Fear, anger, and disgust are powerful motivators—and they’re linked. All mammals have a structure called the amygdala which produces these negative reactions and keeps us safe from threats. The amygdala is highly responsive to experience and helps us learn how to deal with the world around us.

Week three connects the neuroscience of the amygdala to autistic sociologist Damian Milton’s Double Empathy Problem. We explore how these concepts explain mutual misunderstandings and the high cost of masking and passing. Finally, we introduce perspective-seeking through first-person narratives as a practical tool for building attunement. We discuss Isobel Moore’s “The intersection of autism and gender in the negotiation of identity”, Elle McNicoll’s A Kind of Spark, and Lya Batlle-Rafferty’s Memoirs of a Neurodivergent Latina.