New Research about Autism

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Hi all,
Apparently some Italian scientists have discovered some interesting stuff about us autistic types.
I heard this, this morning on my local radio.
I've quoted pretty much directly from the guest speakers talk.
"The prevailing view with autism is that the individual struggles to comprehend other peoples emotions.
The research is showing that perhaps thats actually the wrong way round.
People with Autism experience peoples emotions TOO MUCH and therefore they avoid trying to engage with other peoples emotions to avoid overloading their senses.

Here is the link for anyone interested.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stor ... 336055.htm

Its the science discussion with some Smith guy. You can listen or d/load it.
It is actually about sport, but by 3:40 of the 7:30 minute conversation it gets interesting.

I don't know about that.
I tend to be unemotional (uncaring typically) with nearly everything.
It actually takes quite a bit to get my emotions involved in something.

It might be true for some though. It's a sliding scale, that's what makes it hard.

yes, AS and autism is the new AIDS, everyone wants to study and research it, and unfortunately a lot of research is to findign a cure.
so there is a lot of money available for research into As and autism and a lot of it debunks current myths , some is insightfull and a lot is conflicting.
this particular article has a resonance of truth to it.
it is a commonly held misconception t that people with AS cannot express emotions and a comparison is made to spock in star trek.
this is not entirely true.
people with As cannot express emotions appropriately
this meansd that for a given situation or scenario we will express too much or too little emotion, it is the modulation of ones expression of emotion that is problematic in AS.

another myth: AS are logical.
this isnt true either. AS are literal. but often far from logical.

So true, so true. It's what happens when people get overly emotional.

God, I always knew that.

Sounds right for some of us, I know I don't like my senses overloaded that's why I hate crowds to much stimulation.

I'm a bit confused...the interview with this guy Chris Smith is mainly about some motor activity research carried out by a team of Italian scientists headed by a Salvatore M Aglioti (Action anticipation and motor resonance in elite basketball players).

At some point in the talk Smith starts talking about autism. I'm guessing the link he's making is the research on mirror neurons carried out by another Italian scientist, Giacomo Rizzolati, around twenty years ago.

Rizzolati's work became widely known only about a decade ago, and since then mirror neurons have been implicated in lots of different functions of the brain, and various deficiencies in the mirror neuron system have been suspected to be the cause of 'deficits' in autism.

Chris Smith's new take on the relationship between autism and mirror neurons is very interesting, but I'd like to know where he got this idea from. There's no mention of autism in the Agliotti article

That actually might make sense. I tend to be overemotional at times, and have been accused by many of being too "dramatic" (as if my acting ability had anything to do with it ). Of course, ASD's could not just be lack of emotions, but also the presence of too much emotion, which causes us to shut down because we can't handle it all. But I leave that for the experts to discuss.

Too much emotion? Maybe... Wouldn't it be a strange world if we all spoke in body language

I can get very emotional watching a movie or television. If I'm in public and that happens I often consciously distract myself which I tend to do by analyzing the film instead of sitting in my direct emotional reaction to it.