Visual perception in Autism

[Suzette]

@SimonSays, I have seen those optical illusions before. This one isn't working for me but I suspect that the image is just too small on my tablet screen.

 

[Suzette]

@ForestGumpett, I see something like that when I look at the moon. There might be other times too but it is not noticable.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

I never heard the term visual snow before coming here. I see a colorful grainy texture and tracers. I have never seen a white wall. I too have tinnitus, but I can hear pretty well

 

[SDRSpark]

I just realized last night how much easier it is for me to read text if it's inverted (white on a black screen) or low contrast (grey on white, grey on black). I always knew that "night mode" was easier for me, but where I really struggle with reading, it hasn't been available.

I was doing some particularly miserable training last night at work (21 page PDF, basically a 21 page block of text without paragraph breaks and I had to read it all. Took an hour and a half...) and I was getting so frustrated with the words fading out of my vision, my eyes jumping around the page and my general inability to comprehend it that I googled how to invert the screen in windows...found it (it's the "magnifier" app if anyone is interested) and the difference was night and day. My eyes snapped into focus and my reading speed and comprehension about tripled. I have the app pinned to my taskbar at home and at work now.

I wish I would have known about this years ago - when I was in school, I was an avid reader, though glossy textbook pages really messed with me, I would feel nauseous and tired, couldn't focus. Once we got into computers and everything was on a screen, it got super bad (those 90s/early 2000s CRTs were horrible - I would sit there degaussing the screen over and over again hoping it would stop the flickering but it never worked). Modern screens aren't nearly so bad. On matte paper (normal books) I would start to see shadows around each word, but it didn't affect me much.

I complained, and attempts were made to get me glasses that would help, but they never did, and I think my parents believed I was making it up. (As an adult I was diagnosed with astigmatism and my vision was corrected, as far as that goes - my eyes don't go in and out of focus physically now when I try to read (I used to go cross eyed) but I still have an issue with comprehension when I am reading large blocks of text.)

I don't think I'm dyslexic. Maybe I am mildly dyslexic...that doesn't seem to jive with having been an avid reader as a child/young teen though. I constantly had my nose in a book.

 

[Nairobi]

I might have visual snow??? It's hard to tell. I definitely have a full visual field overlay (in addition to the possible visual snow) innumerable pin pricks of red light that I normally just look through, just as I just hear through my tinnitus, so thankfully they don't bother me during the day. The pinpricks of red light flow with my eye movements, maybe a slight lag.

I am sorry to introduce a really creepy aspect into this conversation - but does anyone else see things that aren't there? Not like a full on schizoprhenic hallucination during the day - I don't know how I would deal with that. But at night sometimes I see weird things that aren't there. Usually it's something I see for a split second, then it disappears. A few times it has lasted a few seconds before it disappears. In my family house growing up, it was when I was laying down, but not asleep - all kinds of weird things happened in that house, though. Everywhere else, it's when I first wake up at night, when I open my eyes, and it's gone in a split second. I hate it when it happens, it gives me a fright.

 

[Suzette]

@Nairobi, concerning your vision, if you read the link I posted light trails are noted as being part of the syndrome.

I am going to interupt myself here for an inspired thought, does anyone else think Vincent VanGough was autistic? Some of his art seems to reflect "visual snow" as it shows clear distortion. I know some people has suggested "astigmatisim" as an explaination but I think visual snow makes more sense.

Back to our regularly scheduled answer...

Regarding other visual anomalies, when I was a child I often watched photographs because the people appeared to be talking to me. I no longer experience this but I do have another example that is a holdover from childhood. Heavily patterned things like wallpaper, bedspreads or other fabrics, appear to me like the pattern is moving. Think a vine seems to grow even though it never gets longer, that sort of thing.
I have had a hallucination when I was given morphine after a surgery. While this pattern movent is hallucinatory, it is not like the same kind of hallucination. I would not be at all suprised if it is neurological as well, another miswiring in the visual cortex.
I tend to think of it as an issue of light mismanagement as I only get this effect in half light / dim light situations. It is a tidy explaination that eases my mind anyway.

I can well imagine that this sort of thing can happen without a pattern to look at. Our aspie brains are particularly good at pattern recognition so it makes sense that we also can "conjure" patterns out of of contrasting shadows and available light. Our brains might then try to make sense of the oddity. Does that make sense?

 

[QuestJan]

I don't think I'm dyslexic. Maybe I am mildly dyslexic...that doesn't seem to jive with having been an avid reader as a child/young teen though. I constantly had my nose in a book.

Dyslexia is at core neurobiological language disorder primarily a result of phonology/phonics delays. When combined with developmental language disorder, affecting reading comprehension, it is called double dyslexia.

It is commonly accepted that some children can also have vision anomalies, with or without being poor readers but the current multidisciplinary position is that a diagnosis of dyslexia is separate from vision.

Joint Statement: Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision - Reaffirmed 2014
AAP, AAPOS, AACO and AAO Hoskins Center for Quality Eye Care
Comprehensive Ophthalmology, Pediatric Ophth/Strabismus

Pediatrics
134(3):e920
This policy is a revision of the policy in 102(5):1217

That said, how can all of the vision stuff not interfere? I am reading a book with shiny pages and I can read only a few pages before fatigue makes me put the book down

 

[Nairobi]

@Nairobi, concerning your vision, if you read the link I posted light trails are noted as being part of the syndrome.

