What is autism?

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While its true that humans only use about 10% of their brain that doesnt mean the other 90% is going to waste.

The 10% we use is what we are supposed to be using by design. Using significantly more or less would be considered a disorder.

The other 90% is basically "spare parts" to allow for neuroplasticity and rerouting around damaged neurons (since they dont regenerate) as well as for neurotransmitter production.

In a normal 16 hour day a person uses up more neurotransmitters than were produced during their 8 hours of sleep.

If a majority of the brain wasnt constantly producing them even while we were awake we would end up passing out every few hours.

If a person used 100% of their brain to think they would die within minutes when the cells all ran out of transmitters and stopped functioning.

Here is the complete rundown of my score:

Definitely agree=1
Slightly agree=2
Slightly disagree=3
Definitely disagree=4

1 I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own. 4
2 I prefer to do things the same way over and over again.1
3 If I try to imagine something, I find it very easy to create a picture in my mind. 3
4 I frequently get so strongly absorbed in one thing that I lose sight of other things. 1
5 I often notice small sounds when others do not.1
6 I usually notice car number plates or similar strings of information.2
7 Other people frequently tell me that what I've said is impolite, even though I think it is polite.1
8 When I'm reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like. 4
9 I am fascinated by dates.1
10 In a social group, I can easily keep track of several different people's conversations. 4
11 I find social situations easy. 4
12 I tend to notice details that others do not. 1
13 I would rather go to a library than to a party. 1
14 I find making up stories easy. 4
15 I find myself drawn more strongly to people than to things. 4
16 I tend to have very strong interests, which I get upset about if I can't pursue. 1
17 I enjoy social chitchat. 4
18 When I talk, it isn't always easy for others to get a word in edgewise 4.
19 I am fascinated by numbers. 1
20 When I'm reading a story, I find it difficult to work out the characters' intentions. 1
21 I don't particularly enjoy reading fiction. 1
22 I find it hard to make new friends.1
23 I notice patterns in things all the time.1
24 I would rather go to the theater than to a museum. 4
25 It does not upset me if my daily routine is disturbed. 4
26 I frequently find that I don't know how to keep a conversation going.1
27 I find it easy to 'read between the lines' when someone is talking to me.1
28 I usually concentrate more on the whole picture, rather than on the small details.4
29 I am not very good at remembering phone numbers. 1
30 I don't usually notice small changes in a situation or a person's appearance. 1
31 I know how to tell if someone listening to me is getting bored. 4
32 I find it easy to do more than one thing at once.4
33 When I talk on the phone, I'm not sure when it's my turn to speak.1
34 I enjoy doing things spontaneously. 4
35 I am often the last to understand the point of a joke. 1
36 I find it easy to work out what someone is thinking or feeling just by looking at their face. 4
37 If there is an interruption, I can switch back to what I was doing very quickly.4
38 I am good at social chitchat. 4
39 People often tell me that I keep going on and on about the same thing. 1
40 When I was young, I used to enjoy playing games involving pretending with other children.4
41 I like to collect information about categories of things (e.g., types of cars, birds, trains, plants). 1
42 I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be someone else. 1
43 I like to carefully plan any activities I participate in. 4
44 I enjoy social occasions. 4
45 I find it difficult to work out people's intentions. 1
46 New situations make me anxious.1
47 I enjoy meeting new people. 4
48 I am a good diplomat. 4
49 I am not very good at remembering people's date of birth. 4
50 I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending.4

My score was 46

Last edited by paulsinnerchild on 12 Dec 2006, 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Fraya,

You're definately right in part, but it amazes me how someone can remember SO much in such a relatively small area etc.... And you really DO know far more than you might think. I'm no longer on the roll(For three days I tried to remember every little aspect of my life. It seemed like I even started getting to the very fine details), but I DID remember an AWFUL lot. I actually created an outlines of places and things in various areas. Every now and then some minor statement may pop up. Even if it is just the straw hat a friend of mine used to wear, or the fact that someone took that stupid picture when I was a little kid musing about what would happen to us when we got stuck in the middle of nowhere in death valley on our way to scotties castle!

