Postcards From My Mind: Perspectives of Asperger's Syndrome

Sensory Budget

Many people have this type of “sensory budget”; however, I need to chart this system very consciously. If I disobey it there are serious consequences. Similar to a water balloon, if you keep filling it with water, eventually it will burst! This is not very different from most people, just more extreme. In a psychological experiment at my university, my professor had students pair up and take a resting pulse for three minutes. Then we had to imagine riding a bicycle after which our pulses were measured again. Finally, a second resting pulse was taken three minutes after the mental bike riding had finished. My pulse was graphed and compared to a control group and the other students in my class. The results were fascinating. My resting pulse was significantly higher than my partner’s or the control’s and when I imagined riding my bike, my pulse declined.

As you can see, sensory processing is a vital component of functioning. I highly stress working on sensory processing first before attacking other skills because how one processes and interprets information is all dependent upon one’s sensory system.

 

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