Most research on neurodivergents starts by asking what’s wrong. That’s not where we start. For decades, research on neurodivergents has been organized around a single question — what needs to be fixed? Studies on autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia — each studied in isolation, each measured against neurotypical norms, almost always through a deficit lens. The community that makes the research possible rarely sees the findings. And the question driving most of it is still, at its core — how do we move neurodivergents closer to neurotypical? This causes the superpower to sit undocumented, the gifts to go unmeasured and the other side of the coin to stay hidden.
We’re asking something different.
UnMasking Neurons is asking something different. Not how can we make neurodivergents fit better into the neurotypical, standardized mold — but what superpowers is the neurodivergent mind capable of? Why are they able to take a framework from one area and apply it seamlessly to a completely different area, in a way neurotypicals don’t? How did they catch the nuances everyone else missed? That’s the question the Unmasking Neurons Science Institute exists to answer.