Blindness and sensory acuity

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This is only semi-related to autism, but the tendency for autistics to have extremely strong senses got me thinking about various theories about blind people's senses of hearing, smell, etc.

It's often said that when people lack a sense of vision, the other senses become stronger to compensate. It's also said that that is a myth, and their senses don't actually get any stronger. But I suspect that it's really a little of both: the physical ability to perceive things stays the same, but the mental aspect of the sense-- the ability to notice it-- gets more developed.

I've ridden the bus with blind people who could tell the difference in sound between a regular bus and a long two-section bus. I suspect that most people could perceive that those two sounds are different, if you played them one after the other and asked people if they heard a difference. But most people don't notice the difference, because they never need to, and so they find it amazing when someone does.

I wonder if the sensory acuity common in autistics might be partly due to similar mental processes, and not just acuteness of the physical senses. My Aspie husband John can taste subtle differences in food, and recognize foods down to each individual ingredient, sometimes even the brand. He seems to have this ability because of his very detailed memory: he remembers exactly what a particular combination of flavors tasted like the last time he ate it, and so he can continue to recognize it, and distinguish it from similar tastes, even much later.

I'm not the typical Aspie (if there is such a thing) when it comes to sensory memory. My memory for non-visual senses isn't as great as John's; after I eat something, I forget most of the experience beyond whether I liked or disliked it. This can be a good thing: I don't get picky about food quality, because I don't remember enough about tastes to notice a huge contrast between the expensive chocolate and the cheap chocolate, for example, unless I eat one right after the other. Maybe a big part of being a gourmet, or a connoisseur of music, or any sensory savant, is having a really good memory.

As one who "thinks in pictures", I now have trouble because my failing vision does not keep me well-supplied with clear pictures to carefully ponder ... and none of my other senses seem to have any ability to make up for that.

There is almost surely a connection. Research into Savant gifts, which are present in at least 10% of the Aspie population shows that when Asperger's is mixed with blindness some truely talented individuals result. It seems they get the double whammy, because, as you say, both conditions seem the enhance the other senses. Check out the research being done by the Wisconsin Medical society and the University of Wisconsin.

Hi. I'm completely blind since birth and have asperger traits, no formal diagnosis tho. My memory seams to be more detail oriented than that of other people around. It's easy to memorize a phone number, tell on what day of the week what event of my life took place, to learn a menu system of a new synthesizer, ... I am not so good tho at so called "bigger pictures", general concepts, gists and all kinds of "non written rules". My senses seam to be somewhat more alert/acute, as people often don't understand my reactions to barking doggs, alarms and other louder noises, but knowing many other blind folks I can assure you, that it's not strictly blindness related. Also autistic traits are not. Another untrue myth is, that all blind people are good musicians, no, they don't have to be. Born prematurely, I am actually quite happy not to have any obvious intellectual damage being definitely not a typical guy at the same time. Love for electronic music and synthesizer sounds has drawn me to them since early childhood, so there's my strongest special interest and an obvious reason for making music to share that great passion with others. The older I get, the more I actually wish to have better social skills, so that I could more easily get along with other people and find new contacts. No, I'm not a complete loner, but definitely an introvert. Taking it all in to context, it seams actually quite logical to be on the spectrum, tho getting a proper diagnosis would be probably difficult in here for a persone like me, as most of the tests are not accomodated to blindness and it also takes a really well confident specialist to deal with such a case. Sorry, if my style is somewhat ranty, as expressing myself in writing doesn't come that easy and natural to me. That's where I differ from most of the aspies, I like to talk, but there's still hope to find soulmates here.

A bit of both really.
Yes, my senses are more trained, and i am more used to use them, but they are also physically more sensitive than average; at least my vision and hearing is.

I can see details in those "do you need glasses" charts that even the doctor cant see when he stands closer, and i can actually see color with only moonlight, for example; my hearing thresholds are also bigger (i can hear higher and lower tones as well as softer sounds).

Aside from this, the accuracy has been trained so that i can indeed hear the difference between types of busses and whether a lamp will need replacing soon, as well as whether a power socket is charged or not.