Visual Perception

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Hi,

The majority of people here seem to be more sound sensitive than visually sensitive. I am wondering if anyone finds the following article interesting.

It talks a bit about autistic children and it makes sense for me. There are a lot of photos of me as a child where I am not looking at the camera but staring into space. I just didnt like to focus on things, and now as a adult I find it hard to focus on things in front of me, it is actually quite painful. And I have tried the Irlen lense thing, it hasnt worked for me. It doesnt seem to be about the light levels. It seems that I dont like looking at proximal things.

Here is the article.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/autism_world/97315

It talks about autistic children using peripheral vision a lot but this confuses me because I thought people with autism were more likely to have tunnel vision-like perception, not strong peripheral vision. For some reason my peripheral vision is ok but if I am relaxed I am completely unfocused, not looking at anything across a widish area. If I want to focus my eyes it only feels comfortable if I look at something in the distance.

Other articles I found on gender differences with vision say that women have better peripheral vision and can focus well on what is in front of them, whereas men have better long distance vision and depth perception.

I am very confused myself. Perhaps I am transgender, my visual perception seems to be between the male and female model!

How do you fit into all this?

Looking at anything without glasses hurts my eyes.
I can relate to a few things in the article, like making eye contact makes me feel uncomfortable and 'distance touching' - I think I have that.
Interesting that they say autistic's can hear better when they don't make eye contact. I should try that, because looking at a face is so distracting. When I look at a face it takes me awhile to process the information.

I read the article and found it to be interesting. Aspies having good peripheral vision does make sense to me because of the difficulties with eye contact. I have good peripheral vision! I can detect motion very well to! My eye contact has improved over the years ,but can still be difficult because of the discomfort level. It also depends on who I am talking with and what it is about. Generally men have better night vision and woman have better color perception. This is what I have read from many sources and from what I have leared from personal expirence.

As far as sound sensitivity goes, I have this too with certain sounds and intenesities of thoses sounds. I'm am about somewhere near equal in my sound and sight sensitivities.

There are also strong smell issues/touch/pain issues to consider as well. Both over and under sensitive depending on the situation and the idividual.

Being in a state of sensory over load is not only painful ,but quite distressing!! !! !

I don't know if my peripheral vision is better than average. But my vision in general is quite sensitive. Bright lights irritate me, looking at things for too long overloads me. That's why it's hard for me to go to art galleries. This is unfortunate, because I love art. I usually just look at the ground all the time, because it is usually a uniform colour, and not bright or reflective.

My eyes bother me more than my ears (except when I'm trying to sleep).

Whether it's too much to focus on, too much movement, clutter, "noise", and etcetera, it all adds to my overwhelmed quotient.

I look at people side-on if I do, and many of the photos of me as a child show the same. I have always positioned myself side-on to people too.

am have quite strong visual perception difficulties and differences,though physically vision is perfect.
and from what have come to know as part of own autism, am do not automatically visually process overall surroundings-but will process cats and horses instantly.
visually,am see things in lines and colours that take a while to come together,shapes make less sense the more overload there is,scrambling can cause vision to temperarily disappear completely.

I have say your a little critical of yourself, it's like you are looking for things that are wrong or different about you.

So what, you didn't look into the camera? Some people probably look into the camera and some people don't.

You have to be careful about looking back on your behavior, seeing something wrong with it, and then generalizing that it has something to do with your disorder.

I know, I used to do it all the time.

Bright lights also bother me a lot. I have to wear sunglasses outside. A cap also helps sheild my eyes from bright sunlight/Flourescent lights from above. It's the bluer wave lenghts of light that bother me the most with red bothering me the least. Bright sunlight can cause me to get blind spots that last up to 15 tp 20 minutes and this is with being careful where I look and don't look!! !! ! My eyes can adapt to brighter light to a point ,but this is very slow! Dark adaptation happens faster than normal for me. I don't like it outside when it's windy outside and especialy when it is changing directions because of my motion hyper-sensitivity. there are too many distractions with everything in motion being blown in every direction. I like it best when its either still or a one direction light breeze!

