Measurable proof of sensory overload

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Someone in another thread said that NTs sort of have a "shield" on their brains that blocks sensory overload.

I don't think of it as having as a matter of having a "shield" or not, but rather a different or longer/shorter sensory range.
For instance with light sensitivity, if you flash a flash light into the eyes of an NT, they obviously squint or close their eyes. They don't choose to do this, their eyes automatically react. Light that is less than that they don't automatically react to. With us, we react to light much before that flashlight point.

I was wondering if this could work as a test. Have a room with a controllable light level (lumens (perceived power of light)), and increase the light until the NT or AS person begins to react. I wonder if their is a way to measure involuntary signals going to eye lid muscles. If so, then theoretically the reactive activity of AS people should increase more quickly and reach the "squinty?" point than NTs.

This is a good theory and it should be provable.

Great idea for an experiment. Similar tests for hearing would be interesting as well.
Any psych. grads looking for a project?

I was taking a look at Photophobia, with out searching for AS and one cause happened to be Asperger's and Autism (fourth from the bottom).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophobia



Its a sensitivity to light, not a fear of light so don't worry.
A fear of light is heliophobia.

Hmm people could even do this for the science fair in Highschool or even below.
Only problem is, some of the HS test subjects might try to act tough and fight the light which would disrupt the results.

Comming out of high school, I agree. Many people would try to do that, more specifically guys. I know even sometimes they pretend they dont feel any pain. Someone will like hit their fingers with a pencil really hard (happened today) and they will say "no" after the person that hit them asks "did that hurt?" Whereas I, on the other hand, will say ow and let people know that I have felt pain. They interprit that as me being weak.

...so yeah. This experiment would work better with adults. I think im going to try this, actually. I know I am sensitive to light (especially when my allergies kick in), but im not sure just how much compared to other people.

I don't think - I remember very well when I was in the age of 10 or so that I was horrible upset and made scene when my mother changed the curtains in the living room. I would not say that slightly blueish instead of slightly red curtains would constitute a sensory change of any "range".

It has more to do with a mechanism in the brain to distinguish between important and unimportant sensory signals.

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What I did later was to rationalise such sensation and let run those through a process of reasoning - by which I simulate the NT's filter (in some case my results are more reliable, because I can demonstrate with the facts. as they can be established, and not by subconscious and emotional processes).

The 'shield'-thing is right though in so far as that normal sensory perception is filtered into relevant and irrelevant signs, are structured and go to the respective areas even before they reach your conciousness.

That's responsible for that many normal people do not find it overly difficult to cross a road. They can focus on the relevant stimuli (cars, measurements of space and time, speed and such) and process it quickly enough to make sense of what they see, what they're supposed to do/how they're supposed to move and so on.

Some autistic people and many others with sensory integration deficits get overloaded with irrelevant information because their neurological connections do not filter out the irrelevant stimuli efficiently. They become overloaded by masses of irrelevant (and relevant) stimuli. Autism much like other bioneuological/neurochemical disorders can 'damage' the 'filters' that are responsible to sort through information.

(I just noticed Dussel already explained this too before, just shorter.)

Possibly that there are additional causes for overloads (since even emotional reactions can cause overloads) such as your idea of course.

Psych grad here.

OP - There are tests like this. Usually they're to determine the threshold of what's detectable. I think you're thinking of a test to determine the threshold of what's annoying/aversive.

The first kind of test usually relies on self-report. The second kind might have to be based on observation (squinting, cringing, hands over ears, etc.). This would also help to avoid the problem Mist01 points out: You just don't tell the people what you're watching for.

Definitely a doable kind of experiment, though.

Having a placebo effect would be needed.

I'm not sure what you mean. What's the sensory equivalent of a placebo?

i have to say, the only real sensory problem i have is noise. especially when im sleeping, lights also.

Blue and red are ranges themselves - the wavelengths of light.

Would it not be more direct and less open to subjective interposition, to simply use an EEG to measure levels of neuro-excitement/neuro-response to the objectively same stimulus?

I've always worn dark sunglasses when outside, from the age where I was able to carry and take care of my sunglasses (about age 12). I can get used to the bright light reasonably well if I'm out in it long enough, but I normally wear sunglasses outside from dawn until dusk. Granted, Arizona is very bright, as is the desert landscape, but I frequently wear them long after other people have taken theirs off.

I'm somewhat strange in that I've never really had significant sensory overload issues. I do have somewhat decreased sensitivity to pain, though, and increased sensitivity to certain sounds. I can hear the high-pitched whine of a TV CRT very clearly, and in a few rare cases (usually cheap CCTV monitors with an unusually loud piercing whine) I've been forced to leave the store they were in. Recently, we were forced to turn off the beeper on my mother's new dryer. She couldn't hear it, but I could hear it on the other end of the house and its repetitive beeping was annoying.

i recently read of a test to measure this in a.s patients, but duh- cant remember where it was, so cant find a link. it was at an eye hospital.

i have photo sensativity, and always insisted that am light was harsher than pm and recently found out i was right; am IS whiter and brights, pm is more yellow. so my 'perception' is quite finely tuned.
i also find light tiring, in the way i find being around other people too much to be tiring; im better if im awake a lot in the night.
sadly i dont like the feel of sunglasses, so just stay indoors, really. i am over senstive to everything, anyway.