Lunch & Learn March 15th

The "Advanced Mind Moment" portion of the March "Lunch and Learn" (formerly Brown Bag Lunch) will focus on Autism.  Two books will be featured this month, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin and a fictional novel, House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  Both books help the reader understand the how the mind works for people with Asperger's Syndrome which is a mild form of Autism. 

Temple Grandin has a Ph. D. in animal science from the University of Illinois and has designed one third of all of the livestock-handling facilities in the United States as well as many in other countries throughout the world.  She lectures widely on Autism.  She describes her mental process as "thinking in pictures".  She has the ability to alter the images in her brain and combine the various images and see them from any perspective.  This ability has enabled her to succeed and excel in a world that processes information in a way that is foreign to person's with Autism.  She readily admits that not all Austic persons think in visual images but her work has enabled scientists to begin to understand an entirely different way of coding experience.  She has become famous because she can see with "a cow's eye view" and has thus been able to design livestock facilities that the cattle move through without being prodded or forced which many people once thought impossible.  She can look at a facility and discover what aspects are causing the cattle to balk. 

Jodi Picoult has created a main character in her book who also has Asperger's Syndrome and thinks in pictures.  Her main character is a male teenage boy but is based on hours of conversation with a teenage girl with Asperger's.  The book tells the story from the perspective of the main character, his brother, his mother and a detective.  Each describes the same event the way they experienced it.  It is an easy read and paints a picture of life with Autism and life in a family with a child with Autism.

Besides thinking in pictures two other features of Asperger's and Autism are noteworthy.  TheAutistic brain lacks the capacity to gate out information.  Gating out information means that most brains have the capacity to pay attention to certain stimuli and to be completely unaware of other stimuli.  It is this capability that allow us to pay attention to one conversation when we are in a crowed room with many people and background noises.  The Autistic mind is continually bombarded with sensation.  It is also very difficult for an Autistic Individual to form close emotional ties with other people.  These features of Autism are addressed in both books.