How Do People with Autism Experience the World?

I have always wondered how others experience the world.  Do you see the same colours as I do?  Do you hear sounds the same way I do?  This type of thought experiment can be extended to wondering how people with Autism experience the world.  I set out to find some information.

I found some intriguing accounts in the following blog:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1792

In it, the author discusses two individuals with autism, both of which have shared their personal experiences with how they experience daily life.  One of these, a high-functioning doctor, describes an overwhelming flood of sensation in a hug or in daily noises, so much so, that she needed to hide from it.  She did this by withdrawing inside herself, cutting herself off.  The other personal account came from a low-functioning autistic boy, who described not enough sensation in his body, which made him feel disconnected from his body; as a result, he resorted to repeated shaking of his arms to enable him to feel their presence.  The movement calmed him and reassured him that his body was still present.  These two accounts seem completely opposite to one another, although both of these people suffer from the same disorder.

In another resource, The Australian Society of Autism’s website, an Autistic person is said to see the world as a jumble of people, places and events that they have difficulty making sense of.

photo by vmiramontes

The brains of Autistic people are physiologically different.  They show marked differences in several brain regions (cerebellum, brain stem, hippocampus, amygdala and frontal cortex, according to brynmawr’s blog reference).  They also process information in different ways; for example, when processing image information, the Autistic brain ‘lights up’ in regions that are entirely different than those in a normal brain. 

One further reference I will leave you with is Discover Magazines website featuring artwork of autistic people: How Autistic Artists See theWorld. 

One of the artists expressed her view of people, without features because she is face-blind, and the landscape without specific background because she doesn’t understand context.  Another artist is a savant, who captures impressive detail in her paintings.  Yet another artist, one who has Asperger’s draws a black and white face with a colourful flower over the mouth; the flower distracts from the eyes, perhaps to convey how difficult it is for people with Asperger’s to maintain eye contact.  My favourite piece of art is the one depicting a jumbled conversation, with faces thrown into a maze of words.  If I were to ever begin to understand Autism, this picture may be the starting point.