Comments on: Brain damage pops woman’s personal bubble

By: Ardith Beeks

Ardith Beeks — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:25:55 +0000

bovkovyddsmvltasfjdv, breathing space heater, noaUNHt.

By: A single genetic fault makes one hand mirror the other’s movements | Not Exactly Rocket Science | The Next Twenty Years

Sat, 01 May 2010 23:17:13 +0000

[...] Brain damage pops woman’s personal bubble [...]

By: Pierce R. Butler

Pierce R. Butler — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:19:32 +0000

It might not be strictly scientific, and I shudder to think of the human-experimentation committee approval process that would be required, but I can’t help but wonder how SM’s responses might differ from those of a control group to an unexpected groping.
It’s a good thing she lives in California, where everybody is so laid-back and cool that something of the sort could never happen outside the lab.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:40:27 +0000

For some reason the link to the Wikipedia article is not working for me. Gray Gaffer, according to Wikepedia, her condition does affect her decision making ability.

SM is dexterous, has completed high school with the ability to read and write, has normal visual acuity and a below-average IQ.[20] She has no memory or language impairments, but has somewhat inappropriate social behavior and has difficulty making decisions involving personal or social matters.[20] She also appears to be overly trusting and friendly.[19] This is similar to the behavior seen in patients with autism.

By: Luna_the_cat

Luna_the_cat — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:08:15 +0000

oregonbird: what bee crawled up YOUR butt this morning? …Why do you have such an issue with believing that immediate, less “processed” responses draw on different cognitive systems? Neurologically that is entirely plausible. If you have reason to think she’s faking responses, perhaps you should present evidence and devise tests, rather than snarking in the background.

By: oregonbird

oregonbird — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:58:22 +0000

So, SM was adamant she couldn’t recognize fear, and claimed to be unable to draw faces that showed fear — but when given no time to prepare a suitable non-response, she was, in fact, able to recognize fear — but attempted to minimize the lapse from her usual ‘inability’ by claiming that she saw *less* fear than anyone else.
Bridge, anyone?

By: Monado, FCD

Monado, FCD — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:53:15 +0000

Hey, I have that book! It’s buried somewhere in the foothills of mount TBR.

By: Luna_the_cat

Luna_the_cat — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:41:28 +0000

Edward T. Hall did quite a lot of research into how different cultures set personal boundaries, and how this interacted with cultural perceptions of both space and time, back in the 60s. There are very distinct cultural differences, seems to be a reasonably well-accepted conclusion! The Hidden Dimension (1966) makes interesting reading, and has become the basis for a great deal of the anthropology of space and sociological studies of spatial aspects of interpersonal relations.

By: Tsu Dho Nimh

Tsu Dho Nimh — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:16:15 +0000

She estimated that people feel most comfortable about 1.5 feet apart – that’s an underestimate but it’s still larger than her own preference.
Social distance is strongly influenced by your culture, not just your amygdala. The preferred distance in WASPs of the USA is about twice the preferred distance of Latin Americans … and watching a Mexican businessman backing his gringo counterpart around the room as each is trying to remain “comfortable” in a conversation is something that happens.

By: Stagyar zil Doggo

Stagyar zil Doggo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:06:29 +0000

Is there any confirmation of the old idea that there is a North-South gradient in Europe, i.e., that Southern Europeans perceive a shorter distance to be appropriate than the Northerners?

I suspect this has a lot to do with the population density you experience everyday. People who commute on crowded subways are likely to have a smaller distance compared to residents of more rural areas. Perhaps submariners have the least …