Visual hyperacuity

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yes, I knw this topic has been done before. But, I am wanting to know.. what is it? Ive tried looking up articles but they always seem to be technical articles that I find and they seem to talk in optometrist language... about prisms and refraction etc... im a layperson. I have some questions, if anyone knows anything.

Why is there a link between autism and visual hyperacuity? (as found by many scientific studies).

What is visual hyperacuity exactly?

Is it seeing in great detail at a great distance?

Is it having acute peripheral vision?

Is it having intensely focused eyes? How do the eyes behave?

What has it to do with sensory overload? Is it related to light sensitivity or does that not necessarily have to be there?

this is on hell of a subject because when dealing with perception and definition it is very difficult to find the proper perception and definitions
the first link google return is quite good
visual hierarchy and learning
any way i think autists may give the impression of hyperacuity because they(we) don't sort the visual hierarchically
meaning, they don't assign values to visual objects and properties the way NT do
consequently they may appear lacking of focus or too intent on detail but when u don't sort your field of view hierarchically u can get both the smallest part and the bigger picture simultaneously
u can also see in great detail at a great distance because the peripheral and the center exist on the same level and that why AS react to movements and events much differently than NT
basically autists do not assign the object their field of vision 3D properties so far and close and center and peripheral would weigh the same in their mind
it's like having a focus less eyesight but it's it still got some center but not one that can be defined in 3D coordinates
perhapes that why many AS despise any form of authority or hierarchy as we see tend to see and percieved the links between different objects as much more important than
their place in the hierarchy
My gf is a photographer and it is very easy to see in her pictures that she doesn't really differentiate between the small and the big or the up and the down or the far and the close so every thing she see is endlessly beautiful and meaning full to her
since there is a strong link between vision and hearing and thinking this kind of perception also leads to a very egalitarian attitudes toward people and very strong tendency toward the interactive facet of life,traits that are very common at the AS population
it is related to light sensitivity and sensory overload because your view of the world is unsorted in a way as every thing is equally important u experience every thing at once which could be quite too much sometimes and i think we maybe very sensitive to light because light as the ultimate constant or border is the only thing that can support such complex perception

visual hyperacuity, visual obviously meaning having to do with seeing things, and hyperacuity, meaning overly sensitive, many aspies have some such difference, not always with vision, but also temperature, sound (like me), or a few other different sensations, having any one specific sensory difference isn't too common among us, but the fact that you have one isn't very rare, at least with us

They are unsure. In the Cambridge study by Ashwin et al., they speculate as to possible mechanisms underlying such phenomena as this and the enhanced attention to detail in autism (see Discussion section). They postulate, for example, high density of foveal cone cells or differences in dopamine receptors in the eye or brain. They suggest determining which genes are involved. The genes implicated in autism may affect certain neurotransmitters involved in vision.



Visual acuity is the ability to resolve visual detail. If you have hyperacuity, you have more capacity for spatially resolving visual detail.



Yes, this is part of it.



I would guess it depends on where in the anatomy the mechanism giving rise to the hyperacuity occurs.



I don't think so. People can be short-sighted, yet have high innate acuity, which is apparent when their vision is corrected with glasses etc.



I'm unsure it's related to light sensitivity. The person with hyperacuity will be registering more visual detail (i.e., information), which may increase the likelihood of overload.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snellen_chart
http://www.nora.cc
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ann-list/

Having worked in Ophthalmology for 20 years the term your are using is actually defined in two ways.

1) Actual visual perception as measured by the numerous test for visual acuity. For example 20/20 is considered normal. All that means is what a "normal" eye can see at 20 feet, you see at 20 feet. 20/15 is then what the "normal" eye can see at 15 feet you can go back to 20 feet.
In 20 years of practice the best I ever tested someone at was 20/10 and that was extremely rare.

2) Would be the ability to pick up on objects, motion, things in the periphery, etc. This is the coordination between the visual receptors and the brains ability to process that information. In the AS individual this would go along with our typical ability to see the detail in things that we have to respond to. It isn't necessarily that you see better, it's more of the brain process the visual information quicker.

Wow. My heart just skipped a beat while reading that, and I hope you do not mind my effort to break it down a bit.

I have always known my mental processes are either dependent upon or affected or effected -- Which? -- by my ability to see clearly, and now that I have epiretinal membranes permanently blurring my vision (and continually getting worse), that is actually the biggest part of my overall unable-to-work-for-hire disability. Until today, no doctor or anyone else has ever understood what I was trying to say about certain clarities within my mind being directly proportional to my overall clarity of vision, but you have just described that perfectly.

I can see a lot of things, that other people can't. It comes in handy, when I'm working at my job.

Hrm... so is this kinda like how I don't focus on anything? How I can see animals in fields we drive by, that other people don't see? How when I look at a landscape I see beauty in it all, not one specific part of it, but the way it all comes together.

I had always assumed the lack of visual focus was a coping mechanism meant to stop sense-overload and/or getting distracted by a specific thing and spacing out.

The hierarchy issue is interesting too, because I can think of nothing more useless than a hierarchy. grass roots organization makes so much more sense.

