Autistic savant

A savant or idiot savant is is someone that expresses extraordinary mental abilities, often in the fields of mathematics, art, or music but set within the context of an otherwise unexceptional intellect. It is a rare phenomenon which occurs in some people with autism and/or certain developmental disorders. Some people have acquired savant-like abilities after suffering from head injuries.

Savantism is usually recognised during childhood and is often but not always found in autistic children. However it is also sometimes acquired in an accident or illness, typically one that impairs the left side of the brain. There is some research that suggests that it can be induced, which might support the view that savant abilities are innate within all of us but obscured by the normal functioning intellect.

Most savants have very extensive mental abilities, called splinter skills. They can memorize facts, numbers, license plates, maps, and extensive lists of sports and weather statistics. Some savants can mentally note and then recall back perfectly a very long series of music, numbers, or speech.

Some other savant skills include:

• instantly computing prime numbers composed of several digits
• precisely estimate distances by sight
• calculating the day of the week for any given date over the span of tens of thousands of years
• perfect perception of passing time without a clock

Why savants are capable of this sort of astonishing ability is not quite clear. Some savants have obvious neurological abnormalities, but the brains of most savants are anatomically and physiologically normal.

Examples of savants include Blind Tom, who had exceptional musical ability although no musical education, and Richard Wawro who is an exceptional artist although retarded and autistic.

The character played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man is an idiot savant.