0789

"Autistic perception is different in that it ways to systemic abilities to deal with sensory uncertainty due to an attenuated influence of prior knowledge. The upshot of such weekend influences a positive capacity to treat more incoming stuff as signal and less as noise, leading to the enhanced capabilities to spot hidden figures and to recognize the true Contours of the sensory data. Huge amounts of incoming information are treated as Salient and worthy of attention, thus increasing effortful processing and incurring significant emotional costs. For example, where a child learns to recognize objects under a wide variety of lighting conditions and can use the Shadows cast by objects as a source of useful information, such situations  prove challenging to autistic subjects. Instead of falling into place as a predictable pattern of sensory stimulation associated in current context, with the presence of a certain object, shadows may be treated as sensory data in need of further explanation....Weakened influence of this kind would result in a constant barrage of information demanding further processing and my plausibly engender severe emotional costs and contribute to the emergence of a variety of self-protective strategies involving repetition, insulation, and narrowing of focus". [Surfing Uncertainty, p. 225]