Question about poor information filtering and processing

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I just finished reading Donna Williams "Autism: An inside-out Approach."

She says that "what makes people autistic, in my view, is the range of complex and varying involuntary and voluntary adaptations to information overload caused by poor information filtering and processing."

According to her, what causes this poor information filtering and processing varies. It could be compulsions, obsession, acute anxiety, sensory hypersensitivities, emotional hipersensitivities, attention problems, perceptual problems, system integration problems, left-right hemisphere integration problems – or a combination of these.

My question is: Does this also apply to Asperger's? Do all Aspies have some form of poor information filtering and processing?

Is there someone here who was diagnosed and doesn't have it? If yes, do you know or suspect what makes you show the symptoms of Asperger's?

Thank you.

A good tthing to remember is; if it applies to "autism" it probably applies to aspergers aswell, I have very poor filtering, everything is to loud and bright etc, and I have aspergers.

Generally, the differences between people with high functioning autism and aspergers are so slight that they are not even worth mentioning.

My interest is not the level of functioning but what is causing it, what leads to the diagnosis. I could imagine that testing for and detecting "poor information filtering and processing" would be – if not easier – at least a more objective pursuit than looking at behavior.

If you look at some of the criteria for Asperger's like:

A.Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
(1) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(2) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(3) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(4) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

I can imagine how having poor information filtering and processing can lead to this behavior, but leaving number (1) aside, do all people having this kind of behavior do this because they have poor information filtering and processing?

Is "poor information filtering and processing" a criterium for exclusion: if you don't have it you don't have Asperger's/Autism, you have something else? And what could this something else be?

all i know is that i can't remember a time when i was not misunderstanding something or being misunderstood.

I think very much alike you, as I believe poor information filtering AND processing is a key to autism. I suggest information processing can help to develop cognitive structures in the mind that improve the ability to filter information as a result. It is a positive feedback loop, as I imagine it. Filtering information is similar to filtering senses (visual, auditory, tactile etc.)


You don't have to exclude (1), sensory/information processing issues apply here as well.

The problem with this is that there could be several impairments causing this effect, with different symptoms. So, I think, ADD, AS, Autism and other diagnostic categories may be appropriate.

On the other hand, If we could identify a common root (such as "poor information filtering and processing"), it would be a great help both in diagnosing and in understanding how to help. I don't say behavioral approach won't be important in the future, in practice it is still the best way to observe and make decisions. By combining several different approaches we would achieve a higher level of understanding, I hope.

I think (1) is the only where one can assume that poor information processing could be causing it, like people working on "mono" and not being able to work "multi-track,"

But for example "(2) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level"

Can you be 100% sure that what's causing it is poor information processing? Can it be caused by something else? If you have Autism and poor information processing, this will probably lead to a failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level. But if you have this failure while able to process information without problems, are you still Autist? And if not, what are you?




That's what I am trying to understand. Which impairments other than "poor information processing" could be causing it?

I feel like I have a very thin filter/boundary with the outside world so too much stuff is hitting me. Other people seem to have a shield that allows less stuff to come in. I thickened my shield/boundary by:

1. Chemical means-benzodiazeoines, SSRIs
2. Avoidance of over-stimulating, "noisy" environments
3. Simplification via a lot of structure/organization

I think this is a multi-layer problem for each autistic individual. I believe failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level is accompanied with poor information processing in autism. I can only talk in my name in the following.

Overwhelming senses can cause an individual (a kid) not to concentrate on peer relations, because a simple activity (playing with a toy or later with a construction toy like Lego) can exhaust him. Another cause can be natural impairment to receive meta-communication signals from peers. One sympathetic theory says that the information is so shattered and distorted from the viewpoint of the receiver that this information is neglected due to the unpleasant nature of such an experience (emotions, voice tones, face expressions, gestures, eye expressions). These are 'oversensed', nuances are mistaken or lost, as others say. Further, autistic inertia (inability to start and stop activities, hold and drop things that are on the conscious level of the mind currently) also account for being 'rude' to others, due to not understanding their different needs and way of thinking.

All the above are similar in the way that they somehow connected to not being able to filter information, let them be purely mental inabilities (inertia in the mind), or deficiency of using perception (to concentrate on and to select the relevant sensory inputs).

I suppose problems such as 'face blindness' or 'poor face memory' are somewhat consequences of the above. My test indicates, that I'm able to 'read the mind in the eyes' at an average level, and I have a slightly below average face-memory. Yet, I experience severe difficulties in practice memorizing people's faces, remember them, and also can only poorly read emotions of others by meta-communication signals.

The idea I suggested in my previous post: There is a positive feedback loop on the cognitive level of the mind, the lack of which, when the individual impaired, results in the lack of the ability to memorize faces, for instance. These 'higher cognitive abilities' (or whatever) are only developed properly when someone has no developmental disorder with information filtering in general. I went further before, and stated, that higher order cognitive abilities such as 'conceptual thinking' are also affected by this phenomenon.


I'm not sure. Our brain is so complex, studies indicate impairments may be on several different places, maybe there is no dedicated place at all. I don't believe that an individual is anti-social by its birth, there can be a myriad cause for it, including traits in the new-born. So, there can be other causes as well. I don't know. Here is an idea.

Connection between ADD/ADHD and Autism is a difficult question. They share common roots, I suppose. Maybe the information filtering inability has a pattern for each individual (and thus we may find several parameters, causes), as not everybody with this problem experiences the same on the several different areas that can be affected by it. This, in turn, may result in different behaviors, different diagnoses.

I see what you mean. Only I don't like medication, but this is fine.

Being "self-absorbed with own thoughts/fantasies, until the point that don't notice many things that occur around" (my main problem - not diagnosed) can be considered a type of "poor information filtering and processing"?

Not directly. My opinion here. Inertia of the mind, hyper-focus, detached from the world. This is seemingly an example of the opposite, as informations ARE filtered out. In this state, the key is that thoughts/fantasies (or solitary activities) are in fact the result of being fed off with the information inputs the world throws at us. Processing and filtering impairment is a weak asset that can be exhausted sometimes.

@OJani First of all, thanks a lot for sharing your insights, this is very helpful.

I am like TPE2 lots of times.Could it be that someone has perfect information filtering and processing capabilities (is "equiped with" it at birth) but voluntarily or involuntarily "turns off" the "equipment" for one reason or the other? The "low interest" in the world around the person is caused by this person "filtering out" some stimula or prioritizing the processiong of inside information (=own thoughts and feelings) over outside information (=environmental input, other people, etc.)?

I have sometimes the impression there is a competition for my attention: the world outside and my inner world and I switch between them.

To make a comparison, in the "classic" case of Autism, someone is lacking part of the "equipment" or it doesn't function as it should, and in the other case someone "has the equipment" but it's just turned off some of the time (though if needed the equipment can be turned back on very quickly)?

Thank you for reading my text, I'm not good at writing or narrative, even in my own language.

I wouldn't say that this "equipment" is something like a technical stuff that can be switched off/on or tuned to the desired directions. It is more like a real human trait, with conscious an unconscious attributes, proportions regarding inner/outer world attention. I like the idea that these attention/information filtering/processing impairments have individual patterns that characterize certain groups of people which are on the spectrum or have similar traits to ASD including the debated schizophrenia, ADD/ADHD and more.