Major study led by autistic scientist challenges long-held preconceptions about the condition

[KamaAina]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-02-major-autistic-scientist-long-held-preconceptions.html

A scientist with autism has used his own experiences to aid the completion of a study which challenges some of the most commonly-held beliefs about the condition.

Dr James Cusack, from the University of Aberdeen, argues that generalisations about people with autism being poorer at interpreting gestures and body language may be exaggerated, and could be overcome by developing their ability to pay attention to signals in their brain which may otherwise go unnoticed....

Those taking part in the study were shown a series of human action sequences, created using technology which reduces figures to a series of dots, and then asked to distinguish between similar actions such as dancing and fighting – something which it is commonly believed those with autism have greater difficulty in determining.

The results showed that their ability to detect these subtle differences was significantly higher than that identified by previous research.

[hunter]

1. If someone likes me they kiss me. If they don't, they slap me...

... and many, many variations upon that theme.

That doesn't mean I'm entirely clueless. I'm just more likely to wander clueless into those dancing/fighting situations "normal" people strive to avoid.

[hifiguy]

2. Not sure about this. As I once read, shortly after being Dx'd

"If you've seen one Asperger's person, you've seen one Asperger's person." I've taken that test where you have to guess emotional states from eyes and nothing more. Flipping a coin would have given me a better score.

I read a recent article by Temple Grandin summarizing a lot of the latest brain science about those of us on the spectrum and we process these sorts of reactions not in the amygdala, down in the mammal brain, but in the frontal cortex, where the brain's logic centers are. In other words I was right in describing myself as Data to friends after my Dx. EVERYTHING goes through the logic processors.