Does anyone else have very good peripheral vision?

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I don't know why I started thinking about this today. I have very good peripheral vision. I can sit next to someone while watching a movie and I can clearly see what the person next to me is doing (almost to a point where it's quite distracting) while still watching the TV. I went online to look up stuff about vision and I read that people with autism may use their peripheral vision more because more of the visual cortex is wired to process peripheral vision.

I definitely use my peripheral vision a lot. I can keep track of several moving objects in detail while still having my eyes looking straight at a computer screen for instance. I race RC cars and peripheral vision is very important. I keep my car in my central vision and I need to see the track far off to the side of my vision to see where the next turn is.


"For most people, a much larger area of the cortex is dedicated to the center of the visual field, as opposed to the periphery. "If you put your thumb up, out in front of you at an arm's length, it takes up about 1 degree of visual space, and your brain has about 4 square centimeters of cortex devoted to it. If you move your thumb six or eight inches to right, now only 1.5 square millimeters of cortex is devoted," Foxe explained.

In the study, "what we found was that indeed, at peripheral locations, children with autism spectrum disorders showed larger responses in the cortex," he said.

The "map" of the cortex, in which the space allotted to each visual field is set, develops early in life. The new finding suggests that "children with autism have a basic difference in how their visual cortex is mapped," Foxe said. "More neurons were being devoted to process information in the periphery." http://www.livescience.com/37167-autism ... brain.html

Thought this was interesting and was curious if others here also have very good peripheral vision.

I don't have an ASD, but I do have decent peripheral. I've been able to catch and throw a ball while reading a book, and I've been staring at a bright computer screen in a bright room and still noticed when my next door neighbor turned a small (one small bulb) exterior light on.

I'm not sure if I have an ASD or not but for a long time I've considered myself to have a 'heightened awareness' of my surroundings as compared to people around me. For example, when at school if I was working at my desk and the teacher started walking toward me, I'd notice basically straight away, but the people next to me would continue with whatever they were doing (if it was the wrong thing they'd get caught) and seem to not notice.

I don't know if that's relevant but that's all I can really say right now.

Here is the abstract:

I read countless times on WP that it was NTs that had peripheral vision. I do have peripheral vision, but it's not as good as some people's.

It seems most NTs can spot people they know without even looking their way, where as I walk straight past people if I'm not looking. Often I get asked why I didn't see someone, and I have to explain that if I'm not looking your way I won't see you, no matter how much you wave. But it seems other people can just see somebody they know in their periphery. And no, I don't have Faceblindness.

I have poor to non existent peripheral vision and basically no depth perception.

I am very sensitive to movement in my peripheral vision. My dad has commented on it. With my nearsightedness and wearing of eyeglasses instead of contacts, though, my peripheral vision is blurry.

During some detailed eye tests a few years ago, an optician commented that my peripheral vision was well above normal. I had to look into a machine and say how many dots I could see - they were randomly scattered across my entire field of view. He showed a succession of such split-second images for me to count the dots in.

This extra wide peripheral vision is the reason I prefer to have old fashioned spectacles with large lenses. I tried looking through some of those modern/fashionable narrow lenses and it was like looking through a slit - most of my vision was wasted seeing the frames themselves and around the outside of the frames.

I used to never directly look at things but only did so through my periphery. I don't know if it was for any actual reason, but yes. I still have very good peripheral vision.

I've never really thought about it. I do have very good eyesight though.