How do you visualize how your brain works? probably long.

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Not sure if this kind of thing has been posted before, but I got onto this subject of brain visualization, because it was an easy way for me to describe how I think and just how scary it can be (well to me anyway). This visualization opened up another idea, of figuring out compatibilities between people. Let me give you an exacmple of three types of brains, and then how I see my brain.

Bubbles

This is the visualization of a good friend of mine (NT). She describes bubbles floating and moving around. Each bubble is labeled as a subject or piece of information. She is very impulsive both in her speech and desires (because once a bubble pops, the info it contains is usually gone). It's really interesting to watch her speak. If she gets interupted when she is saying something, you can see that the topic is actually like a bubble that's getting close to popping (which of course means it's gone...or just really really tiny and eclipsed by other bubbles). So she ends up trying to keep the thought going by saying little "yeah buts" or just simply blurting out what she was trying to say. you can actulally see the bubbles popping as she does thing as well. She is very scatter-brained and will just frankly forget small details, but will insist she has everything under control (we are debaing whether she may have some undiagnosed condtion of some sort).

File Cabinet

A male friend (NT) of mine described his brain like a file cabinet. information and events are stored in files in a cabinet of drawers. Information is easily sorted and sifted through. Reminds me of an aspie, but he doesn't have any of the emotional quirks, (or any aspie traits for that matter) and is a pretty tradtional representation of a male. I need to pick his brain a bit more on this subject, but the general idea is he has a great memmory, but I don't know how much cross checking he does on his files. he can spout off data that he has heard, but doesnt always have extra info to back up anything.

The train

My girlfriend (NT) described her brain as if it were a train station. Multiple trains are always moving and always doing something with information. The train represents a "train of thought". But instead of the trains storing the information inside, the information is hanging in the air (I am thinking like a cloud rather than bubbles). The train passes by and grabs info out of the air. Trains are free to converge and seperate but multiple "trains" of thought are always going on.

The sea of pictures

My thoughts on my own brain look like this: Imagine water. Calm and serene. Now take 1 large "picture" and float it on the water. This large picture is my viewport or simply what I am seeing. I am blind in one eye so the viewport is a bit smaller than normal. Now as I walk around I take snapshots of information randomly. It may be a building or a landmark or something having nothing to do with anything (the unique design of a piece of jewelry...or the way someone smelled....). All of these snapshots are hap hazardly thrown into the water. Some of it is organized and kept for long term storage (I have to be told about it multiple times if it's a task, but statistics and data are stored more easily).

Now here is the neat/scary thing. Since it's water, it can be disturbed or have turbulence. This can be a traumatic event for me. It can be a touch or especially a loud noise. for instance if a car honked it's horn at me because I didn't see it, that sound slashes through the pictures and spreads them out. Sometimes my viewport goes blank and I almost shut down completely for a second just to "catch up". sometimes the pictures fade, and sometimes they are gone. usually it's just fragment of info that is gone, and not the whole picture. I almost always have the general idea of cisual information, but rarely the detailed info. And my viewport doesnt take crisp high definition snapshots, but instead random parts of the "snapshot" will have differeing levels of focus. So I may know you by your voice or by a smell or how your keys jingle in your pocket, but I rarely know exactly what anyone looks like. I am not face blind, but it's more like it hurts to focus on peopels faces. Hard to explain.

Hmm that is about the closest I can come to describing how I see things. not sure if it makes sense, but it really helped me to explain how I think. I figured this coould be an opporunity to see other people's interpretation of how you see yourself, see the world or just cope with whatever problems you may have. Oh and sorry for the long post.

Robert

Great topic.

I'm not on the spectrum but my son and father are. I have some aspie like traits. My son and I are learning disabled.

I see my brain as a network of computers like things...each computer is a topic. Some impressions end up in two data bases as they relate to two topics, or more. As I process a topic, I generally stay in that computer but can collect data from other computers if approprate. The other computers are also working, but in background. The LD causes a few glinches...sometimes data is there but not accessable. Other times, like with a faulty switch, unrelated data will flow in from another computer and mess things up.

I see my son's brain similarly set up. His processing is much faster though. His primary computer is sends a somewhat weaker signal than mine and his background computers are more active. Because there is less of a discention from primary and backup, he tends to multi task (which is good, to a dregee) and muddle topic together (which is bad, to a degree). Also, when he needs to collect data from another computer, he may not do the most direct route.

BeeBee

I can relate to your friend who has a brain like a filing cabinet as I feel that thats how my mind works. Provided its something Im very in the know on, interested in or have to do, Im able to store information in my head and sort it out quite easily.

I see my brain as a relationan database. It works as follows.

Step 1:
I need to retrieve a piece of information.
"how to greet a girl I've seen before?"

Step 2:
A query is sent to the database:
"SELECT Greetings, Tone FROM Social WHERE SeenBefore = True AND Gender = 'F'".

Step 3:
The result is returned: "Hey, [her name]; what's up?" in a casual, non-desperate tone.

A stereo system

My brain sort of works more like a boombox, or stereo more or less.

There is all sorts of static and noise out there and un-interpretable information floating out there in the atmosphere. Within all that static and noise, there's ledgible information (stations) ready to be picked up. Like a radio can only tune into one station, my mind can only tune into one source of information at a time. When multiple stations start occupying the same channel, the information gets garbled, such as the case of an over-stimulating situation. The option in this case is to change to a clear channel, or stick in a tape recording and review past information.

