Beyond Diagnostic Averages: Mapping Neurodynamic Diversity in Autism

Beyond Diagnostic Averages: Mapping Neurodynamic Diversity in Autism presents an operational pilot protocol designed to investigate whether stable, person-specific neurodynamic dimensions can explain differences in sensory discrimination and adaptation beyond conventional diagnostic group averages. The study focuses on trial-level EEG variability, neural population response dynamics, sensory discrimination and adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Its primary estimands include the width of neural trial-to-trial variability (W_var), a dynamic-range parameter derived from population response functions (n_Hill), an updating-timescale parameter (tau_update), and psychophysical discrimination measures (JND). Rather than treating Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a biologically homogeneous category, the protocol treats diagnostic status as an important clinical descriptor and secondary grouping variable while prioritizing individual-level neurodynamic characterization. Competing mechanistic models are explicitly evaluated using held-out predictive performance, reliability criteria, computational replication, simulation-based identifiability tests and predefined falsification gates. The protocol additionally incorporates accessibility, participant-centered procedures, reproducibility requirements and safeguards against premature biomarker or clinical claims. A diagnostic and public-policy context is included to distinguish the clinical and administrative usefulness of diagnostic categories from assumptions of shared biological mechanism. Status: Development-stage research protocol. It has not yet been preregistered or approved for human data collection. Participant recruitment and EEG acquisition are not currently open. Scientific, methodological and institutional collaboration is welcomed.