This is the coolest bit of research.

Post Reply New Topic

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notro ... -research/

I read it.
uninteresting to me.

Ah. Different interests.

I found it pretty interesting. Great idea from the kid. There is one problem I can "see" with it though. This is brought up fairly frequently here on WP too.

A LOT of autistics don't have any problem making eye contact with characters on screen, but simply can't do it in person. That says something about a dynamic that must be present in person, that is not present watching faces on a screen. I don't think this particular research will identify whatever that dynamic is, which is what I think is the real key to lack of eye contact in autistics.

You know? I was thinking about this a bit and realized there might be a better way to approach the question.

What if you took a group of autistics with trouble making eye contact, a group of autistics that don't have trouble with it (not all of us do), AND a group of non autistics with no trouble making eye contact? Have all three groups watch TV or videos of humans (forget the monsters), then have each group interact with humans in person, instructing them all to make eye contact in each setting, no matter how uncomfortable it might be (monitoring with tracking cameras just like in this study). Scan brain activity in each setting for each group and analyze any differences in brain activity.

Pretty much everyone I've ever spoken to that has trouble making eye contact says they feel "overloaded" doing it, so they have to break contact more frequently than those that don't have trouble with it.

I'm willing to bet if this were done, they'd find some activity in the autistics that have trouble, that isn't there in the other two groups. I'm willing to bet if they used a forth group (non-autistics with the same trouble making eye contact), might display similar brain activity to the autistics with the same trouble.

I think approaching the issue in this way we'd learn something more valuable than the approach they're using would reveal.

What I know is that looking into people's eyes used to "hurt". I'm older now and have a larger vocabulary and so I know what I should have said is that looking into people's eyes gave me overwhelming anxiety. I spent a few decades desensitizing, and now I have no problem looking into people's eyes. Now I have to remind myself to not stare but glance away every few seconds.