Page 1 of 2 [ 20 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

unreal3x
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 355

29 Apr 2009, 10:52 pm

Someone in another thread said that NTs sort of have a "shield" on their brains that blocks sensory overload.

I don't think of it as having as a matter of having a "shield" or not, but rather a different or longer/shorter sensory range.
For instance with light sensitivity, if you flash a flash light into the eyes of an NT, they obviously squint or close their eyes. They don't choose to do this, their eyes automatically react. Light that is less than that they don't automatically react to. With us, we react to light much before that flashlight point.

I was wondering if this could work as a test. Have a room with a controllable light level (lumens (perceived power of light)), and increase the light until the NT or AS person begins to react. I wonder if their is a way to measure involuntary signals going to eye lid muscles. If so, then theoretically the reactive activity of AS people should increase more quickly and reach the "squinty?" point than NTs.

:idea:



whitetiger
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Feb 2009
Age: 55
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,702
Location: Oregon

29 Apr 2009, 10:55 pm

This is a good theory and it should be provable.


_________________
I am a very strange female.

http://www.youtube.com/user/whitetigerdream

Don't take life so seriously. It isn't permanent!


Gabe
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 25 Apr 2009
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 36

29 Apr 2009, 11:03 pm

Great idea for an experiment. Similar tests for hearing would be interesting as well.
Any psych. grads looking for a project?



unreal3x
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 355

29 Apr 2009, 11:04 pm

I was taking a look at Photophobia, with out searching for AS and one cause happened to be Asperger's and Autism (fourth from the bottom).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophobia



Its a sensitivity to light, not a fear of light so don't worry.
A fear of light is heliophobia.



unreal3x
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 355

29 Apr 2009, 11:08 pm

Gabe wrote:
Great idea for an experiment. Similar tests for hearing would be interesting as well.
Any psych. grads looking for a project?


Hmm people could even do this for the science fair in Highschool or even below.
Only problem is, some of the HS test subjects might try to act tough and fight the light which would disrupt the results.



Mist01
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 24 Apr 2009
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 168
Location: Western Pennsylvania, USA

30 Apr 2009, 12:57 am

Comming out of high school, I agree. Many people would try to do that, more specifically guys. I know even sometimes they pretend they dont feel any pain. Someone will like hit their fingers with a pencil really hard (happened today) and they will say "no" after the person that hit them asks "did that hurt?" Whereas I, on the other hand, will say ow and let people know that I have felt pain. They interprit that as me being weak.

...so yeah. This experiment would work better with adults. I think im going to try this, actually. I know I am sensitive to light (especially when my allergies kick in), but im not sure just how much compared to other people.


_________________
"Discovering the basic goodness of human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness into the world for the peace and sanity of others. "
--Chgyam Trungpa


Dussel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,788
Location: London (UK)

30 Apr 2009, 4:22 am

unreal3x wrote:
Someone in another thread said that NTs sort of have a "shield" on their brains that blocks sensory overload.

I don't think of it as having as a matter of having a "shield" or not, but rather a different or longer/shorter sensory range.


I don't think - I remember very well when I was in the age of 10 or so that I was horrible upset and made scene when my mother changed the curtains in the living room. I would not say that slightly blueish instead of slightly red curtains would constitute a sensory change of any "range".

It has more to do with a mechanism in the brain to distinguish between important and unimportant sensory signals.

---

What I did later was to rationalise such sensation and let run those through a process of reasoning - by which I simulate the NT's filter (in some case my results are more reliable, because I can demonstrate with the facts. as they can be established, and not by subconscious and emotional processes).



Sora
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,906
Location: Europe

30 Apr 2009, 6:58 am

The 'shield'-thing is right though in so far as that normal sensory perception is filtered into relevant and irrelevant signs, are structured and go to the respective areas even before they reach your conciousness.

That's responsible for that many normal people do not find it overly difficult to cross a road. They can focus on the relevant stimuli (cars, measurements of space and time, speed and such) and process it quickly enough to make sense of what they see, what they're supposed to do/how they're supposed to move and so on.

Some autistic people and many others with sensory integration deficits get overloaded with irrelevant information because their neurological connections do not filter out the irrelevant stimuli efficiently. They become overloaded by masses of irrelevant (and relevant) stimuli. Autism much like other bioneuological/neurochemical disorders can 'damage' the 'filters' that are responsible to sort through information.

