The Archaeology of One: Speaker's memoir explores layers of autism

Dawn Prince gets a physical rush when she drives through a tunnel, sees the lines of a tennis court and smells a tin of Band Aids. Looking at the color turquoise, she said, "I would feel turquoise shivers run up and down my spine and hear turquoise singing in my ears."

When someone unexpectedly touches the 47-year-old author, however, she sometimes has to fight off rage. She can panic when she tries to use a vending machine. And it was not until she bonded with great apes at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle that she was able to get close to other humans.