Major study led by autistic scientist challenges long-held preconceptions about the condition(xp GD)

[KamaAina]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-02-major-autistic-scientist-long-held-preconceptions.html

A scientist with autism has used his own experiences to aid the completion of a study which challenges some of the most commonly-held beliefs about the condition.

Dr James Cusack, from the University of Aberdeen, argues that generalisations about people with autism being poorer at interpreting gestures and body language may be exaggerated, and could be overcome by developing their ability to pay attention to signals in their brain which may otherwise go unnoticed....

Those taking part in the study were shown a series of human action sequences, created using technology which reduces figures to a series of dots, and then asked to distinguish between similar actions such as dancing and fighting – something which it is commonly believed those with autism have greater difficulty in determining.

The results showed that their ability to detect these subtle differences was significantly higher than that identified by previous research.

[Demeter]

1. Dancing can be fighting, if the partners don't get in synch

and there can be casualties...