Having Autism is Like Watching a Poorly Dubbed Movie?? WTF?

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Hercules in new york with Arnold nuff said. Arnold strong.

I don't normally have a problem integrating visual info with aural info, my experience is nothing like a poorly dubbed film. I do have moments of synesthesia, but I think I receive and process light info at light speed, and the sounds match the lip movements. The overwhelming array of sensory info in my environment (not to mention the exciting inner realm of my brain) can compete with my ability to listen to others some days. Especially when tired, hungry etc. Divided attention.

From my experiences with video games and response testers though, there does appear to be a delay between my mind expressing an intent and my body's response to it. The light comes on, I think "press the button" and then my hand presses the button. Whereas others seem to be more like: light comes on, hand presses button. In other contexts, such as the social realm, this laginess can be mistaken for reluctance or laziness.

I could never have become a Mortal Kombat chamion.

This is true, but some of the dubbing is really hilarious, and probably unintentionally so.

I love the films, though I prefer them with subs.

or they coud also sit down with those of us who are non verbal and able to talk very well via alternative communication to,and its not like theres a shortage of autistics for them to talk to but they probably want to keep that classic stigma going-a pity party for every poor sod who happens to get involved with us.

what they are refering to is sensory jumbling,many of us;especialy on the classic autistic side of the spectrum experience this and it cuts off our other senses so we have to take in one sense at a time.
mine are all cut off when one sense is in use so it really helps to block any sense stimulation to understand what people people are saying for example.

can relate to the idea of a poorly dubbed film but from a more extreme angle because language is very difficult to understand.

KingdomOfRats, I can relate to the notion of cutting off one sense to focus on another. I find closing my eyes helps me listen to the words of another when communication becomes confusing. My auditory processing works better with my eyes shut, especially when tired, or confused, or confronted by a complexity that requires greater attention than normal.

Possibly the funniest incident I experienced recently regarding auditory problems:

I was a witness in a criminal case. I had to swear a secular oath to tell the truth. The clerk of the court read the affirmation to me and I was supposed to repeat it. Except I was in a court room, with its lighting and beige tones, a public gallery filled with private school students, and the lawyers, the clerks and the judge. On top of this I was face to face with the bandit who robbed my workplace. He was in the defendant stand, flanked by security. A flood of detail details details.

The clerk read out the affirmation in the native tongue of a cerebral palsy sufferer. Between her vocal capacity and my auditory processing, it was a miracle I could understand a word she was saying. I had to close my eyes to give her my full attention. I caught a vibe of scrutiny over that gesture I think. It occurs to me: perhaps they were testing me - I did mention being autistic in my statement to court. (There were anomalies in my statement: I was convinced that the bandit's cohort was a woman and this caused some confusion for the court apparently. Because the cohort was an undernourished young male in girlish menswear, brandishing a steak knife - a popular feminine choice apparently - I was quite convinced that he was a girl.).

My past work, for people living with cerebral palsy, helped me through that court encounter immeasurably.

Wow--thanks for sharing this. I have the same problem, but I could never describe what the problem was. That's why I can't play basic video games to save my--well, the game characters'--lives. At all. I thought it was a hand-eye coordination issue. Unfortunately, this also carries over into "reaction time" when trying to drive....

Only game I can play correctly is Tetris (and some of Yahoo's "free games" that are similar in concept).

There are some days that feel just like this. It is also easy for me to make mistakes in identity--is that "face blindness" or something else? Maybe it's several things.

Hey Conundrum, thanks! I play a lot of video games and drive too. I've had safe driver certification in my state as well. My reaction times are adequate under most situations, including accident response (I follow guidelines like the 3 second margin and similar, and observe the road rules - I create room for myself on the road to improve my margin of error - haven't had a serious accident in 20 years of driving).

With regards to gaming, I'm not bad, but you won't find my name on many global leaderboards. My response capabilities decline the more time critical the task eg stringing a 24 move killer combo against a friend in Killer Instinct - impossible. Driving virtual vehicles in excess of 250mph - meltdown risk. Also, I'm not a bad guitar player, but I envy the physical capabilities of e.g. Yngwie Malmsteen. A benchmark beyond my reach no matter how hard I practice. My fingers just get all tangled up.

