CSU professor discusses similarity between human autism, animal thought

Temple Grandin always felt like an outsider. Diagnosed with autism, she was often teased and viewed as somewhat of an odd child, but her experiences led her to make connections between autism and animal behavior.\nGrandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, presented her lecture, "Animals in Translation," to a full house Tuesday evening in the Chemistry Building. Lecturing as part of a speaker series on the theme of "Solitude," she knows what it's like to feel different and alone.\n"Perhaps no one is lonelier in the world than a child diagnosed with autism," said Andrea Ciccarelli, director of the College Arts and Humanities Institute, which co-sponsored the lecture with the Institute for Advanced Study.\nGrandin said her science teacher saved her from the isolation of her high school years by letting her study subjects that interested her, such as animals.\n"Too often we put the emphasis on the deficits," Grandin said. "We need to look at what (children with autism) are good at."\nGrandin uses her experience with autism and her love for science and animals to study the connections between autism and animal behavior. Grandin said animals and autistic people have similar thought processes.\n"People with autism and animals think in details," Grandin said. "They notice every detail."\nGrandin is a designer of livestock facilities and has used her experiences with autism to help cattle farmers adapt their facilities to make cattle more cooperative and comfortable.\n"Sometimes, it would just be a matter of adding or changing a light," Grandin said.\nGrandin hopes her work makes others more aware of how animals and people with autism think.\n"You don't realize that you think differently from others until you take the time to study how other people think," Grandin said.\nKimberly Kopecky, a freshman majoring in microbiology and neuroscience, heard Grandin speak for the second time.\n"I've heard her speak before. She is really interesting," Kopecky said. \nKopecky worked with autistic children in the Indianapolis area during high school. She said she found what Grandin had to say to be important in her understanding of autism.\n"What's interesting is the inside perspective she gives because she actually has autism," Kopecky said. "It's important to understand that people have different views of the world than yourself. (Grandin) offers an extreme example of how other people view the world."\nGrandin has written several books and articles in the fields of animal behavior and autism and signed copies of her most recent book, "Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior," at a reception that followed the lecture.