'Motor memory'/not relying on vision - anyone?

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When copying a drawing for someone and taking measure, I usually rather than memorise my reference sheet trace a shape lightly and quickly with am drawing hand and the pen in it.

Then I can produce an accurate copy of the original shape. I can do that blindly. My hands works excellent without my eyes supervising them.

I generally have a better memorisation, if I can trace things and patterns. I learnt to trace with my eyes somewhat - people go real mad if you try to touch things all the time. And I was incredibly averse to touching some things such as dirt or other people or things that other people touch too when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, before age 6, I also used to run around with my eyes closed or staring into space, because I was a lot more comfortable like that. I didn't bump into things. I actually told people they wouldn't need their eyes other than for drawing and looking at pretty things hehe.

I also don't automatically look if my hands touch or do something. I try to remember to, for the sake of pretence.

I don't even automatically look if there's a sound or something. All other heads turn, but not mine. It must look very funny.

I'm wondering if anybody else knows similar and also relies on other ways to do what other people can hardly do without their eyes. If I tell my friend to pour a glass of soda without looking, thread a needle or try to feel for an object, they: create a mess/hurt themselves/need ages to find it. I do all that easily without watching my hands.

Anyone like that or similar?

I can do that also. One time, a girl was amazed that I could write my signature without looking at the page. She asked me to look at her, so I did, but my hand kept writing. I remember that I was SHOCKED at her being SO surprised.

Even TYPING! I am HUNT AND PECK, but I end up doing SO much without looking. Even when I AM "looking", I don't seem to really look at the needed keys!

SOMETIMES I have tried to do things like walk with my eyes closed, etc, though that DOES feel funny. I sometimes HAVE to if I am going to bed in the dark, and forgot to turn the other light on.

I do things like this because I don't have the luxury of eyesight. I can sense people, or walls, or other large objects around me and steer around them without touching or seeing them.

I take a guess and say I write fine without looking because I have a good, non-hand-eyesight related knowledge of body position and room position. Or, differently said: my brain aces calculating my body movement and body/room position from memory and without visual reference.

Edit: I need to walk a room to know it, move in it correctly, not just see it. I need to touch things to memorise, not just see how a shape goes. So the above kind of makes sense.



For me it feels funny looking at what I'm doing. I suddenly stop in the middle of what I do when I look.

Or I trip. I get laughed at so often because I dance, I like martial arts and when I do something and when I then look, I suddenly trip and fall to the floor. People think I do it on purpose, because they say it looks too funny, but I'm not doing that on purpose it all.

I just realised that adds up with the topic I posted some time ago. That my processing and making sense of vision is somehow disturbed.

So... my brain doesn't calculate my body position with visual references? Probably because body position is immediately accessible as an information while visual data need a long time to get understood. In my brain. So if my brain would try to calculate anything by using only bits of visual information it would fail and make me act all wrong.

Does that make sense? (I'm scientifically in love with my brain, I think haha.)

I know that vision is designed as an aid to keep balance and mine tells my body to readjust myself so that I fall even when I stand on both my feet.



That is very interesting what you say about sensing people and all kinds of large objects. The ex-boyfriend of a friend said something similar once and I wondered how that worked.

But you say it. If there's eyesight, people just usually seem to use it a lot and it works smoothly for them usually.

My eyes work all right with contacts, so I know that it's not my eyes but can only be my brain that does something wrong.

If I look at what I do while using a copying technique like retracing shapes, I can't do it. Or pouring soda. I tell myself to stop when the glass is full, but the moment doesn't register until it spills over my hands. I always have to have my finger in the glass. That one registers at a normal speed.

If I look at what I do while using a copying technique like retracing shapes, I can't do it. Or pouring soda. I tell myself to stop when the glass is full, but the moment doesn't register until it spills over my hands. I always have to have my finger in the glass. That one registers at a normal speed.
That is actually a common adaptation used by blind people, though when I get my sight I'll probably still do it because I'm so clumsy. I'm very interested in how different brains work as well. Your explanation of the way you see things might just give the expression "mind blind" a new meaning.

I used to think that I did most tasks by "muscle memory" but I now realize that I am "seeing" what I am doing in my head and my body is just following this internal vision instead of the external vision. Sometimes, I think "looking" at something can actually be harder...to much senseory information ? Also, my eyes seem to hurt a lot, so it feels good to "rest them" whenever I can and just rely on touch to do tasks. I seem to have very sensitive fingertips that "see" the objects. I could never write or draw without looking though....even when I look, everything always comes out slanted up unless I have a line on paper to follow.

me too when i was little i used to run around in circles with my eyes closed at the sky & pretend that i'm blind just to see if i could remember my surroundings i like to do that for some weird reason

Sounds like stuff going on in "premotor cortex", planing stages of actions moment before executing the sequence. Also, sizes of "sensory maps" in brain, such as when one adjusts/modifies/develops tactile sensitivity for using braille.
From your post & those of others, I've book (just finsihed reading it) to recommend: "The Body has a Mind of its Own" by Sandra & Matthew Blakeslee.
Am not skilled at briefly summing up important points, so pardon my comment sounding unclear. If anyone does have interest in learning more about this, book's got alot on it.

Thanks Belfast, sounds interesting...I will check it out. Do they deal with sensory integration disorder, dyslexia or dysgraphia. I have been interested in how thee things maybe effecting my over all cognition. Because none of these things were known when I was going to school, I think I learned how to make some "internal accomodations" to counter the effects. I would really like to learn how I process information so that I can make better choices about future jobs. I'm not very optimistic that I will find anyone in vocational rehab who has a clue about this stuff, so I think(as usual), I'm going to have to figure this out on my own.

I often close my eyes for things, but walking around with your eyes closed tends to get peoples attention, but I do do it when I am wearing sunglasses as no one knows. I do have sensitive fingertips but I though that was mostly as I have long gingernails that I use for the more diffucult points, except when people get me to carry realy heavy things like BBQs as guys are ment to carry heavyt things. I often train my self in the art of awareness with all my senses, I used to just totaly spaz my face to look at anything that made noises and stuff like cars but I do not need to now. In my old high school I would everyday go from the speceal ed block to my rollcall and it became that my body remembered exactly how to move, and move into places that no one else walked. Though if I don't even have lines on my page my writing becomes slanted, I need to look but I have tried as it can help with note takeing during lectures.

Lacks the ASD or related sensory stuff (hypo- or hyper- sensitivities & reactions) I'm used to reading about. Those books still tend to be aimed at parents of kids-"The Out of Sync Child" and such. Adults with sensory problems are an under-served market demographic, awaiting books for us (I'm not qualified to write it myself, so am stuck hoping).

Book does go into detail about: dystonias in athletes & musicians, phantom limbs, how tool use (cane, pen, rake, etc.) is reflected in brain's representations, and external "bodily space". Delves into a bunch of areas, hard to give unified & comprehensive overview.

I work in a darkroom. I have the place memorized.
I can turn the radio on without fumbling for the switch,
for instance.

I'm used to playing my guitar in the dark because for
years I used to play myself to sleep with the lights off
or with my eyes closed. This makes it easy for me to
play my guitar at work in the dark (My boss never
sees the guitars because it's too dark in there.).

Sometimes, while cycling to work, I would close my eyes
while ascending a certain stretch of the pass up the hill.
It was pretty straight and broad, and there was little traffic
so early in the morning. I would occasionally cheat as I
approached the turn. If you pedal hard the bike has a
natural tendency to go straight.