Doh! I notice this thread has moved on somewhat and I've arrived at it late in the day. At the end of my post here I may well get to telling you why I've quoted the above post!

I saw the 'watching a badly dubbed movie' thing as well, and the video on Valderbilt University on youtube which showed an example. I think (like NTs) all of us with AS perceive the world differently from each other. As regards myself - 'mild' end of the scale, in my late 30s, only recently diagnosed, I think I would have noticed something odd before - and my condition would have been picked up much earlier - if I had seen the world as a 'badly dubbed movie' - surely if I'd seen everything I saw on TV as being badly dubbed I would have realised that?

Apparently, and I've probably generalised it inaccurately, people with autism are out of sync. We hear the world up to half a second after everyone else. Watching TV now, if the people talking on there - if I'm seeing their mouths move a split second before I hear their words, it is an extremely short delay as I can't say I notice it. Occasionally, you get technical issues on TV programmes whereby the picture is out of sync with the audio and I certainly notice that! To me the people on the TV (no technical issue present) appear to be talking in line with their mouths, so it certainly doesn't appear 'badly dubbed' to me. Unlike the badly dubbed movie example that they show near the beginning of the youtube video. (I certainly see the latter as 'badly dubbed' and recognise that it is badly dubbed regardless of whether they are telling me it is or is not.) Interestingly - to me! - and I'd like to throw this into the 'debate' - it's possible that my brain has been 're-trained' (a bit like wearing a pair of glasses that makes you see everything upside-down for several weeks and, in the end, the brain corrects the position and you see the right way up when then continuing to wear the glasses). It could be that, in the first weeks of my life, I saw (if I were looking or even had had any peception of it) badly-dubbed speech but the brain soon re-trained itself and visual and hearing are now in sync. Who could ever know? The sound may (or may not) reach my conscious awareness half a second late, but if so, the brain has delayed the visual (that it may receive very shortly before) so that the two now match perfectly and no bad dubbing appears. If there is any bad dubbing, if the visual is slightly ahead of the sound, it is so fine that I can't notice it (even when I am now looking to see if it is present).

Finally, the reason for quoting the post I did. I was interested in the quote within it - "what a person with autism experiences on a daily basis remains a bit of a mystery".

It isn't a mystery to me! To me, as a person with 'autism', my experiences are well clear to me. However, what a person without autism experiences is somewhat of a mystery to me! I suspect that quote is written in the context of the reseachers being neuro-typical and, from that perspective, as most people are, is a mystery approached from that point of view. Or it may be, in the context from out of which that quote is taken, it was referring to classic autism. I don't know.

It's a mystery now, to me, what people without AS experience. Particularly as, for many decades, I assumed I was such a person and did not know that I had AS/autism. I thought my perception was normal. But apparently it is not - and I am now increasingly aware of that being the case.

Last edited by ScottyD on 19 Jan 2014, 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I saw 1 flash each. Do some people really see 2?

It's easier to see two flashes out of your peripheral vision. The flashes are really fast. There was earlier paper about this effect in autistic children, who saw two flashes more often than neurotypical children, but this result was not found in the latest paper.

At the end of the video it said there was only 1 flash each.

There is only one flash in reality, but the two flashes are an illusion caused by the two auditory clicks.

I see.
Tried it with peripheral vision; still only one.

I saw only one black dot each time in the video, but because there were two beeps on some flashes, I assumed that I must've missed something and answered two flashes. Even though I only saw one flash.

I've noticed with my peripheral vision faint stars in the night sky, quite often. When I look at these directly, they disappear from my vision.

Watched it with sound on: one flash, then two.

Watched it with sound off: one flash both times.



That, I believe, is a consequence of rod vs. cone vision--rods (seeing in dim light) are at the side of one's visual receptors, while cones (seeing in bright light/color vision) are in the center (if I remember this correctly).

Also, regarding driving: I am going to try for my license one more time, probably with a professional instructor. If THAT doesn't work out, at least I'll know I made every effort.



Same here--I didn't figure it out until about 4 years ago (age 31). And this is becoming more and more true for me also.