Weak central coherence?

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Is it found in other conditions such as adhd? Or is it found ONLY in autism/aspergers?

I think it can be found in other conditions, though it tends to be a characteristic of the autism spectrum. I think it's not unheard-of in either AD/HD or some psychiatric conditions. I don't know about anything else.
It's not entirely accepted, either, though I think it has some key points.

Would anyone care to explain "weak central coherence?"

I look like a fool here.

as it happens, i'm just reading a thesis on autism, in particular on its detection in normally to highly gifted persons, and i'll translate:

'Central coherence' is the natural tendency of information processing processes to search for coherence between several stimuli, in order [in so doing] to integrate information. When integrated within the larger whole, a detail of the perception loses its meaning as a loose detail and it gets an entirely different meaning, which issues from the context.

It was Frith (1989) who for the first time formulated such a disorder in the attachment of meaning, as an underlying central cognitive deficit. The information processing of persons with an Autistic disorder is in sharp contrast to the tendency to coherence. They show a fragmented information processing, which is characterized by de-tachment rather than coherence. People with an Autistic disorder do not spontaneously relate various pieces of information with each other, nor with the context (Frith, 1989).

A weak 'Central Coherence' has sporadically been described anecdotally in the literature on autism, even already in the article by Leo Kanner, who noticed an "inability to experience wholes without full attention to the constituent parts" (Kanner, 1943) .

Translated from:
Vermeulen, P.; Beter vroeg dan laat en beter laat dan nooit, De onderkenning van autisme bij normaal tot hoogbegaafde personen; Berchem, Gent, 2002
[Better Early Than Late and Better Late Than Never, The Detection of Autism In Normally to Highly Gifted Persons; p. 65-66]

Apparently recent studies on fluid intelligence have shown contradictory findings related to this in aspergers.

I don't know a ref for it; it was a post/thread by monty a couple of months ago, about how recent studies have shown that Aspergers have higher fluid intellignce than the general population, fluid intelligence being the capacity to recognise/detect patterns, make "wholes" out of isolated details, create meaning out of chaos, etc. And he thought it was interesting because it was in direct opposition to traditional findings about Autism, in which this kind of cognitive activity was supposedly reduced.

I personally experience both; the capacity to recognise patterns, create/produce meaning etc, and the inability to link details when it is a case of seeing consequences etc. Often fail to see simplest connections etc.

I think there was some suggestion that it depended on the nature of the tests, and on context.

I remember reading studies that showed there was a much greater spread with respect to different cognitive abilities in the aspergers/HFA population than in the general population. The general population tended to cluster around a bell curve with respect to different types of cognitive skills, whereas apergers/HFA people had a much greater chance of scoring either abnormally high or abnormally low on many different tests. In other words we tend to have more “specialized” intelligence.

Can aspie have good central coherense?

I think I do. I don't like unnecessary complexity. I like to see the ultimate purpose / pattern behind things rather than getting bogged down in trivia and details. Disorganized, cluttered thinkers cause me a lot of anxiety and grief. I don’t memorize things well without logical connections.

I'm an extreme INTP type thinker though. This may be a trait completely unrelated to autism. There seem to be more INTJ's than INTP's here.

Personally, I think you need to take the individual into account. Just from reading this forum I can see that people are all over the chart in terms of what types of thinking they're good at. We all have unique skills.

The posts on this thread seem to highlight the need for more study of the "fine structure" of the autism spectrum. I have been thinking about exactly the same odd combination that ouinon and others note. I have felt like a complete idiot when someone points out that I'm still looking at details when everyone else has linked things up. Other times, and I assume in situations that are somehow different, I can see the pattern far faster than others. It is not just me that thinks so in the latter case. People have often made comments about the spookyness or weirdness of the recognition of pattern. I think that most of these latter moments have been with visual patterns although I am not sure.

So there seems to be some detail missing from the 'weak central coherence" framework. That seems enjoyably, recursively ironic!

Has anyone noticed a more detailed and reliable pattern of detail vs. global consciousness than the unavoidably vague initial effort from Dr. Frith?

Hi a lot of information in your posts thanks!

So if I have extremely bad central coherensse it doesn't prove 100% I have aspergers? Im still not sure if I have And I've been to specialist and there it was proven I have very bad central coherense.

Can one have just very bad central coherense and actually not have any of neurological disorder(adhd/add/tourette/asperger etc.)?