Patterns everywhere. Normal?

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I find it easy to pick out visual patterns and patterns of other kinds (like noticing and remembering how spawns work in video games, for example).

I believe that it is related to being autistic, but that does not mean only autistic people can be good at seeing patterns or that all autistic people are necessarily good at seeing patterns.

I would think so.

Same here. Got dyspraxia, no dyslexia.

Is there anymore information on this? I've noticed similar things myself.



Yeah I do this too. I have very strong visual-spatial skills so I see a lot of patterns and focus on random stuff because it sticks out to me. It makes me a good artist and engineer but also a bit OCD too haha.

I also have a hard time remembering things in words so I visualise whatever it is and it becomes much easier. For example, I will picture the groceries I need to buy rather remembering a list of items.

eg. means "for example", it's one of many possible things. I need to buy something at the supermarket, eg. fruit, cereal, milk.
ie. means "specifically", it's one of one things. I need to buy something at the supermarket, ie. beer.

What if I told you numbers are not the most important part of math?
p.s I'm a pure math student/math tutor

I wouldn´t know. At college (before university), it slowed me down reading numbers, that weren´t there, taking 59 for 95, reading 53 for 27, and at last messing up formulas as well as I got tired (we had 3 hours of math in a row twice a week).
A teacher at an economy course, I felt obliged to take, warned me of ever trying to become a chief acountant
I have thought of taking math up for fun, though. There is something aesthetic about it.

It sounds like you'd understand geometry and geometric proofs quite well.

For eye evolution, I learned much of what I know from a documentary on it a few years ago, but I don't recall the title. Essentially, eyes formed around the same time that basic life started coming to the surface of the seas/oceans and interacted with light for the first time. It was at first very basic in detecting shadows/lights/reflections much like deep sea fish do today, and man has actually be able to reproduce an effect similar to this for blind people at a basic level, using a visor type device attached to the visual areas of the brain.

For brain differences in ASD vs NT, it is pretty common in books as the underconnectivity/overconnectivity theory of autism, and differences are noticed in scans of brain activity. Here is what wikipedia mentions on the subject:

"The underconnectivity theory of autism hypothesizes that autism is marked by underfunctioning high-level neural connections and synchronization, along with an excess of low-level processes. Evidence for this theory has been found in functional neuroimaging studies on autistic individuals and by a brainwave study that suggested that adults with ASD have local overconnectivity in the cortex and weak functional connections between the frontal lobe and the rest of the cortex. Other evidence suggests the underconnectivity is mainly within each hemisphere of the cortex and that autism is a disorder of the association cortex."

It also links to two articles on the subject: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/4/951.full and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2001237/

Yes, I see patterns of many types.

Having trained in cad drafting and design and solid modeling, I have an easy time visualizing layered drawings, 3d renderings, exploded views & sheet developments. It makes calculating distance area and volume etc a cinch. I also have no problem visualizing mechanical functions and processes.

I notice other types of patterns, ie fibonoci spirals, plutonic solids etc in nature and man made things.

But to truly see patterns, and the colours & the shapes, you've got to be a fun guy on the fungi and eat the mushrooms like Mario 1up1up1up so you can see The Matrix like Neo. Geometric, energy grids, crystal light fragmenting, biological prisms, flowing escher patterns, the interconnectivity of the fabric of the universe.. And being able to interect with it all, in various ways, with intent & perceive the affects and results of your ineractions..

One of my favorite thing to do is go for walks because I see so many patterns out there. It was said of me as a child that I could stare at a spot on the wall and be entertained for hours. Don't know why this is prevalent in autism, but it is. Now all people see patterns. Often those patterns take the form of faces. I remember a Twilight Zone (or similar) episode about it. This is another area where some Asperger folks read about seeing patterns being a symptom and then get all excited because they happen notice patterns. I have spent hours in a single spot starring at everything around me and becoming deeply enmeshed the patterns I'm seeing. In autism you don't just notice patterns, you become engrossed in making and connecting patterns. One of the reasons why I have trouble making eye contact is because I become engrossed in the pattern of that person's clothing. And if that person is wearing something like a rhinestone broach, I get really engrossed studying its patterns. I also used to spend hours at a time looking trough a kaleidoscope. This is something my folks were constantly having to snap me out of.

So yeah, you see patterns, everyone does, like in clouds. The question is, how engrossed to you become in looking at those patterns?

I have ceiling constellations as I call them, all over my ceiling. A fox that I was fond of over the years was recently destroyed by a water leak. One of my obsessions is finding four leaf clovers, and I once found 43 of them in a single day in my yard, in addition to 15 five leafs. Whenever I'm outside or at family reunions and get bored or anxious, I go look for clovers. I originally kept them all in my sesame street L encyclopedia, for luck, but they dissappeared years ago and most of my current ones are in my bonsai care manual, or I give them to friends/family. Much like Temple Grandin as she wrote in "Thinking in Pictures", I can build models in my head of things, such as maps, machines, and origami models and deconstruct them/re-arrange them. I also have a talent for untying knots that most people would throw away. In school I would find patterns in the wooden doors, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, etc. My church meets at a theatre and during a sexist sermon I didn't not agree with, I focused on counting the ripples in the curtains and lights on the soundboard in relation to the switches and slides, from the opposite side of the room in a middle row.

My eyesight in general is very keen. I successfully identified bird mites at work by eye and caught an invasion early (the exterminators and my coworkers wouldn't believe me). I can see the threads on fabric from far away. I can read the bottom of eyecharts perfectly (they think I have a slight stigmatism though). I once identified a baby mantis on a cieling at least 6 feet above me when it was as small as my pinky nail. I often have to readjust my eyes by looking at closer things, such as moving up my arm to realign my sight. They may or may not be ASD traits in particular, but they are strange and I can relate to ASD's more than any other group, so to me it is a near 100% definate considering everything else.