I am going to interupt myself here for an inspired thought, does anyone else think Vincent VanGough was autistic? Some of his art seems to reflect "visual snow" as it shows clear distortion. I know some people has suggested "astigmatisim" as an explaination but I think visual snow makes more sense.

Back to our regularly scheduled answer...

Regarding other visual anomalies, when I was a child I often watched photographs because the people appeared to be talking to me. I no longer experience this but I do have another example that is a holdover from childhood. Heavily patterned things like wallpaper, bedspreads or other fabrics, appear to me like the pattern is moving. Think a vine seems to grow even though it never gets longer, that sort of thing.
I have had a hallucination when I was given morphine after a surgery. While this pattern movent is hallucinatory, it is not like the same kind of hallucination. I would not be at all suprised if it is neurological as well, another miswiring in the visual cortex.
I tend to think of it as an issue of light mismanagement as I only get this effect in half light / dim light situations. It is a tidy explaination that eases my mind anyway.

I can well imagine that this sort of thing can happen without a pattern to look at. Our aspie brains are particularly good at pattern recognition so it makes sense that we also can "conjure" patterns out of of contrasting shadows and available light. Our brains might then try to make sense of the oddity. Does that make sense?

I hadn't considered that maybe we are better than average of pattern recognition and so maybe better at conjuring up stuff. I hope. The stuff I see can be really creepy, though. But I won't go into that more on this thread, because that's a whole different topic.

 

[SDRSpark]

I am sorry to introduce a really creepy aspect into this conversation - but does anyone else see things that aren't there? Not like a full on schizoprhenic hallucination during the day - I don't know how I would deal with that. But at night sometimes I see weird things that aren't there. Usually it's something I see for a split second, then it disappears. A few times it has lasted a few seconds before it disappears. In my family house growing up, it was when I was laying down, but not asleep - all kinds of weird things happened in that house, though. Everywhere else, it's when I first wake up at night, when I open my eyes, and it's gone in a split second. I hate it when it happens, it gives me a fright.

When I'm first waking up I sometimes see what I can only call flying spiders. (Their form defies description, but flying spiders is close enough). I jump up, swatting, and if I don't gat ahold of myself quickly I've been known to frantically text friends/boyfriend about the flying spiders.

Don't know what that's about. It's clearly a brain malfunction as a part of waking up.

 

[HidinginPlainSight]

Try this...


View attachment 69691

I was trying to figure out which dot it wanted me to look at.

 

[SimonSays]

I was trying to figure out which dot it wanted me to look at.

Lol. Did you not see the dot or more than one?

 

[HidinginPlainSight]

Lol. Did you not see the dot or more than one?

There are a number of dots in the frame.

 

[tree]

I was trying to figure out which dot it wanted me to look at.

The black circle.

Not any of the specks with ragged edges.

 

[QuestJan]

I was trying to figure out which dot it wanted me to look at.

I was drawn to the red triangle.

But it was so cool that as long as I stared at that bold black dot, the photo was in full color and the instant I looked away it was b/w

When I'm first waking up I sometimes see what I can only call flying spiders.
Don't know what that's about. It's clearly a brain malfunction as a part of waking up.

The brain is pretty interesting. It uses 24 (currently identified) cognitive biases to fool ourselves. It works only by malfunctioning. My brain & I have developed an understanding that we will not take each other very seriously - but I'd love to see your spider dance someday

Blessed are those who laugh at themselves, for they will never cease to be amused​

 

[SimonSays]

I am sorry to introduce a really creepy aspect into this conversation - but does anyone else see things that aren't there? Not like a full on schizoprhenic hallucination during the day - I don't know how I would deal with that. But at night sometimes I see weird things that aren't there. Usually it's something I see for a split second, then it disappears. A few times it has lasted a few seconds before it disappears. In my family house growing up, it was when I was laying down, but not asleep - all kinds of weird things happened in that house, though. Everywhere else, it's when I first wake up at night, when I open my eyes, and it's gone in a split second. I hate it when it happens, it gives me a fright.

I once opened my eyes from a very deep meditation (I may have dropped off asleep for a moment) to see a stereotypical leprechaun floating in front of me about 6 foot away. He genuinely seemed shocked that I had seen him and vanished immediately, but I still got enough of a look to see he was dressed just as one would imagine him to be. I'd never seen anything like that before or since, and I cannot imagine why he would've been there anyway, but it certainly felt real at the time, like I had seen something I wasn't supposed to see, wouldn't normally see.

 

[Nairobi]

I once opened my eyes from a very deep meditation (I may have dropped off asleep for a moment) to see a stereotypical leprechaun floating in front of me about 6 foot away. He genuinely seemed shocked that I had seen him and vanished immediately, but I still got enough of a look to see he was dressed just as one would imagine him to be. I'd never seen anything like that before or since, and I cannot imagine why he would've been there anyway, but it certainly felt real at the time, like I had seen something I wasn't supposed to see, wouldn't normally see.

Yes, that's the kind of thing that I usually see, actual individuals or parts of individuals. I think the logical explanation is that it's some kind of dream function malfunctioning - I heard a schizophrenic woman say that's how she thinks of her hallucinations....I wish I'd see something lovely for a change, but it's usually something pretty horrifying.