Autistic slang, short for neurologically typical. This term came about when autistic people were trying to find a way to describe people who were not autistic. Normal meant a lot more than neurologically typical, so they were trying to find something more precise. The term has three usages:
1. Someone who isn't autistic.
2. Someone who isn't autistic or a cousin.
3. Someone who is neurologically within normal bounds
By the first definition, a person with epilepsy and Tourette's syndrome is neurotypical. By the second definition, the same person may not be neurotypical, if the Tourette's syndrome produces traits, especially social and sensory ones, that make them similar to autistic people. By the third definition, the person is definitely not neurotypical.
This term is often abbreviated to NT, and used as the opposite to the term AC.
The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical is a joke organization created by autistics to study neurotypical behavior. It portrays neurotypicals in the same defective light that autistic people are usually portrayed in, and parodies research institutes
devoted to autism. As well, there is a fictional joke organization known as CAN'T -- Cure All NeuroTypicals -- that parodies the name and acronym of the well-known group Cure Autism Now.
This neologism has become so common that professionals in the autism field sometimes use it. People with attention deficit disorder and other neurological atypicalities besides autism have likewise begun to use it, and it usually has no negative connotations.
Example usage: "I'm neurotypical, but my autistic son isn't."