If the information I am receiving on my "radio" is good, I hit "record" on the tape deck, and will capture the information for future reference in memory. Sometimes, I even accidentally record information I don't even need to keep, other times, I forget to record information I really need. At a future time, I can access my tape library to review past information recorded. Frequently, I like to stick in a tape and review past recordings. When I need information in my memory, I occasionally have a problem finding the right tape recording, and end up playing back the wrong tape, and people get "offended" at my accuracy and honesty. My short term memory is terrible, but my long-term memory is excellent. I have a tendancy I guess to forget and remove a recorded tape out from the deck, and it ends up getting recorded over with new information.

Sometimes, like a far away radio station, information cannot be received clearly, such as the case when trying to interpret body language. Many times, I will be tuned into what the person is speaking, and not be tuned into other, more subtle signs, because my "radio" can only listen to one station at a time. The problem is that important information may be getting transmitted on another station down the dial. Sometimes, it seems like the radio station can be received clearly, but the person at the station is speaking in a different language

My mind works like a web of connected ideas. Each individual idea can be linked to many more. Mental storms can create profound new associations and tear apart old webs.

wow ghost. I am glad I can get such a friendly reaction to something I always thought was so weird. Ok here's to hoping I don't mangle this up too much.

NeantHumain:

My Brain works like a scaled-down version of London, as I knew it, located inside of my Cranium. Microscopic Routemasters zoom back and forth, trading visual images at their teeny-weeny Bus Stops. Microscopic Hackney Carriages send audio sound waves to each other.

My brain works like a photo album. All my thoughts are in the form of pictures and all my memories are in the form of pictures.

Everything is tabbed for easy refrence.

I see a thought process like a scaffold beside a lake of information and ideas. Next to the scaffold are a large magnet pulling out interesting and hopefully relevant ideas and information out of the lake that i can or can not use in combination or to test with the scaffold.

3D movie theater (or, more precisely, a 3D virtual-reality game)

For me thinking is nearly synonymous with seeing. Thinking, talking, listening, reading and writing always is accompanied with imagery that literally replaces the visual input coming from eyes. There is also a strong verbal component. Altogether this is similar to watching a movie with a narrator. However, a movie is a sequence of events, while my thinking is more like walking through a map - it's organized spatially rather than on a basis of time. My memory works similarly, which makes it quite difficult for me to recall when a particular event occured, though I usually know where it happened. Time axis is present, but it is weak and unreliable, and events that occured in one place often merge together. While images in my memory are often of a very good quality (in some aspects better than pictures made by camera), the difficulty with time sequences makes my long-term memory appear rather unreliable.

Multitasking is not my forte, as I can be only in one place at a time on my mental map. However stray thoughts often "teleport" me to other regions. The only multitasking I can do is based on the fact that my conscious and subconscious minds operate autonomously, and each can tune to an input channel independently. This way I can talk while driving. Subconscious perception does not record in memory, though.

Another important aspect of my thinking is that it involves a lot of "offline" processing. This happens most often when I interact with people. Conversations are usually too fast for me to adequately control them, or do any "theory of mind" processing, so I often spend time analyzing them afterwards, and preparing for future interactions.

In addition to the "virtual-reality map", there are other "circuits" on which my thinking relies:
1. Rule Database - contains rules and algorithms/routines that guide me in daily life.
2. Tape Library - a verbal memory, contains various verbal items: words, passwords, short stories, jokes, sometimes bits of past conversations.

The retrieval mechanism is based on loose association. For example the conversation may be about bridges, while I jump to the topic of Fidel Castro. Reason: an image of Cubans landing on an old bridge in Florida Keys came to my mind (or rather, I was mentally transported to Florida Keys and then to Havana, where I saw the Cubans and Fidel). Such tangential thinking is commonplace for me, so I digress often.

It is interesting that my para and I were disucssing this very topic yesterday.

I would have to say a cross between a camera and a DVD player.

What brought this up on the bus is that I was describing a Foxtrot comic to her. As I was explaining the comic strip, I could see the actual strip in my head.

I also say a DVD player though is because of an experience I had about a year ago. In August of 2004, I witnessed a guy try to attack another gentleman, being loud and obnoxious, hurt his girlfriend, and run from the police. In February of 2005, I was subpeonaed for that incident. I needed to contact the county attorney to figure out which incident I was being called in for. Once I was told of the incident, I was able to replay the whole seen in my mind, even FF or Rewind to the sceens that were probably important. I find that I do that quite a bit, especially when reporting cars that do not stop for my bus' red lights.

What a brilliant topic.
I think of the brain as some sort of network with connections leading to places where information are stored. The more we learn about something, the more connections we have and the easier it is for us to relate to and remember that particular thing. When we want to solve a problem, the more connections we have to the topic related to the problem, the easier for us it is to solve it.
An interesting idea that struck me is that new connections (like paths) emerge from existing ones about a particular type of information, which can be related to creativity, we have to find those connections to come up with something unique/new.
As we grow old, some connections just die out with time unless we renew them. So it is harder for us to remember something and once we lose all connections to a particular place of information, we completely forget about it.
That's how I visualize the brain.

Actually, if all I had to get was the plate, I would be able to get violators on even the busiest streets such as 2nd SW and 41st NW. Unfortunately, I also have to get the make/model of the car and a description of the driver too.