I’ve been trying to find a metaphor for the idea that if, as some research suggests, autistic brains have more persistent connections in the face of stimuli, and how that might help account for how environmental and sensory stimuli impacts autistic people, and I think I found it: compound interest. When affected by stimuli, the allistic brain at most must deal with simple impacts based upon the principal stimulus, whereas the autistic brain must deal with compound impacts based upon not just the principal stimulus but the stimulus accruing due to those persistent connections.