Re: OT: What is your qualia of consciousness / thought? (WAS: does conlanging change your sense of reality?)

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 4:12 AM, Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets
<tsela.cg@...> wrote:
> Note that while my thinking is purely abstract, in terms of understanding
> others I rely nearly exclusively on verbal communication. I am very bad at
> noticing and understanding body language, and I tend to take what others say
> literally. My husband says I focus on words rather than on what is meant. I
> can't understand somebody else unless they communicate with me verbally (I
> am very bad at guessing charades for instance).
Are you autistic / Asperger's?

(It's related to my main research interest - neuroscience of empathy -
and I'm curious whether it correlates to differences in qualia. If it
does, then there are potentially Very Interesting things to look at,
because we already have neural correlates of autism & empathy [mirror
neurons etc; see <http://s3.amazonaws.com/saizai-public/Empathy -
Meta-cognition by mirror neurons.pdf> if you care]. If mirror neurons
further correlate strongly to consciousness qualia, it'd be a Big
Deal.)

- Sai