Are all people with Aspergers the same?

Why do people with autism or aspergers have great memory?

• I was just wondering because I have aspergers and I can remember a little more than other people I know who don't have it. I also noticed that other kids I know or have heard about who also have aspergers or autism have also have better memory than the average person. So I'm wondering why kids with autism or aspergers seem to always have better memory than people who don't have it. Can autism or aspergers cause you to have better memory? If so please tell me how you think it happens.

• Answer:

  Well let's get this right to start with, there are 3 types of memory; Long-term, Working memory (attention) and Short-term. Aspergers usually have brilliant Long-term and Working Memory, but awful short-term. Asperger's definitely causes you to have better performance in the first 2, but also causes the deficit in short-term. **While I'm employed as a dis/Ability Advocate, I'm not a Neurologist so I hope this makes sense.** Think of the wiring of the brain being like telephone lines, these lines are called Neural Pathways. For an Asperger to access their Long-term from their Working memory is like calling their neighbour, a short distance to travel. But their short-term memory (let's say they live in New York City) is like calling Berlin, a far greater distance to travel with many different telephone exchanges (brain processes) along the way. A short distance is fine, but the further you travel some things just get distracted or lost along the way. But there is a way for an Asperger to improve their short term memory, and that's by talking to themselves. The receptive auditory centres in an Asperger's brain are close to where short term memory is located - well perhaps not any closer in physical distance, but with less clutter along the way. By talking to themselves (these are not auditory hallucinations as someone with Schizophrenia 'might' have) whether they understand how this works or not, they are bypassing the clutter and greatly shortening the distance between their Working and Short-term memories. This is one of the reasons Aspergers hate to be interrupted when they're speaking, they just lose contact with their short-term memory and forget. So the key to an Asperger's brilliant long-term memory is just the way their brain is wired, they have very short neural pathways between long-term and working memory, a far shorter distance than in NT's (Neurotypicals or non-Aspergers/Autistics). To access their long-term is like looking at their watch...it's right there in front of them, whereas for NT's it's often like searching the garage for something you haven't seen in 20 years.