bughuntercat

pathfinder , 1 month ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic

Autistic brains be stupid. Well, obviously not stupid, they just seem to work, or not work, in mysterious ways.

The main one that has always got me, about mine, is that I have no memory for sound, absolutely none. I can't remember a song, or a sound. I can't remember what my parents sounded like and none of my memories carry, for want of a better word, a soundtrack. I can remember what I was thinking and what others were saying, but not hearing them say it, nor any other sound. I also don't dream in sound, at least as far as I know. All my dreams are silent.

And yet, and it's a big yet. I have an excellent memory for voices and sounds. Like many autistics I have near perfect pitch, at least when I'm hearing others sing, or music playing. Just don't ask me to reproduce it, because I can't. If I meet someone I haven't met for a while, then I will almost certainly not recognise their face, or remember their name, but there is a very good chance that I will recognise them from their voice. I am also very good at detecting accents. Even the slightest hint of one in, say, an actor pretending to be an american, will get me searching Wikipedian to see if I am right about their actual nationality.

So, if I can tell the sound of a Honda CBR engine two blocks away, or a voice, or an accent buried deep, I must have the memories to compare against. And yet... nope.

So, as I said, autistic brains be stupid.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

bughuntercat , 1 month ago

@pathfinder @actuallyautistic In my case, I am gradually going deaf. But I have an excellent auditory memory. I'm a musician, actually. By listening to the first notes of the introduction I can recognize almost any piece of music I have ever heard in my life. I remember instrument solos note by note and repeat them and scat. It also happens to me that I don't remember faces, even though I met them a few days ago, but I remember the voices of the people very well. But if the sound is distant I don't distinguish thunder from an airplane, or a cat from a baby. Auditory is my main sensory hypersensitivity, the others They are smell and touch, of which I have strong memories and precision.