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Autism Gives Woman An 'Alien View' Of Social Brains - NPR
It takes a smart brain to invent a spaceship. But putting one in orbit takes a brain with extraordinary social skills.
That's because getting from concept to launchpad takes more than technology it takes thousands of people agreeing on a common goal and working together to accomplish it.
Humans have succeeded in part because we evolved a brain with a remarkable capacity for this type of complex social interaction. We automatically respond to social cues and facial expressions. We can look at the world from another person's point of view. We are predisposed to cooperate.
But all these things are so much a part of us, they're easy to take for granted.
Unless you have autism, like Lisa Daxer.
Daxer, 27, is a biomedical engineering major at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. And for her, things like reading faces and understanding what's on another person's mind are a struggle.
It takes a smart brain to invent a spaceship. But putting one in orbit takes a brain with extraordinary social skills.
That's because getting from concept to launchpad takes more than technology it takes thousands of people agreeing on a common goal and working together to accomplish it.
Humans have succeeded in part because we evolved a brain with a remarkable capacity for this type of complex social interaction. We automatically respond to social cues and facial expressions. We can look at the world from another person's point of view. We are predisposed to cooperate.
But all these things are so much a part of us, they're easy to take for granted.
Unless you have autism, like Lisa Daxer.
Daxer, 27, is a biomedical engineering major at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. And for her, things like reading faces and understanding what's on another person's mind are a struggle.
