Impaired social and communication skills are common in savants, and many savants display repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour. Many savants show inability to perform simple tasks such as tying shoe laces, counting to ten, counting money, or following instructions. Due to the lack of reasoning ability, savants have difficulty putting their skills to use. Most savants have low IQ’s, but their skills seem to be IQ independent. The skills tend to be rule based, rigid, and highly structured, and lack creativity and cognitive flexibility. Most skills observed in savants tend to be right-hemisphere oriented – non-symbolic, concrete, artistic, directly perceived – rather than the left hemisphere – logical, sequential, symbolic. However, whatever the skill is, it is always connected to extraordinary memory. Savants display specific skills within an intriguingly narrow range of mental functions. Derek Paravicini, a blind autistic, can play backĪny piece of music he hears once, has the perfect pitch,Īnd can identify 10 simultaneous notes. There have been less than one hundred reported cases of prodigious savants in the past century.įig 4. Prodigious savants are extremely rare but are most easily recognizable due to their conspicuity, while many savants of the other two types go unnoticed. Prodigious savants are individuals that display extraordinary skills not only in contrast to their general level of functioning, but that are also remarkable compared to the general population.Talented savants show musical, artistic, or mathematical skills that seem very conspicuous compared to their overall disability. Talented savants are those with impressive skills that stand out among individuals with similar level of functioning.For example, they may be obsessively preoccupied with memorizing maps, historical facts, and sports trivia. Splinter savants are individuals with some skills and interest in a specific area, that stand out in contrast to their overall level of functioning.Savants are classified into three categories based on the spectrum of their abilities. Tammet has stated that synesthetic experiences The value of pi from memory to 22,514 digits. He can perform complex arithmetic in seconds Males outnumber females by a ratio of 6 to 1. The other 50% of savants have other forms of neurodevelopmental disability or CNS injury/disease. About 50% of savants have autism, and about 10% of autistic individuals display savant syndrome. The term “autistic savant” was then widely used due to the condition’s strong association with autism, but is now considered a misnomer because not all savants are autistic. The term idiot savant was later discarded because not all savants seemed to fit the description. He noted that the skills were characterized by “verbal adhesion”, meaning that a savant’s extraordinary memory was without comprehension. He coined the term “idiot savant” to describe someone who had “extraordinary skills, but with a great defect in reasoning power”. John Langdon Down, who is also known for his description of Down Syndrome. The first scientific description, however, was made in 1887 by Dr. The first accounts of savant syndrome occurred in the 1780s, when Karl Phillipp Moritz (1783) and Benjamin Rush (1789) each described the cases of Jedediah Buxton and Thomas Fuller, both nicknamed ‘lightning calculators’. Understanding savants would give us deeper insight into human memory and cognition, as well as shed light on the limitless potential of the human brain. Savant syndrome most commonly arises congenitally, but incidents of acquired cases have been reported, where savant skills suddenly appeared in adulthood following a brain damage. Whatever the skill is, however, it is always connected to extraordinary memory that is exceedingly deep but narrow. Savants demonstrate exceptional and prodigious abilities in specific areas, such as memorization, calculation, music, art, or language. Savant syndrome refers to observable behavioural characteristics, and is NOT considered a disorder itself. It most commonly co-exists with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, but may also accompany other forms of mental disability or CNS injury/disease. Savant syndrome is a condition in which an individual with mental disabilities or CNS injuries displays profound and extraordinary skills, referred to as ‘islands of genius’. He suffered congenital damage to the cerebellum and Kim Peek could read a page in less thanĮight seconds and had memorized 12,000 books.
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