If NT's see hierarchically and (most) aspies see via grass roots.. literally see... it does make sense that it would shape the way one perceives other things with other senses including thought. Could explain why sometimes it baffles me the blank look i get from people when I try to explain grass roots organization too, if my mind has troubles with hierarchy then their should have the problem with grass roots. And it's made worse for them, because they don't get force-fed grass roots thought processes like we get force-fed hierarchical thought processes.

Top down thinking is so easy to miss important details and spending to much effort on trivials.
Bottom up thinking keeps growing until everything is taken care of, from the most pressing until the least pressing, and one can more easily determine from the overall view how much priority should be put on each issue.

There is a lot to be said for following a hierarchical structure in many social situations too. I'm suspecting that I'm not the only aspie out there that has a real issue with the concept of the "Alpha Male" even though I fully understand it's evolutionary (genetic and memetic) value.
I think most social groups... at least those filled with hierarchically thinking people needs to have some sort of pecking order. So for someone not "into" a pecking order per se, it is even harder to feel like you belong, because you're forced to take a spot in that group above some and below others.... Which creates unease or cognitive dissonance.

VERY interesting indeed, I need to take some time and really read up on this issue. It's breadth of impact seems to be phenomenal.

Hrm, how about hyper-other sensory-acuity. Getting them all together could make a person a really good cold-reader... too bad I'm mind-blind.

Edit: Found this link a few moments after posting.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=b39Udl6 ... ty&f=false

Why is there a link?

Because people with AS are known to have higher cortical arousal than NT's. Introverts are known to have higher cortical arousal than extrovert's, so my theory is that AS is extreme introversion. And what is cortical arousal? It's basically how stimulated your brain is. Your brain wants not too much and not too little stimulation, so having too much stimulation causes sensory overload. Introverts in general are known to be more stimulated by touch, smell, sound, sight, and taste than exrtoverts, so if AS is extreme introversion then this is what leads to a meltdown.

Introverts are stimulated enough, so this is why they're more into their inner world of thoughts and feelings. This explains why extroverts are more social and are more drawn into highly stimulating activities such as partying.

Is it having intensely focused eyes?
Well that's the effect, not the cause.

Is it seeing in great detail at great distance?
It's perceiving great detail in general.

Is it having acute peripheral vision?
I guess you notice those details more too.

Anyways, cortical arousal is pretty much the root of this subject, so I think that should answer most of it.

Not sure if I am of the spectrum, but somehow all of this is related I am thinking.
Anyway, I have always thought I had great peripheral vision and people have said I have eyes on the back of my head
I also have (a)stigmatism (not sure if it is with or without the a)- so could that cause the peripheral vision to be 'better'?
I am also wondering if -
This could be why, I will miss catching something 99.99998% of the time if thrown directly at me
But
if it comes anywhere from a side, I can catch it, and many times in my non-dominant hand
(which by birth would have been my dominant, if it is true they bound it)
many times I have caught or grabbed or in some cases hit what it was, before I 'knew'
if that makes sense.
like it comes out of no where and is in my hand before I have time to think about it
or i have brought up my fist and have hit a person that has not known me long and they were going to do something stupid
like buddy-punch me - this is partly how I got terms like eyes on the back of my head



Your not kidding..
I have been trying to work out how I 'see' in so many ways lately.. there are just so many different bends in all of this.

Do you think visual-spatially?
I am not sure what you meant by mind-blind.. sorry

this. 'real issue with the concept of the "Alpha Male" even though I fully understand it's evolutionary (genetic and memetic) value.'
Thank you so much! and really like the use of concept here as well.
I wonder how many reverse ruby slipper heal clicks and not believing in that 'concept' it would take
for the silverbacks to all vanish..


hierarchically.. hmm

@ AceOfSpades .. answer.. oh no this all just added about 20 more questions to my list to sort out..
thanks..

Just to further everyone's education on eye conditions on laymen terms.

An Astigmatism (it's with an A) is that some part of the eye (could be front surface, could be internal) is shaped like and American football rather than a sphere. So there is a long curve and a short curve. And that football could be angled any where around 360 degrees. This cause light entering the ey to focus in a line instead of a point (the point being the optimum)

Nearsighted or Myopia means the eye is too long and light focuses before the back of the eye
Farsighted or Hyperopia is just the opposite and the eye is short and light focuses to far
Presbyopia is when the lens of the eye has become more rigid and can no longer maintain of achieve a close focus on objects, usually within arms reach.

And individuals can have a combination of these, for instance I'm a myopic astigmatic with presbyopia

No, I don't think I that I think visually-spatially. In truth, I don't think I can actually close my eyes and picture something at all. It's kinda mathematically that I think, but not even that... it's more abstract.

As for mind blind, it's the LACK of the ability to figure out what someone is feeling by the cues that they exhibit.
The two ideas, mind blindness and visual hyperacuity seem at first to be contradictory to one another, but I don't think it's the observation of the cues that's the problem with aspies, it's the converting them into what they mean and imply.