Animals in Translation

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnston. Bloomsbury, 2006. pbk: 0747566690 / 978074756694

This is one of several books that Temple Grandin, autistic herself, has written on autism.  These are my notes of the points which struck me most. All her books are well worth reading.

Autistic people think in pictures not words, but often talk out loud to help organize thinking, and may be able to express conclusions in words. They tend to build a library of stock phrases and sentences to use in conversation and, in common with others with disabilities, need be taught even ‘simple’ things like getting dressed as a series of small tasks.

Inattentional blindness – normal people don’t see things if they are not expecting them. Autistics may see them more often – as visual thinkers are more detail-oriented. But people always seem to recognize sight and sound of their own name, large-sized objects and cartoon happy faces (but not sad ones).

Need to take care not to assume animals think like humans. Owner assumed dog felt guilt as always ran off when found with rubbish on floor; but also ran off when taken into room with rubbish already on floor – just associated rubbish on the floor with trouble.

Vision is important to animals; monkeys can be trained as easily with a view out of a window as the reward as with food.

Animal vision differs from human vision, having a limited colour spectrum. Certain things ‘jump out’ for animals and autistics, such as contrast in illumination – animals never like going from bright light into the dark as it temporarily blinds them, although prey animals (e.g. cattle) have good night vision.

Dogs have poor visual acuity, with fewer cones in their retinas, but better night vision. Good human vision is 20/20 but typical dog acuity is 20/75 – dog has to stand 20 feet away from something a human can see at 75 feet. Near-sighted dogs have even worse visual acuity; there is some variation by breed.

Most animals have panoramic vision and can be distracted by what is behind them. They do have some binocular vision for sense of depth. Human retina has a fovea – round spot of best vision. Animals from open habitats (cats, dogs, cattle) have a visual streak. Animals lowering their heads as bulls do before charging, or sheepdogs before herding, are probably lining up the image on their visual streak.

‘Visual cliff’ is common to people and animals and seems to be an inbuilt signal of danger. A dark colour on the ground is interpreted as being deep – babies won’t crawl over it. Animals have better contrast vision so may see it as a false visual cliff – as with cattle grids. A poor man’s cattle grid is to paint bright white lines across a road – the contrast is enough to deter cattle unless highly motivated (mother separated from baby, much better grazing); however, once crossed they learn it is not a danger. Completely colour-blind people are better at interpreting reconnaissance photos.

Colour vision varies among species.

Birds: ultraviolet, blue, green, red.

Humans, some primates: blue, green, red.

Most mammals: blue, green. (see best a greenish (safety vest) yellow and a bluish (purple iris) purple.

Sharp contrast draws the attention of an animal and either distracts or scares – but novelty is the real issue, even for an item seen before in a different context. On their own, they will investigate a novel stimulus but not if it is forced on them – curiosity means they can pick up danger signs in their environment. They are less scared of people lying down.

Animals also react to rapid movement – prey animals run away, predators chase. Novel high-pitched sounds will cause cattle to baulk as they activate the part of the brain that responds to distress calls. Intermittent sounds are worst – can’t relax as waiting for next sound.

Brain is layered. The reptilian brain (the oldest part) = basic life support, the Pleomammalian brain = emotion. Neomammalian brain = reason and language. Humans have much the biggest neocortex; they generalize from one situation to another, animals far less. Dogs must be trained to same task at both class and home.

TG speculates that developmental disorders happen less in animals as their frontal lobes are less well developed. Frontal lobe functions are the first to go, whether from traumatic head injury, developmental disability, old age or even lack of sleep, perhaps because other part of the brain connects to the frontal lobes, so any brain damage can present as frontal lobe damage. TG notes that autistics have normal frontal lobes but imperfect input to the lobes.

Evolution works on the use it or lose it principle, but if not important for survival or reproduction, weak or defective genes can be passed on. Fixed action patterns (rooster courtship dance, hens receptive position) can be disrupted by single trait breeding, which can have unexpected effects on other areas.

Pure white (albino) animals and humans have more neurological problems. Dalmation dogs are closest to albinism, more likely to be deaf and ‘airheads’; collies bred for narrow heads, less brain room so less intelligent; labradors are opportunistic eaters, always hungry, and notorious chewers – maybe a side effect of breeding for calm temperament. Colour of skin more important than colour of fur. Albino rats are perhaps not best for drug research (though typical) as melanin binds to some chemicals. ‘White’ humans evolved and are not albino.

