Vision & eye contact

[vergil96]

Okay so I have had a confusing convo with a friend discussing autism, we are both wondering whether or not we are on the spectrum. And it came up whether we notice people and faces in pictures. I noticed a man on a bicycle, she didn't pay attention to whether he had a bicycle. He popped out to me, because he was wearing red and the background was green. She noticed more the background than the man and said she sees the whole picture and then pays attention to the details. I also think I noticed the outline first. Tbh the cyclist attracted my attention in a disruptive, unpleasant manner and I'm not sure in which order I saw everything, I started to examine the cyclist's baggage, because I couldn't identify what on earth it is and how it's attatched to the bike. Apparently noticing the cyclist was the neurotypical way to see the image, and people on the spectrum noticed the bright white clouds and line on the road. The landscape was nice. She said she looks at faces, I said I don't and notice the whole silhouette more, and remember people more by their overall posture and vibe, not their faces, I'm bad at remembering faces. I told her that hey, maybe she struggles in social situations, because she has a hard time filtering people out from the background noise. Then she said she actually likes to look at faces and tries to not look too much, and I imagined observing someone's face that closely and felt nauseated. I don't know human bodies are disgusting and I don't know why, I have tunnel vision, it might be that I'm far-sighted and don't wear glasses and I swear that to me looking at someone's face and only face makes someone look like the baby sun in the Teletubbies xD which is funny, but it feels very close up and intimate having it take up effectively 100% of my good quality vision. (Idk someone with "normal" eyesight would feel this way if they were 10cm from the other person's face) Having a rude sense of humour, I said that if I stared so much at someone, I would feel like I was licking their face this whole time. Not very interesting, right? I never really gave it any thought before. Then she told me that it's something an autistic person would say, and recalled how her friend who has Asperger's told her that eye contact is an overwhelming experience for him, too intense, and that she has read in Gardin's book that tunnel vision is a trait of autism. I have zero conclusions, it makes no sense whatsoever. What are your experiences with these things?

 

[SusanLR]

I can go places with my NT companion who notices people and he often says things like, "Oh, he was working here last time." Or he says he sees all new faces from just a week ago.
I always have to answer I wouldn't know, because I don't look at people's faces.
So how would I remember?

Take your example of the bicyclist.
I would probably notice the unusual baggage and concentrate on that too.
I notice details and little things NTs don't seem to.
Like the color of the letters on a sign or especially things in nature.
A bird, a tree and flowers, etc.
I'm aware of people all around me, but that's about the extent of it.
Aware.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Okay so I have had a confusing convo with a friend discussing autism, we are both wondering whether or not we are on the spectrum. And it came up whether we notice people and faces in pictures. I noticed a man on a bicycle, she didn't pay attention to whether he had a bicycle. He popped out to me, because he was wearing red and the background was green. She noticed more the background than the man and said she sees the whole picture and then pays attention to the details. I also think I noticed the outline first. Tbh the cyclist attracted my attention in a disruptive, unpleasant manner and I'm not sure in which order I saw everything, I started to examine the cyclist's baggage, because I couldn't identify what on earth it is and how it's attatched to the bike. Apparently noticing the cyclist was the neurotypical way to see the image, and people on the spectrum noticed the bright white clouds and line on the road. The landscape was nice. She said she looks at faces, I said I don't and notice the whole silhouette more, and remember people more by their overall posture and vibe, not their faces, I'm bad at remembering faces. I told her that hey, maybe she struggles in social situations, because she has a hard time filtering people out from the background noise. Then she said she actually likes to look at faces and tries to not look too much, and I imagined observing someone's face that closely and felt nauseated. I don't know human bodies are disgusting and I don't know why, I have tunnel vision, it might be that I'm far-sighted and don't wear glasses and I swear that to me looking at someone's face and only face makes someone look like the baby sun in the Teletubbies xD which is funny, but it feels very close up and intimate having it take up effectively 100% of my good quality vision. (Idk someone with "normal" eyesight would feel this way if they were 10cm from the other person's face) Having a rude sense of humour, I said that if I stared so much at someone, I would feel like I was licking their face this whole time. Not very interesting, right? I never really gave it any thought before. Then she told me that it's something an autistic person would say, and recalled how her friend who has Asperger's told her that eye contact is an overwhelming experience for him, too intense, and that she has read in Gardin's book that tunnel vision is a trait of autism. I have zero conclusions, it makes no sense whatsoever. What are your experiences with these things?

@vergil96, first of all, welcome.

Although, these things seem associated with some autism traits, it is difficult to say from this narrative alone. The autism spectrum is quite broad, no two autistics are the same, with quite a bit of neurodiversity within the population, even though there are some commonalities that make us all autistic.

Furthermore, some of the social and communication difficulties one may experience may be, in part, the fact that for the past 20 years, or so, many people spend an inordinate/unnatural amount of time connected to their electronic devices, communicating in this fashion, instead of walking around, reading body language, touching each other, interacting face-to-face. Many people have simply lost, never learned these skills, or at the very least, are relatively unskilled. So, even some neurotypicals, people, who one would think, would naturally have these skills, might not, and then, if introduced to autism, might wonder if they have autism, themselves.

With respect to the degree of eye contact, how we perceive our world, attention to facial micro expressions, body language, fine details, no details, etc. varies, as well. Although it could be said that there may be specifics about how we visually perceive that may be interpreted as "non-neurotypical" in some way, what those are will be individualized.

https://www.research.chop.edu/car-a...ria-for-autism-spectrum-disorder-in-the-dsm-5