(I just noticed Dussel already explained this too before, just shorter.)

Possibly that there are additional causes for overloads (since even emotional reactions can cause overloads) such as your idea of course.


_________________
Autism + ADHD
______
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett


Amicitia
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Age: 39
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 206
Location: Maryland

30 Apr 2009, 3:10 pm

Psych grad here. :)

OP - There are tests like this. Usually they're to determine the threshold of what's detectable. I think you're thinking of a test to determine the threshold of what's annoying/aversive.

The first kind of test usually relies on self-report. The second kind might have to be based on observation (squinting, cringing, hands over ears, etc.). This would also help to avoid the problem Mist01 points out: You just don't tell the people what you're watching for. :wink:

Definitely a doable kind of experiment, though.



unreal3x
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 355

30 Apr 2009, 3:26 pm

Amicitia wrote:
Psych grad here. :)

You just don't tell the people what you're watching for. :wink:

Definitely a doable kind of experiment, though.


Having a placebo effect would be needed.



Amicitia
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 22 Aug 2008
Age: 39
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 206
Location: Maryland

30 Apr 2009, 4:06 pm

I'm not sure what you mean. What's the sensory equivalent of a placebo?



richardbenson
Xfractor Card #351
Xfractor Card #351

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 13,553
Location: Leave only a footprint behind

30 Apr 2009, 6:20 pm

i have to say, the only real sensory problem i have is noise. especially when im sleeping, lights also. :(



Xelebes
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Apr 2008
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,631
Location: Edmonton, Alberta

30 Apr 2009, 8:59 pm

Dussel wrote:
unreal3x wrote:
Someone in another thread said that NTs sort of have a "shield" on their brains that blocks sensory overload.

I don't think of it as having as a matter of having a "shield" or not, but rather a different or longer/shorter sensory range.


I don't think - I remember very well when I was in the age of 10 or so that I was horrible upset and made scene when my mother changed the curtains in the living room. I would not say that slightly blueish instead of slightly red curtains would constitute a sensory change of any "range".

It has more to do with a mechanism in the brain to distinguish between important and unimportant sensory signals.

---

What I did later was to rationalise such sensation and let run those through a process of reasoning - by which I simulate the NT's filter (in some case my results are more reliable, because I can demonstrate with the facts. as they can be established, and not by subconscious and emotional processes).


Blue and red are ranges themselves - the wavelengths of light.


_________________
Diagnosis: Asperger's, Tourette's

http://xelebes.wordpress.com/
My Blog


pandd
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,430

30 Apr 2009, 9:29 pm

Would it not be more direct and less open to subjective interposition, to simply use an EEG to measure levels of neuro-excitement/neuro-response to the objectively same stimulus?



WardenWolf
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 532
Location: Woodbridge, VA

01 May 2009, 5:43 am

I've always worn dark sunglasses when outside, from the age where I was able to carry and take care of my sunglasses (about age 12). I can get used to the bright light reasonably well if I'm out in it long enough, but I normally wear sunglasses outside from dawn until dusk. Granted, Arizona is very bright, as is the desert landscape, but I frequently wear them long after other people have taken theirs off.

I'm somewhat strange in that I've never really had significant sensory overload issues. I do have somewhat decreased sensitivity to pain, though, and increased sensitivity to certain sounds. I can hear the high-pitched whine of a TV CRT very clearly, and in a few rare cases (usually cheap CCTV monitors with an unusually loud piercing whine) I've been forced to leave the store they were in. Recently, we were forced to turn off the beeper on my mother's new dryer. She couldn't hear it, but I could hear it on the other end of the house and its repetitive beeping was annoying.



misslottie
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 30 Sep 2008
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 304

01 May 2009, 7:56 am

i recently read of a test to measure this in a.s patients, but duh- cant remember where it was, so cant find a link. it was at an eye hospital.

i have photo sensativity, and always insisted that am light was harsher than pm and recently found out i was right; am IS whiter and brights, pm is more yellow. so my 'perception' is quite finely tuned.
i also find light tiring, in the way i find being around other people too much to be tiring; im better if im awake a lot in the night.
sadly i dont like the feel of sunglasses, so just stay indoors, really. i am over senstive to everything, anyway.