Brain fog

Leah sent me this link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

3 of us took the test... I got 31, she got 16 and the other person got 15.

From the website...

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

This made me think of Daniel Tammet (see saturday's post), so I started reading about Asperger's which had a link to Auditory Processing Disorder: 

APD is recognized as a major cause of dyslexia[5]. As APD is one of the more difficult information processing disorders to detect and diagnose, it may sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD, Asperger and other forms of autism, but it may also be a comorbid aspect of those conditions if it is considered a significant part of the overall diagnostic picture. APD shares common symptoms in areas of overlap such that professionals who were not aware of APD would diagnose the disabilities as those which they were aware of. APD can also be confused with Language Processing Disorder. Unlike APD, LPD is more specifically a problem associated with the linking of words, both written and spoken, to semantics (meaning) and someone can have both APD and LPD. Unlike those with LPD, those with APD can usually get the meaning of language from written words where those with LPD show problems with both heard and read words, demonstrating that the basic issue is not an auditory one.

People with APD intermittently experience an inability to process verbal information. When people with APD have a processing failure, they do not process what is being said to them. They may be able to repeat the words back word for word, but the meaning of the message is lost. Simply repeating the instruction is of no use if a person with APD is not processing. Neither will increasing the volume help.

People with APD have a disorder processing auditory information within the brain. The written word is a visual notation of verbal language, thus Auditory Processing Disorder can extend into reading and writing. As a consequence, APD has been recognised as one of the major causes of dyslexia.

There are also many other hidden implications, which are not always apparent even to the person with the disability. For example, because people with APD are used to guessing to fill in the processing gaps, they may not even be aware that they have misunderstood something.

Persons with APD often:

• have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally; cope better with visually acquired information
• may have trouble paying attention and remembering information when information is simultaneously presented in multiple modalities
• have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally; need to hear only one direction at a time
• appear to have poor listening skills, and need people to speak slowly
• need more time to process information.
• develop a dislike for locations with background noise such as bar, clubs or other social locations
• prefer written communication (e.g. text chat)

This I totally relate to.  It's weird, but it's like you hear it but don't understand. You know the words but they don't turn into meaning, it's like they're floating in a fog in your head.  If it's something I know about this usually doesn't happen or maybe I just don't notice because I guess the correct meaning.  Hearing or reading about something I already know about is easier. But reading about something I don't know about is way different. Even if I know what all the words mean. 

For instance I read this sentence like 10 times before I could figure out what it meant: "APD shares common symptoms in areas of overlap such that professionals who were not aware of APD would diagnose the disabilities as those which they were aware of." Actually I tried reading it several times, couldn't figure it out, then came back and tried again later after my brain calmed down and finally got it. But I had to look at one word at a time with a couple seconds inbetween each in order to try and get the sense of what it meant. 

I think this is a really badly worded sentence but I think more sentences seem like that to me than they do to other people. At least this how it seems to me.

APD indicates "auditory" but I looked at a bunch of websites and APD and the reading problem thing often go together. It's more of a language processing disorder.

Maybe this is why there are no words in my dreams? 

It explains this post I wrote a couple weeks ago about not understanding when they explain things in jiu-jitsu and sucking at geometry because I can't remember strings of words.  And the fact that I get confused by the questions Paul asks me. 

And why I use sound effects while I'm talking cause I can't remember the right word. Or I'll use the wrong word sometimes because I know there is a right word I just can't get it to come to my mind so I'll pick the closest one, even if it's a little off, just so I can get the thought out. It's not like I don't know it's not the right word. But trying to come up with the right one can be exhausting and it's not cause I have a bad vocabulary.

And the fact that I often hear lyrics in songs the same way you would another instrument. Not at words but as a voice, with a voice being just another instrument. I can hear the words if I think about it but I often don't because it takes more concentration and effort.  I could hear a song 50 times and not know any of the words or what it was about.  If I think about it I will "hear" the words. If you wanted me to remember the words in a single verse then I would need to listen to it probably 100 times (or more) and also say the words right after they did, out loud in order to help me remember.  

So I can't sing along to any songs because I can't remember the words to anything except for two or three words in any given song. But that works out just fine since I can't sing anyway ;-)