Does anyone 'see' lines between points?

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(Edited to add video)

From Stranger Than Fiction. I first watched the film last year, and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Someone was putting my experience on screen. The intro, I mean. I've never had Emma Thompson narrate my actions.

I don't know if I do it all the time and only notice sometimes, or if I only do it sometimes (which would still be quite a lot), but the way the lines and angles are portrayed here is what I do. Not even what I do, but more just that it happens, and not quite literally seeing lines, but a clear awareness of them, often following them with my eyes. Connecting up points at various angles.

The wardrobe/vanity unit at 0.45 - 0.48.

1.08 - 1.10, the bus door.

1.14 - 1.17, on the floor as he gets out of the lift.

1.38 - 1.42 As he sits for lunch. Lines between him and the building, and points on the building.

And 2.05 on, in the kitchen, the units and such.

I figure it's probably not 'normal', but was wondering if it may be an ASD thing?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwTQ57YyzI[/youtube]

I suspect this happens with my daughter. Before she was verbal, she used to trace things in the air that I could not see. I haven't noticed her doing it recently, but when she was younger she did it a lot. And her behavior was very purposeful and her gaze intent. So I truly believe she saw lines I do not.

Astronomers at the end of the 20th centurey had to spend alot of time dismantling the popular belief that Mars had canals.

To make a long story short: Around 1900 a famous Italian astronomer mapped the surface of mars with hand done drawings of what he saw on Mars through the telescope.

Aparently he fell for a common human tendency to connect dots with lines. Mars has as many zits and black heads on its skin as any adolescent (craters, volcanoes, and the like) and he uncousciouly saw many as being connected by non existant lines-which he dutifully drew and named on his maps of the planet.


He thought that they were natural features and called them "channels" which in Italian is "Canali". This got misstranslated to "canals" in English. This spawned a whole early 20th industry of bad science and entertaining science fiction about Mars being inhabited by an advanced civilization that dug globe girdling canals for irrigation.

Alas, there are no canals for the Rover to check out. They existed only Scaparelli's mind.

I love that movie. I remember the lines. That is fascinating that you see them! It sounds like some sort of synaesthetic experience maybe? Do you have other forms of synaesthesia? Well anyway, I'm feeling quite envious of you right now

I find I tend to notice patterns and geometric qualities.

It does seem to be common for people on the spectrum to look for, and see patterns, lines, and geometrical shapes in the world around them. I tend to look for patterns and geometrical shapes, but not lines, except for those in geometrical shapes. I also look for non patterned shapes in things. I also count things, but I am terrible at any kind of advanced math, so I am not gifted at math. I believe that the counting is just another form of pattern seeking, so it isn't necessary to have math skills accompany it.

Thanks for the replies. I'm a lot more caffeinated now, so hopefully that'll bring some clarity.

I only noticed I was doing it a few years ago. Or maybe I first noticed that I notice it. It goes on at the pre-conscious level - I think it's something my brain just does. I don't think it's like in the film - though I'm still trying to catch myself doing it and translating that into words - but more on the level of an awareness, that a line can be drawn from there to there. That said, that first noticing was when I 'saw' old style wooden metre rulers projecting out from the units in my kitchen, as though carrying on the actually-existing line where the units meet the floor, as I paced up and down on the phone.

It can be tracing a line that's what I would call 'implied' - say, where carpet grip would go in a doorway - or it can be from point to another - it would seem to be a corner - to make shapes. The most basic example would be to mentally mark off a square or rectangle and put a diagonal line making two right angle triangles. I can only assume my brain is happy with simplicity, as I've not noticed it going beyond making triangles.

I don't think I have synaesthesia. I had a penpal in my teens, very into art, who (when prompted, but not naming the condition - I don't know if she'd have known of it. I didn't) gave years and places and ideas and objects colours. I was fascinated by it.

I imagine it's something to do with ordering and processing the world. I'll find patterns aplenty, too - give me a brick wall or tiling and I'll 'cut out' patterns/shapes and then repeat them. And heaven knows I can get lost in patterns in a carpet or wallpaper.

There are a lot of holes in my bedroom wall from me pinning the curtain back. I connect the dots all the time.

I enjoy connecting dots between points that I see.