I can't explain all the ablation studies, although pathalogical causes happen slowly, and the brain can compensate and ethics and the law force doctors to control the effects of surgical ablation. Still, a simple IQ test can't test for basic long tem memory loss. Things the IQ tests test are likely copied in various parts of the brain and are the least likely to be affected.

Steve

I thought the questions were pretty vague... especially about mental pictures. But I got a 46.

Well in theory an IQ test only determines the raw processing capacity and logical capabilities of a human brain so a person would score the same whether they grew up locked in a closet or were educated by the best teachers on earth.

In practice though its a different story.

Yeah, even if you COULD check raw processing power, the theoretical atrophy that would occur, if true, in the case you present would turn the guy locked in the closet to a blithering idiot. Of course, the lack of food would have the same result. 8-(

Steve

In a related tangent fitting into the category of "something you may have always wanted to know but were afraid to ask" also known as the "random interesting trivia" category scientists have estimated that the average human brain has a memory storage capacity for images, audio, video, general knowledge (text files), etc in the range of about 3 terrabytes (if you were to store the same amount of information in a computer).

Also of interest is that its estimated that the human brain can process information at about the same rate as a 1 terraflop supercomputer (the fastest supercomputers on earth have barely reached half that as of today).

Yes some of them were pretty vague like I may just enjoy social occasions for the food drinks and music and not the socializing.
Also the forming of mental pictures in my mind. I may have big issues with that when I am reading fiction. There I find it really difficult to form a picture in my mind but I do not have that problem with visual imagination such as creating an image in my mind of a photo plan to photograph.

I had a problem with those two also. I would LOVE to socialize. I just can't. Frankly, the lack of courtesy(I was actually TAUGHT earlier about social conventions, and the US no longer follows them!) now coupled with the fact that I am so socially inept just doesn't lend itself to that. So how should I answer? I don't know if many can actually will up a picture. Some even doubt anyone can(stupid I know, but that is the case). EVERYONE has to be able to at least have a similar sense. So how do you answer THAT one?

Steve

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me

3 terabytes? If I stored all the stuff I KNOW some part of me wanted to remember, that would well exceed 3 terabytes! There have ACTUALLY been cases where I have gone through programs that were thousands of lines long and found the problem IN MY HEAD while I was showering! Talk about fleeting moments of genius! Is it possible that I remember every program I ever wrote? Of course, I know a LOT of it is basically compressed and summarized, but STILL. I don't know if 3TB is big enough. As for 1 terraflop, that is INCREDIBLE! And here I am trying to get like a dozen flops! Even steel maiden doesn't claim that much. I HAVE had moments where I probably did at LEAST 50 flops, but that is still TINY! AGAIN though, things like determining speed, distance, and bank shots on pool tables, and sound operations, CAN appear to be FAR faster. One wonders how they even attempt to approximate.

Steve

Well much like a hard drive the human memory has stages it goes through before it is completely gone. First the items quality is degraded then it becomes inaccessable by the concious mind (cant be brought up at will anymore) then eventually it is mostly overwitten with a new memory.

Until it is completely overwritten the mind can still "salvage" the memory and partially reconstruct the lost data.

But total capacity doesnt really change.

As for processing speed you have to remember the brain is a parallel processor. It processes information from millions of nerves in the body as well as high quality visual and auditory information constantly and simultaniously while regulating things like heartbeat and breathing and monitoring thirst, hunger, and a thousand other subconcious processes and thats just while sitting still.

Yeah, I basically corrected myself by talking about pool, distance, etc... They are still trying to get science to even START to do some things even the most ret*d brain can do with such ease. STILL, you say tflop, and I just think about that part under my seemingly direct control. In a way, language and symbols are a CRUTCH. They just slow things down. Thats why people with Synesthesia often do better at some things. They are pretty much encouraged, and have signs pointing them to a more direct path.

BTW flop is a measure of math power, not processing power. Computers are rated in MIPS(processing Millions of Instructions Per Second) and FLOPS(calculations FLoating point Operations Per Second)

Steve

40. Though this is a pretty generic test. I took this a while ago and it is what set me to wondering, then I ended up here. The other test (See thread "Take the Aspie Quiz") actually made me feel more confident in the answer.

32. Was my score.