High Performance IQ with no visualization ability.

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I found block design to be the most difficult portion of the Stanford Binet IQ test.

My IQ is >3 standard deviations above mean, and I have no visualization ability. As I noted in another post a little bit ago, I just realized this a few weeks ago at the age of 30.

Have you looked at dfan's site? Google can't visualize, his site should be the first result.

That guy explains my condition very well.

It's like my mind deals solely in concepts.

If you say, "Picture a baby sitting on a alligator" --I could never in a million years conjure up a mental image of that, but I have an intellectual understanding of what a baby is and what an alligator is, and I can associate the "concept" of a baby with the "concept" of an alligator.

This type of "conceptual" thinking manifests itself in the way I use language.

For example, consider the concept of "dumbing down" or simplifying communication in order to reach a given audience. When I try to "dumb down" something, I usually end up doing the reverse--I become obsessed with finding the best words possible to explain the concept, and usually the best words I can find to explain a concept are more complicated and involved than... Uh...

See? There it is again. The concept makes sense in my head, it's just hard to find the right words for it.

I feel like I have to preface everything I say (apart from very simple small talk) with, "These are the best words I can think of to describe the concept I'm trying to describe. They are not perfect, they are merely the best ones I can come up with right now."

Another example of my "thinking in concepts" came up the other night when I was playing checkers with my wife. We came to a stalemate that I recognized instantly just by glancing at the position of the "chips" on the board. I said, "Okay, start over." My wife was confused. "We're at a stalemate," I said, "neither of us can win this game." Although my wife is intelligent, it took her a minute or two of examining the board before she understood why this was so.

Now, if you asked me to explain WHY we were at a stalemate, I wouldn't be able to. I could TRY to explain, but it would probably take me thousands of words, and even then I probably couldn't accurately describe the concept.

I can visualize with photographic clarity.

Plus I could take the tune "Pop goes the weasel" and hear it played on pipe organ and bagpipes just as clearly as if it was real.

When I read a novel I see the scenes and hear the characters voices like I was watching a movie.

That must be so cool.

ok. What I find fascinating about this topic is the extraordinary variation among AS/autists. I have an exceptional and very unusual ability to visualize and manipulate mentally patterns and shapes. However, I don't believe that I generally think in pictures - I seem to think mostly in concepts. Obviously(?), when formulating something to say or write I am thinking verbally, but I generally do not think in words.

By the way, the patterns and shapes mentioned above must either be ones I have seen or be mathematical/geometrical (which I can form in my head). I have very limited ability to create novel pictures in my head, as some artists here do with apparent ease. On the other hand, I can remember paintings that I saw 30 years ago sufficiently to have no desire to return and see them again. Same with movies - I have no desire to watch the same movie twice because I remember too much of it.

I also have an ability to think intuitively at times. By this I mean that when solving problems that require a process of logic or deduction, sometimes I just immediately know the answer without mentally going through the process of logic or deduction. This has astonished people at times. In fact, it surprises me sometimes! Does anyone else experience this?

In case it is of interest to anyone, I should have mentioned above that I am autistic but do not present like a typical AS. I might also add, in case someone is interested, that I have almost no musical ability. I do appreciate most classical music, in particular Bach and other baroque music, and some vocals. Salsa and african music drive me nuts, and hard rock is even worse (may be a sensory issue).

Hi folks,

Here are a couple links, and please go googling for more information.

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_ ... g_disorder
> http://ohioline.osu.edu/flm03/FS11.pdf

NLD description corresponds more or less to my situation:

I wrote 'more or less' because:
- I don't have a well-developed memory of any kind, working memory, long-term memory, whatever.
- I'm considered 'clumsy' by people around me (trouble with gymnastics, dancing, manual work, etc) BUT I was 'good' at various sports, from soccer to tennis and not a bad runner or... fighter.

Besides these 'discrepancies' between the general description of NLD and my own 'problems', here is what seems to fit the description:
- Huge gap between visual/spatial and verbal intelligences.
- Absence of mental imagery.
- Can't relate to most math, especially geometry but most algebra as well, beyond elementary math, elementary statistics. A shock to teachers, used to be very good at simple math and stats, but can't relate to any more 'advanced' mathematics.
- Very bad at producing literary work, no imagination, same for drawing and the arts included music.
- Said to have no sense of humor, as understood by most of the population.
- Trouble developing, maintaining social relationships. Had 'friends', 'girlfriends', people enter and leave my life all the time, sometimes called an hermit, loner... by others. Said to be living in his own world, and likes to be left alone, always in the corner in a group, relatives, friends, strangers, any social group.

Now how do I relate to Asperger's?
- As a child, obsessive Asperger-like interests, one I remember was memorizing the population of every town in the region. Hoped to know by heart the name of every city and the population figures of every place of the planet, but hey, very bad memory, not photographic at all, so ambition never fulfilled.
- Would not say hello to people at family meetings or to visitors at my parent's home. Secretive, reclusive as a child, still is.
- Repetitive routines, likes to eat the same food or wear the same clothes, reluctant to change.
- Said to be both insensitive and sensitive, hard to empathize (some people thought I might be a sociopath), but also very sensitive and prone to emotional outbursts. So too insensitive, too sensitive.
- Social anxiety.
- Poor speech, prefer to know what to say before entering into a dialogue with another person, otherwise, lot's of confusion.
- Talk too much or barely talk.
- Love talking about my interests to anybody, long inappropriate Asperger-like monologues. Tend to disregard what discussion partner says.
- Can be very focused. Work in IT.
- Avoid eye contact.

...etc.

Now I know this doesn't make me autistic per se, not in the clinical sense, but I can relate quite a bit to people suffering from mild forms of autism.

OK I hope you guys with issues pertaining to mental imagery have found the NLD part of my post interesting.

Regards,
AlienVisitor

PS: I'm not a native English speaker, I'm stating the obvious but I just wanted to make it clear.

Note: I just saw the NLD sticky thread, sorry

Well, I saw the Neurologist yesterday. He’s never had a patient that reported having no mental image capability to him. I find it kind of interesting that a highly recommended Neurologist that’s been in practice for 9 years has never heard this from a patient. I guess it’s not too common.

I’ll be doing a 24 hour EEG in a few weeks. They will also do an MRI of my brain. I’m really interested to see if and what differences may show on my MRI.

He will be looking for tumors, tissue damage, evidence of a past stroke, ect. My cousin died about 6 months ago from brain cancer. If a tumor is found to be the cause of me being incapable of mental images, I don’t think I will freak out. It would had to of been there since before age 3. If it hadn’t killed me yet, it would have to be malignant.

I suspect there will be some damage or abnormality in the high hemisphere. I don’t know a ton, but maybe it will be the right temporal lobe. It seems that this area of the brain plays a role in mental imagery. Stimulation of the temporal lobes can cause people to have hallucinations. Stimulating the left temporal lobe can cause auditory hallucinations. Stimulation of the right temporal lobe can cause visual hallucinations.

As far as NLD goes… I don’t fit the VIQ>PIQ difference that is common. It seems that NLD is mainly diagnosed based on examining cognitive strengths/weaknesses and behavioral symptoms. I want the neurologist to examine my brain for physical differences. I’ll discuss NLD with my other doctor.