What is it with the eye contact thing?

Post Reply New Topic

Biologically speaking why do aspies have trouble making eye contact? Or isn't it a biological difference?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I can't find the article I want...basically it said that when someone on the ADS looks into someone's eye, the part of the brain that responses to threats or handles fears becomes active.

But since I can't find the article and I don't remember the source, that's less than helpful.



BeeBee

Well, it does confirm feelings i have when looking into peoples eyes. I want to look at peoples eyes, but when i'm looking at someone and they look at me i feel like i've been caught. I fear that they were thinking that i was looking at them for a bad reason or something, but when they look at me in the eyes i get really anxious.

look at their mouths - they can't tell the difference!

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID ... 00&ref=rdf

It's the amygdyla. It reall sucks, because the nt world takes it almost as a fact that if you avoid eye contact, you are lying or up to no good.

I've never had any problems with eye contact. I wonder why?

ed, ditto. I look at the mouth/nose area. And unless I am more than a foot away from their face (and sometimes not even then) the other person cannot tell.

However, when I am very anxious, sometimes even looking at the face is impossible. Sigh.

I tend to look at someone hair or face instead of their eyes. It is a symptom of AS.

I have the same thing, though find that, if not too anxious, it can sometimes be helpful to look at their eyebrows or forehead. They don't seem to notice the difference, as you were saying!

I am disturbed by only one thing, a picture in a scary stories book, on page 30. I can stand looking at every part of the picture, and i can visualize it in my memory, all except for the eyes. Or lack thereof. Do you suppose the reason i find it so disturbing has to do with aspergers?

It might. I remember one similar picture in a book I had as a kid, of this cat-villain-creature coming up the stairs. It terrified me for some odd reason - I'd turn each page a little bit at a time to see if it was on the next page, and if it was, I couldn't look at that page for more than an instant without feeling sick. But now that I think about it, it was the stare that freaked me out.

That study proved that the amygdala reaction happens from pictures as well as real life. So there might be a connection.

Well that's good, I always look at peoples mouths, it's nice to know that they don't notice it and so arn't bothered by it.

I am really really bad at eye contact. For a start it makes me anxious (other posts above have explained why in neurological terms this is the case, thanks!) but I also have quite bad auditory processing delay - I can lip read a bit, and the visual information from lip reading greatly increases my chances of quickly working out what has been said!

If I'm meeting new people or in any other way anxious, the lip reading is likely to be forgotten as at best I can manage to look over their shoulder, at worst will actually turn my head away from them so looking in another direction during conversation. And when I'm not lip-reading my auditory processing problems appear more pronounced so I end up asking people to repeat themselves. Over and over.

I know this is probably bad, but I don't ever really make any eye contact when I talk. When I do, I can't ever remember what I'm trying to say. My family and close friends all know this, so they've become accostumed to it. However, other people don't see why. Is there any way I can explain it to them without giving them the impression that I'm wierd or something?

When I hold eye contact with someone, I get a massive adrenaline surge. It gives me tunnel vision (my peripheral vision will actually go black if I hold it for long enough), my inhibitions are lowered, I become more agressive, I get dizzy and disorientated, my mental processes accelerate and become more fluid and I become more willing to argue. I also start sweating lots. It only works if I'm feeling fairly good to start with though; if I'm not at my best, it's just uncomfortable and I'll look away.

It's an effect that I deliberately make use of to render myself more capable in discussions and such. In tutorials at uni, when we'd discuss a topic as a group with the tutor, I used to lock eye contact with them and then proceed to dominate the discussion with my accelerated though processes, improved recall and suppressed inhibitions, assuming I'd had enough sleep to pull it off. Without enough sleep, I'd just kind of sit there, being dull and sluggish.