Savant syndrome

Savant syndrome is a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills at which savants excel are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability. Usually just one special skill is present. Savant syndrome is a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills at which savants excel are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability. Usually just one special skill is present. Those with the condition generally have a neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism spectrum disorder or have a brain injury. About half of the cases are associated with autism and may be known as 'autistic savants'. While the condition usually becomes apparent in childhood, some cases may develop later in life. It is not recognized as a mental disorder within the DSM-5. The condition is rare. One estimate is that it affects about one in a million people. Cases of female savants are even less common than those of males. The first medical account of the condition was in 1783. Among those with autism between 1 in 10 to 200 have savant syndrome to some degree. It is estimated that there are fewer than a hundred savants with extraordinary skills currently living. Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, memory, arithmetic, musical abilities, and spatial skills. The most common kinds of savants are calendrical savants, '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. Approximately half of savants are autistic; the other half often have some form of central nervous system injury or disease.It is estimated that 10% of those with autism have some form of savant abilities. A calendrical savant (or calendar savant) is someone who – despite having an intellectual disability – can name the day of the week of a date, or vice versa, in a few seconds or even a tenth of a second, on a limited range of decades or certain millennia. 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. Calendrical savants, on the other hand, may not be prone to invest in socially engaging skills. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains savants' combination of talent and deficit. 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. 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. Also, the attention to detail of savants is a consequence of enhanced perception or sensory hypersensitivity in these unique individuals. 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. In some cases, savant syndrome can be induced following severe head trauma to the left anterior temporal lobe. Savant syndrome has been artificially replicated using transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily disable this area of the brain. There are no objectively definitive statistics about how many people have savant skills. The estimates range from 'exceedingly rare' to one in ten people with autism having savant skills in varying degrees. 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'. As many as 50 cases of sudden or acquired savant syndrome have been reported.