SOME ADVANTAGES OF AUTISM.

SOME ADVANTAGES OF AUTISM. Jonathan Lehrer had an article in the Wall Street Journal (March 31) about a recent experiment in which autistics surpassed nonautistics in dealing with difficult perceptual challenges. The autistics were able to process more information in a short period of time. Lehrer quotes Professor Nilli Lavie, who conducted the study: “Our research suggests autism does not involve a distractibility deficit but rather an information-processing advantage.” Lehrer then points to research that shows that people with attention-deficit disorders are more creative (fiction, prizes at science fairs) and that people with dyslexia are often better at visual tasks (peripheral perception, “quickly grasping the gist of a scene”). What Lehrer says about autism can be said about attention deficit disorder and dyslexia as well: “…it represents an alternate way of making sense of the world, a cognitive difference that, in many instances, comes with unexpected benefits.”