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Savant syndrome

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Not to be confused with Einstein syndrome.
Savant syndrome
Other namesAutistic savant
SpecialtyPsychiatry

Savant syndrome (also known as autistic savant) is a condition in which a person with a developmental disability demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal.[1][2][3] People with savant syndrome may have neurodevelopmental disorders, notably autism spectrum disorders, or brain injuries. The most dramatic examples of savant syndrome occur in individuals who score very low on IQ tests, while demonstrating exceptional skills or brilliance in specific areas, such as rapid calculation (hypercalculia), art, memory, or musical ability.[4][5][6][7] Although termed a syndrome, it is not recognized as a mental disorder nor as part of a mental disorder in medical manuals such as the ICD-10[8] or the DSM-5.[9]

Another form of savant syndrome is acquired savant syndrome, in which a person acquires prodigious capabilities or skills following dementia, a head injury or concussion, epilepsy or other disturbances. This syndrome is more rare, with a study by Darold Treffert in 2010 showing that in a registry of 319 known savants, only 32 had acquired savant syndrome.[10]

Signs and symptoms

Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, memory, arithmetic, musical abilities, and spatial skills.[1] The most common kind of savants are calendrical savants,[11][12] "human calendars" who can calculate the day of the week for any given date with speed and accuracy, or recall personal memories from any given date. Advanced memory is the key "superpower" in savant abilities.[11]

Approximately half of savants are autistic; the other half often have some form of central nervous system injury or disease.[1] It is estimated that 10% of those with autism have some form of savant abilities.[1][13][14]

Mechanism

Psychological

No widely accepted cognitive theory explains savants' combination of talent and deficit.[15] It has been suggested that individuals with autism are biased towards detail-focused processing and that this cognitive style predisposes individuals either with or without autism to savant talents.[16] Another hypothesis is that savants hyper-systemize, thereby giving an impression of talent. Hyper-systemizing is an extreme state in the empathizing–systemizing theory that classifies people based on their skills in empathizing with others versus systemizing facts about the external world.[17] Also, the attention to detail of savants is a consequence of enhanced perception or sensory hypersensitivity in these unique individuals.[17][18] It has also been confirmed that some savants operate by directly accessing low-level, less-processed information that exists in all human brains that is not normally available to conscious awareness.[19]

Neurological

Savant syndrome results from damage to the left anterior temporal lobe, an area of the brain key in processing sensory input, recognizing objects and forming visual memories.[citation needed] Savant syndrome has been artificially replicated using transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily disable this area of the brain.[20]

Epidemiology

See also: Epidemiology of autism

There are no objectively definitive statistics about how many people have savant skills. The estimates range from "exceedingly rare"[21] to one in ten people with autism having savant skills in varying degrees.[1] A 2009 British study of 137 parents of autistic children found that 28% believe their children met the criteria for a savant skill, defined as a skill or power "at a level that would be unusual even for 'normal' people".[22] As many as 50 cases of sudden or acquired savant syndrome have been reported.[23][24]

Males with savant syndrome outnumber females by roughly 6:1,[25] slightly higher than the sex ratio disparity for autism spectrum disorders of 4.3:1.[26]

History

The term idiot savant (French for "savant idiot") was first used to describe the condition in 1887 by John Langdon Down, who is known for his description of Down syndrome. The term idiot savant was later described as a misnomer because not all reported cases fit the definition of idiot, originally used for a person with a very severe intellectual disability. The term autistic savant was also used as a description for the disorder. Like idiot savant, the term came to be considered a misnomer because only half of those who were diagnosed with savant syndrome were autistic. Upon realization of the need for accuracy of diagnosis and dignity towards the individual, the term savant syndrome became widely accepted terminology.[1][21]

Notable cases

Case studies

Calendrical savants

A calendrical savant (or calendar savant) is someone who—though mentally disabled—can name the day of the week of a date, or vice versa[32] in a few seconds or even a tenth of a second, on a limited range of decades or certain millennia.[12] These savants are mostly autistic. The rarity of human calendar calculators is possibly due to the lack of motivation to develop such skills among the general population.[33] Calendrical savants, on the other hand, may not be prone to invest in socially engaging skills.[33]

