The truth is, we autistic people take in a lot!

Both on a sensory level (such as visually) and cognitively (so in terms of information).

When scientists were able to investigate the signals between eye and brain, they were surprised to find that most of the signals moved brain-to-eye, when seeing – and not eye-to-brain, as predicted.

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That means that we humans rely a great deal on priors. Stuff we already know.

We are actually ‘seeing’ far less of what’s in front of us that we’d imagine. We’re mostly ‘filling in the gaps’…

It does make sense, of course. I guess that’s how you can drive all the way home from work without noticing.

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I’m remembering an anecdote about a time Lorna Wing was looking at a dolls’ house with a young autistic boy.

She pointed at the bed and asked, “What’s this?” He answered, “A bed.” She pointed at the cover. He said, “A quilt.” Finally, she pointed at the pillow. He replied, “It’s a piece of ravioli.”

Somewhat astonished, she looked more closely – and saw that it did indeed look just like a piece of ravioli.   

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In effect, the boy was not allowing his pre-existing beliefs to cloud his judgement about that piece of ravioli on the bed 😉

All told, could it be that, as autistic people, we’re simply taking in more signals from the outside world than most?

The research of Pellicano and Burr suggests autistic perception seems indeed to rely less heavily on expectations and preconceptions than the norm.

We may, in fact, be more ‘eye to brain’, so to speak.

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@astridpoot

Yes, I have an artist friend, also autistic, who was saying exactly this. Seeing as really going outside yourself to properly 'see'... hm, if that makes sense..

@astridpoot

It does show it. I love this picture.