Owners tolerate worse behaviour in purebreds; in USA, purebreds are responsible for c.74% of all fatal attacks on people. Genetically dogs are juvenile wolves; they stop developing emotionally and behaviourally at the wolf puppy equivalent of 30 days.

Children’s frontal lobes are still growing and don’t mature until early adulthood; their emotions are more straightforward than adults’. Autistics have decreased connectivity in the cortical regions and between cortex and sub-cortex.

Normal people suppress bad memories in their unconscious (verbal overshadowing) but autistics recall everything (so can’t watch violent movies). Language seems to act as a filter.

Interest, curiosity, anticipation – primary emotion, the ‘seeking’ circuit. Some evidence that drugs (e.g. cocaine) stimulate this not the pleasure centre. Humans enjoy any kind of hunt (collecting, finding facts, searching for the meaning of life in church or philosophy seminar). The ‘seeking’ circuit fires when searching for food but stops when eating – this explains novelty seeking. Animals prefer new toys initially, even if in poorer condition or less interesting than old toys. Children are the same with toys, adults with clothes, cars, etc. Newness is pleasurable.

Normal people use different parts of the brain to recognize an object versus a face. Autistics use the object recognition area for both faces and objects.

Autistics tend to have extreme sense perceptions (hearing and seeing things that others do not) as well as being super-sensitive to sensations. All children need to be touched but autistic children feel over-whelmed by normal touching and have to be de-sensitized. Rock & Mack think the brain does a lot of processing before allowing something into the consciousness – explaining visual inattention and implicit cognition (subliminal perception). Locomotor play seems to help brain development (cf. effect of too much tv watching, computer game playing?).

Need to socialize dogs not just to own toddlers but also to other peoples – dogs don’t generalize. No domestic animal should be reared in isolation. Pet owners need to socialize new kittens and puppies not long after they bring them home. In the wild, animals are free to come and go, socialize with other local animals; dogs kept in gardens and only out on a leash prevents proper hierarchy establishment. Dog owners must establish themselves as the alpha animal. Make rolling on to his back (submissive position) fun –stroke chest or belly fur. Enter the house first, put hand in feeding bowl while he’s eating. Working dogs should not be bought as pets.

All animals, but especially prey animals, mask pain unless alone. Pain is a frontal lobe activity; since animals have smaller frontal lobes, it is likely they experience less pain or are less upset by the pain. Insensitivity to pain (and cold) is on the checklist of symptoms for autism.

Animals and humans learn some fears (e.g. of snakes) from others. Such learning, like any intensely emotional learning is permanent; procedural learning (riding a bicycle) also seems to be permanent but not observational learning. Animals and humans can get over a learned fear but never forget it.

Slow fear: scary stimulus to thalamus (base of brain) for analysis – identify snake – amygdala – feel afraid [24 secs]. Fast fear: stimulus straight to amygdala – feel afraid [12 secs]. Operate simultaneously: fast fear is the quick and dirty route getting you out of likely danger quickly, slow fear is the precision route.

Gifted children perform well on multi-faceted (multi-component) tasks.

Single: choose blue one from coloured squares.

Double: green dog not green cat or red dog.

Triple: big polka-dot circle.

Four: big bear and little square. Gifted children can do this at age 3, average at age 6.

Early human / wolf association; humans seem to have learned wolf behaviours (not exhibited by any other primate) such as loyal same-sex and non-kin friendships, highly territorial, hunting in groups, complex social structures. Fossil records show that whenever a species becomes domesticated, its brain gets smaller. That of the horse shrank by 16%, pigs by 34% and dogs by 10% - 30%. Humans may have been ‘domesticated’ by dogs as the human brain shrank by 10% at the point they started burying their dogs. In all domestic animals, the forebrain and the linking tissue in the corpus callosum shrank, but in humans the mid-brain (emotions and sensory data) and olfactory bulbs (smell) got smaller. It seems that humans took on the planning and organizational roles and dogs the sensory tasks in the partnership.

Animal welfare regulators tend to draw up long checklists of problems / violations. TG advocates setting high standards (works better than zero toleration) and correcting all problems.

TG identified 5 key measures for abbatoirs, etc., each with a compliance level (100%, 97%, etc.). For example, 5 acts of abuse means automatic failure on that measure. However, each key measure can be caused by a variety of things (which will all need to be rectified), but for the actual audit only 5 factors need be measured.

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