anyone tell you that individuals on the spectrum are not emotional, they are - just not in the ways we’d like them to be!</p>