Why special interest in only parts of objects?

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Mdyar
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15 Jun 2009, 8:36 pm

Reflecting back on my earlier years (circa,elementary school), I can remember odd fixations on parts of objects , e.g.:

1) The 'trucks 'on train wheels (the axle-suspension carriage assembly)
2) Railroad gates (the red lights & the white/red cross banding on the gates)
3) Tail lights on cars and their different arrays of symmetry.
4) Spinning washing machines. (as a kid I remember being fixated on the spin cycle; having 'mom' taping the stop switch closed
so I could watch this)
5) Around 8 ; I fixated on the instrument clusters of car dashes ; even walking down the streets looking into the cars for this .

I was just thinking here of why the 'atypical subconcious' motivates one to find obsessive interest in things like this ?
Is there a precursive relationship between these parts and the same type of whole later on? (e.g. me being mechanicaly interested/inclined)



outlier
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16 Jun 2009, 5:23 am

Mdyar wrote:
I was just thinking here of why the 'atypical subconcious' motivates one to find obsessive interest in things like this ?


Certain neurological differences give rise to detail-oriented processing, known as local processing bias.

Mdyar wrote:
Is there a precursive relationship between these parts and the same type of whole later on? (e.g. me being mechanicaly interested/inclined)


They involve the same processing style, so it would not accurately be described as precursive alone, but also as a fundamental aspect of the later mechanical inclination, which still involves processing the individual parts, but now also within the context of a whole system.



millie
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16 Jun 2009, 4:49 pm

My visual relationship with the world comprises homing in. I will look at a face, and i naturally home in on a vein on a particular cheek.
I walk down the street and i focus on the pavin and a particular point on each paver. I glance up and I look a the street lamps and i home in on a horizontal brace and the screw that attached it to the vertical pole.
I might then look over at the town clock and i home in on one number, then one section of that number.
I then hear a car horn and shift my gaze over to a car and I will focus in on one dint on the side.

I find it almost discomforting and horrid to look at an expansive view or vista. My brain does not absorb "the totality" in that manner. I was recently in front of one of the great views of the Beechmont region in Qld. I homed in on a small blade of grass and then on one tree out of the millions. It i the only way i look.
The expansive view - over a traditionally "magnificent" valley actually holds little appeal for me. and it seems to fill me with a kind of anxiety and fear.

I cannot cope with photos of whole bodies.
In very visual moment i tend naturally towards a homing in on a specific detail.



I never knew why i did this until I found out about my ASD in 2008.