2.1 Anchoring: Establishing a Cognitive Starting Point

Monotropic cognition begins with the establishment of a focus anchor—a singular detail, observation, or internal signal that becomes the stable reference point for thought expansion. This anchor is not arbitrarily selected; it is intuitively or emotionally salient to the individual and forms the cognitive center of gravity for subsequent processing.

Once anchored, attention is not broadly distributed. Instead of scanning multiple stimuli simultaneously, monotropic cognition orbits the anchor, pulling in adjacent or connected information as it becomes contextually relevant.

Figure 2.2. Anchoring Focus Point. This diagram zooms in on the origin of monotropic processing. The initiating focus point connects directly to relevant contextual details while passing over unrelated input, highlighting the selective nature of anchored cognition.

This mechanism underlies the well-documented autistic trait of “deep focus.” But more importantly, it reveals the internal logic driving that focus: anchoring is not restrictive—it is the starting point of coherence.