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Aoi
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04 Oct 2009, 7:13 pm

Dawn Prince-Hughes claims in her book "Songs of the Gorilla Nation" that autism was observed in a monkey. I've not found a separate confirmation for this claim.



Callista
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04 Oct 2009, 7:48 pm

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One second they're purring while you pet them, and the next second they scratch your face off!

That's what I call feline overstimulation. It's very close to autistic overstimulation, but there are several factors: First, the cat thinks you can read its body language. Like most cat lovers I can read feline body language, but many people can't, so when the cat lashes out at them, often times it has been telling them "back off" in what the cat thinks is no uncertain terms--tense muscles, flicking tail, etc. Second, the cat can only take so much petting; so while at first it likes being touched, you will eventually overload its mental "circuits" and the petting will start to feel annoying to it. So it tells you to back off, and when you don't "listen", they will lash out. This is a normal cat. Some cats are particularly nervous, have bad pasts, have neurological problems, but the vast majority of the time it'll just be an overstimulated cat that thinks you're being majorly rude when you don't stop petting it when it "asks nicely" by showing its "obvious" annoyance for... oh, maybe five seconds. 'Course, some cats will take any amount of petting and love it; others will try to escape instead of scratching; but the ones that scratch tend to do it only after they've given you what they think is ample warning.

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They also look up at the ceiling and meow at nothing...
Very easy to explain. Not only are cats' senses different from ours, but their sensory processing is, too. A cat notices movement, not shape (like most humans do). So the slightest movement--a reflection, a fleck of dust, a shadow--will attract its attention, while non-moving objects that are so obvious to you are only unremarkable scenery to a cat.


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Nightsun
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05 Oct 2009, 3:21 am

Aimless wrote:
I'm not sure it would be called autism though, doesn't that require self awareness?


Also autistic doesn't have self awareness :?: Was only joking but actually you can't ask a dog or an ape. Do you have self awareness? So no-one know. Actually I don't belive there is a qualitative difference between humans and animals, only quantitative (quantitative sometime can became qualitative via emergence).



Nightsun
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05 Oct 2009, 3:23 am

I know dogs can have down-like syndrome (they are also very social like down-people). I known 2 of them.



DaWalker
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05 Oct 2009, 4:26 am

Do animals get autism?

YES, if it is slowly and carefully explained.



Silvervarg
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06 Oct 2009, 3:38 am

I read in the newspaper yeasterday about a dog who has epilepsy.

LostAlien wrote:
Though, I've known a dog who thought she was a cat and a cat who thought he was a dog. What would that be in human classifications?

Severe personality disorder? :D



mysassyself
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06 Oct 2009, 4:13 am

DaWalker wrote:
Do animals get autism?

YES, if it is slowly and carefully explained.


:lol:

.. there is a research paper published recently by some neuroscientists (a trio, 2 of whom have the last name 'Markram' so I guess they're a couple) called Autism as Intense World Theory, which examines autism in light of their findings that autistic brains can have different neuron connections and function differently to neuro typical brains. The paper highlights other brain functionality differences such as neurone hyperplasticity.
It kind of says that in some respects autistic brains are hyper functioning rather than hypo functioning, so for instance in social situations autistics can actually be over sensitive and over stimulated and then respond inappropriately rather than being understimulated and not actually caring.
I've read through the paper recently and am planning on going back for another more thorough look.

I believe I remember reading in that paper that animals can be autistic! It seems the answer is yes, according to some scientists.


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ChangelingGirl
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06 Oct 2009, 8:20 am

Aoi wrote:
Dawn Prince-Hughes claims in her book "Songs of the Gorilla Nation" that autism was observed in a monkey. I've not found a separate confirmation for this claim.


I think I remember something like that from another book I recently read, but I've not known any research studies that indicate it.



TiredGeek
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06 Oct 2009, 9:08 am

How could they not, I mean we humans are just animals that got too smart for our own good. ;)

As another cat person, I second everything Callista has said. In my experience learning about cat behavior and observations of them, they have a wide range of "personalities" just as people do. For example one of our cats, compared to the rest of the species as a whole, would be the equivalent of an extroverted NT human, while another might be an extreme introvert. I assume other species have a similarly wide range of personalities - especially the intelligent, social ones like dogs and apes. So, I'd have to assume that something like autism exists. Though, whether it is a "defect" or "the normal state of things" depends on whether you're a pack/herd/social animal, or a mostly solitary type of animal.

As far as how cats in general are like Aspies - they are mildly domesticated compared to dogs (which most people are more familiar with) so you see a lot of traits come through that are typical of most wild, non-pack-hunting predators. They tend towards (and exploit) patterns and routines, avoid change, have hyper-amplified senses, etc. because this is how they find food and avoid being eaten by larger animals.

What does that say about we Aspie humans? For those who can ponder things like evolution without your diety smiting you or something, I'll just suggest some interesting reading. Stuff on the same site as the Aspie Quiz - http://www.rdos.net/eng/ - that suggests maybe Aspie traits come from Neanderthal type early hunters. Dunbar's number - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number and the hilarious Monkeysphere popularization of it - http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_wh ... phere.html - suggests that it isn't just us Aspies/auties - all of society doesn't work right, because of the way human brains are wired.