Autistic savant

An autistic savant (formerly called idiot savant) is someone that expresses extraordinary mental abilities, often in the fields of mathematics (see also mental calculators), art, or music but usually set within the context of autism or mental retardation.

When one has an extraordinary single skill in an otherwise unexceptional intellect, he or she may simply be described as a savant, without qualifier, although savant is usually meant to mean a person of learning, especially one of great knowledge in a particular subject, without remarking on the person's overall state of 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.

Autistic 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 unusual savant abilities are innate within all of us but obscured by the normal functioning intellect.

Most autistic 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 autistic savant skills include:

• lighting-fast arithmetic calculations, including finding prime factorizations
• 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 autistic savants are capable of this sort of astonishing ability is not quite clear. Some savants have obvious neurological abnormalities, but the brains of most such individuals savants are anatomically and physiologically normal.

Examples of autistic 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.

Austistic savantism is also a common theme in movies and literature. Examples include Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman, Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks, Being There starring Peter Sellers, and Mercury Rising starring Bruce Willis and Miko Hughes

Further Reading

• O’Connor N., Cowan R., & Samella K. (2000) Calendric Calculation and Intelligence. Intelligence 28, 31 – 48.
• Pearce J.C. (1992) Evolution's end, HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco.
• Snyder A.W. et al. (2003) Savant-like skills exposed in normal people by suppressing the left fronto-temporal lobe. J. Intergrative Neuroscience 2, 149 – 158.
• Snyder A.W. (2001) Paradox of the savant mind. Nature 413, 251 – 252.
• Snyder A.W., & Michell D.J. (1999) Is integer arithmetic fundamental to mental processing?: the mind's secret arithmetic? Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 266, 587 – 592.
• Treffert D.A. (2000) Extraordinary people, Bantom press, London.
• Treffert D.A. (1988) The Idiot Savant: A review of the Syndrome. Am. J. Psychiatry 145, 563 – 572.

External links

• What is Savant Syndrome?
• Inducing savant-like abilities in ordinary humans by applying slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to the left anterior temporal lobe.
• Wisconsin University: Savant Syndrome