You may be hyperopic, "far sighted."

Were this the case, the natural optics of the eye causes the image to re-focus aft of the retina. The lens therefore has to "ball up" into a thicker lens, which can feel uncomfortable, to make the image focus upon the retina, when focusing upon closer- but not farther - targets.

This is easy to diagnose at an optician's shop. Easy also to correct with appropriate "plus" lenses.

A free way to check this would be to find reading glasses at any drug store, say +0.50 diopter, to perhaps +0.75 max - and see if it isn't easier to focus closer, and far simultaneously. If it is, see the optician.

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In terms of looking at people while they're talking, for me it's a mixed bag.

Sometimes I look at people because watching their mouth helps me understand what they're saying.

Sometimes I look away because watching their face is distracting.

Sometimes I look away because their face just seems irrelevant, and I can use my eyes to do something else (like keep track of a simple task my hands are doing) while my ears are listening.

And sometimes I look at people because I know I'm supposed to, even though I really don't want to.

To the person who says I am too critical of myself: I am talking about in my childhood when I remember I used to stare into space a lot. I think that has to do with my overall visual perception which I think is unusual and even back then it was.

Thanks for all your replies, it is interesting to read them all. I never liked to look at peoples faces while talking to them and it has got harder and harder over the years. My visual problems seem to have gotten worse.

Farsightedness: I have a very small glasses prescription for farsightedness. I am definitely better at viewing things from a distance. It is not that my near vision is bad but it is like my eyes just dont like processing stuff close to me.

I'm not sure if my peripheral vision is any better than any other person, because I have nothing to compare it to, but I definitely have heightened awareness to movements, however small, in my peripheral vision. It drives me crazy when something is moving in the corner of my eye because my attention automatically springs to it.

I think part of the reason I find eye contact so hard is because there's so much visual stimuli that my brain freaks out and 'shuts down'. I have to look away because it's so painful and overwhelming and I need to 'reboot' my brain.

My eyes tend to go out of focus quite a lot, it feels like a defence mechanism against all of the clutter and information.

Read the thread "Does eye contact make you nervous?" on this Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) forum. http://bddcentral.com/forums/index.php?topic=7137.0


Eye contact issues are very common in BDD. People in the thread describe how terribly difficult it is to make eye contact and how they feel judged by other people due to eye contact - they worry due to severe self-conciousness, that their eye contact (how the look, what they look at etc.) is perceived to be odd / different, they a fear of negative judgement / rejection due to odd eye contact, it becomes a terrible anxiety and the tiniest thing causes stress e.g. one person worries how other people's Irises size relates to whether they are perceived to be "aesthetically displeasing". Maybe your eye contact concerns are BDD?

Anyway, BDD or not, here is some good advice:

Great article, I relate to it very much!

The reason I don't do eye contact has got more to do with having clear thought when explaining things or not being able to concentrate when looking at someone, not to do with feeling self conscious or not wanting to be judged by how I make eye contact. I don't even think of that. It's just something I have never naturally done.

I look at peoples mouths, not their eyes, I seem to able to hear what they are saying better that way. People with AS commonly look at people's mouths, the part the moves most. Studies into eye contact in AS, indicate we are attracted to motion.

Yes, if a person is very worried about eye contact & looking at faces in particular - due to a worry of negative judgement / rejection by others - then its more likely an OCD / Anxiety Disorder i.e. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), perhaps a co-morbid anxiety that developed out of AS.

Like in AS - More Men than Woman have BDD.

BDD is an Anxiety Disorder - where a person fears that a perceived defect in his or her physical features, that is in reality minor or even non-existent, makes them socially unacceptable. The perceived defect usually involves a part of the face e.g. eyes, nose, lips, chin, spots etc., parts of the body that other people see in social situations and can make negative judgements about, leading to an aversion of social situations.

Link: "People with BDD may seek reassurance from others or try to convince others of their defect."

Last edited by Diamonddavej on 29 Mar 2010, 5:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.