[BRAlNlAC]

Yeah, I found out this evening that I have aphantasia, after a lifetime of thinking that counting sheep was a metaphor. My strong sense of spatial relations has adequately filled the gap in my life, apparently. I also don’t have an inner monologue and suspect that I’m on the autism spectrum.

Interesting that you put specifically “being aware of ones facial expressions when talking” as one of these quirks. I definitely have that, but thought it was related to the autism. I wonder how many of these quirks might just be effects of being just on the cusp of AS.

One of the things that nags me about such an inventory is how “good” it is in the sense of promoting happiness. I’m perfectly content with my quirks, in fact talking it over with my girlfriend I’m starting to think that it might explain my excellent explicit memory(fwiw I feel I have a weak implicit memory) But reading through the thread, there are a number of people who are upset, feeling like they have lost out on something precious. I guess without guidance as to how these things can be leveraged as a strength, I’m not sure I see the utility in highlighting these cognitive differences. In the same vein as studying the differences in race or gender. Not that I don’t find them extremely interesting to think about.