See also

Template:Wikipedia books

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Treffert, D. A. (2009). "The savant syndrome: An extraordinary condition A synopsis: Past, present, future". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1351–7. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0326. PMC 2677584. PMID 19528017.
  2. ^ Miller, LK (1999). "The savant syndrome: Intellectual impairment and exceptional skill". Psychological Bulletin. 125 (1): 31–46. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.1.31. PMID 9990844.
  3. ^ Bolte, S (2004). "Comparing the intelligence profiles of savant and nonsavant individuals with autistic disorder". Intelligence. 32 (2): 121–131. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2003.11.002.
  4. ^ Psychology in Action Eighth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2007), p. 314. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  5. ^ Bonnel A.; Mottron L.; Peretz I.; Trudel M.; Gallun E.; Bonnel A-M. (2003). "Enhanced pitch sensitivity in individuals with autism: A signal detection analysis" (PDF). Cognitive Neuroscience. 5 (2): 226–235.
  6. ^ McMahon J. A. (2002). "An explanation for normal and anomalous drawing ability and some implications for research on perception and imagery". Visual Arts Research. 28 (55): 38–52.
  7. ^ Pring L., Hermelin B.; Hermelin (2002). "Numbers and letters: Exploring an autistic savant's unpractised ability". Neurocase. 8 (4): 330–337. doi:10.1093/neucas/8.4.330. PMID 12221146.
  8. ^ "ICD 10". priory.com.
  9. ^ "APA Diagnostic Classification DSM-IV-TR". BehaveNet. BehaveNet Inc. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  10. ^ Treffert, Darold A. (August 2014). "Accidental Genius". Scientific American.
  11. ^ a b Saloviita, T.; Ruusila, L.; Ruusila, U. (Aug 2000). "Incidence of Savant Syndrome in Finland". Percept Mot Skills. 91 (1): 120–2. doi:10.2466/pms.2000.91.1.120. PMID 11011882.
  12. ^ a b Kennedy DP, Squire LR; Squire (2007). "An analysis of calendar performance in two autistic calendar savants". Learn Mem. 14 (8): 533–8. doi:10.1101/lm.653607. PMC 1951792. PMID 17686947. Cite error: The named reference "calsavants2007" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ Darold A. Treffert, MD. "The Autistic Savant". Wisconsin Medical Society.
  14. ^ "Savant Syndrome Statistics". Health Research Funding. 2014-07-12.
  15. ^ Pring, Linda (2005). "Savant talent". Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. 47 (7): 500–503. doi:10.1017/S0012162205000976.
  16. ^ Happe, F.; Vital, P. (2009). "What aspects of autism predispose to talent?". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1369–1375. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0332. PMC 2677590. PMID 19528019. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |laydate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysource= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysummary= ignored (help)
  17. ^ a b Baron-Cohen, S.; Ashwin, E.; Ashwin, C.; Tavassoli, T.; Chakrabarti, B. (2009). "Talent in autism: Hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1377–83. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0337. PMC 2677592. PMID 19528020.
  18. ^ Mottron, L.; Dawson, M.; Soulieres, I. (2009). "Enhanced perception in savant syndrome: Patterns, structure and creativity". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1385–1391. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0333. PMC 2677591. PMID 19528021.
  19. ^ Snyder, A. (2009). "Explaining and inducing savant skills: Privileged access to lower level, less-processed information". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1399–1405. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0290. PMC 2677578. PMID 19528023. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |laydate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysource= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysummary= ignored (help)
  20. ^ Snyder A (2009). "Explaining and inducing savant skills: privileged access to lower level, less-processed information". Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 364 (1522): 1399–405. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0290. PMC 2677578. PMID 19528023.
  21. ^ a b http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/Savant%20Syndrome.htm[full citation needed]
  22. ^ Howlin, P.; Goode, S.; Hutton, J.; Rutter, M. (2009). "Savant skills in autism: Psychometric approaches and parental reports". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1359–1367. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0328. PMC 2677586. PMID 19528018. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |laydate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysource= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |laysummary= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Yant-Kinney, Monica (2012-08-20). "An artist is born after car crash". The Inquirer. Philadelphia. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  24. ^ "'A ski accident left me with advanced mental abilities': US woman tells her extraordinary story". Daily Telegraph. 17 April 2015.
  25. ^ Treffert, Darold. A Visual Feast
  26. ^ Newschaffer CJ, Croen LA, Daniels J; Daniels; Giarelli; Grether; Levy; Mandell; Miller; Pinto-Martin; Reaven; Reynolds; Rice; Schendel; Windham; et al. (2007). "The epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders" (PDF). Annu Rev Public Health. 28: 235–58. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.021406.144007. PMID 17367287. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author2= (help); Unknown parameter |displayauthors= ignored (|display-authors= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ^ "Savant Temple Grandin coming to Fond du Lac".
  28. ^ "Stroke of Genius: How Derek Amato Became a Musical Savant". NPR. 2016-02-23. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  29. ^ Lewis, Tanya (2014-05-12). "A man became a math wiz after suffering brain injuries. Researchers think they know why". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  30. ^ [1]
  31. ^ [2]
  32. ^ Do to the operation ‘in reverse’, e.g., identifying the date of the third Monday in a specified month of a year
  33. ^ a b Cowan R, Frith C (2009). "Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study". Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 364 (1522): 1417–24. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0323. PMC 2677581. PMID 19528025.
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