>> Sometimes I do wonder if I'm maybe not the most neurotypical person in the world. <<
That is possible.
>> Then I look at lists of traits and similar and think again. I'm definitely wired differently, but in what way?<<
There are many different ways to be neurovariant. As far as I know, the term started in the autistic community but has spread beyond it.
I'm far too linguistically gifted to fit the autistic pattern, which emphasizes linguistic deficit. But a lot of the other traits match. I'm obviously not neurotypical; I can only fake being ordinary for a few hours at maximum effort. I just don't think the way humans do. *shrug* Since they're currently demolishing the planet, I don't think they have much high ground of sanity to stand on.
>> It can't all be blindness-related. <<
That may be true. However, some of it could be. People with a different set of senses tend to wind up with brains wired differently. The less well your eyes work, the more weight you put on some other sense(s). Well, each area of the brain has a certain amount of space alloted to it in the standard configuration. If you're not using much of the visual part, but you've maxed out the hearing or tactile parts, then chances are your brain will reconfigure to avoid wasting that very expensive space in the visual drive. These changes can have side effects.
Me, I know that I have a linguistic coprocessor far beyond ordinary human capacity. (I got perfect scores on several sections of the Pimsleur language test. Apparently nobody does that.) Conversely my face-recognition is the cheap shareware version, not the premium factory version that most humans have. And I'm cool with that.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 03:30 am (UTC)That is possible.
>> Then I look at lists of traits and similar and think again. I'm definitely wired differently, but in what way?<<
There are many different ways to be neurovariant. As far as I know, the term started in the autistic community but has spread beyond it.
I'm far too linguistically gifted to fit the autistic pattern, which emphasizes linguistic deficit. But a lot of the other traits match. I'm obviously not neurotypical; I can only fake being ordinary for a few hours at maximum effort. I just don't think the way humans do. *shrug* Since they're currently demolishing the planet, I don't think they have much high ground of sanity to stand on.
>> It can't all be blindness-related. <<
That may be true. However, some of it could be. People with a different set of senses tend to wind up with brains wired differently. The less well your eyes work, the more weight you put on some other sense(s). Well, each area of the brain has a certain amount of space alloted to it in the standard configuration. If you're not using much of the visual part, but you've maxed out the hearing or tactile parts, then chances are your brain will reconfigure to avoid wasting that very expensive space in the visual drive. These changes can have side effects.
Me, I know that I have a linguistic coprocessor far beyond ordinary human capacity. (I got perfect scores on several sections of the Pimsleur language test. Apparently nobody does that.) Conversely my face-recognition is the cheap shareware version, not the premium factory version that most humans have. And I'm cool with that.