By Temple Grandin, Ph.D. As a person with autism, it is easy for me to understand how animals think because my thinking processes are like an animal's.
Autism is a neurological disorder that some people are born with.
Scientists who study autism believe that the disorder is cause d by immature development of certain brain circuits, and over development of other brain circuits. The m ovie Rain Man depicts a man with a fairly severe form of the disorder. I have no language-based thoughts at all. My thoughts are in pictures, like videotapes in my mind. When I recall something from my memory, I see only pictures.