SAVANT SYNDROME

Gizem Şamdan05.05.2014

Outline

Savant Syndrome

Two Types

Savant Skills

Theories

Kim Peek

Savant Syndrome... is a remarkable condition in which people with autism, mental handicaps or major mental illness, have exceptional abilities in a

specific area in contrast to their overall disability.

Savant: «wise human» in French

At first: the term ‘idiot-savant’ by Down (1887) to describe intellectually impaired individuals with contrasting outstanding abilities.

More recently: the terms ‘monosavant’ (Charness, Clifton, & MacDonald, 1988) and ‘savant syndrome’ (Treffert, 1989) have come into general usage.

Savant Syndrome cont.• Rare condition:- 1 in 1000 in an institutionalized population with a dignosis of mental retardation. - But 1 in 10 autistic people show some savant skills.• About 50% of people with savant syndrome have autistic

disorder and the other 50% have other forms of developmental disability, mental retardation or other CNS injury or disease

• Males outnumber females in an approximate ratio of 6 to 1.• Congenital or Acquired:- Savant syndrome can be congenital- from birth-, or it can be acquired following brain injury or disease later in life

Two Types:

• Talented Savants: the most common type- the individual displays a high level of ability that is in contrast to their disability and overall functioning.- These abilities are called: «Splinter Skills»

• Prodigious Savants: the rarest type- the ability or brilliance is not only spectacular in contrast to the disability, but would be spectacular even for a non-disabled person.

Savant SkillsThe abilities are usually in art, music, calendar calculation, mathematics or spatial skills.

• Memorization - superior memory is a common feature of savant syndrome

• Lightening calculation - instantaneous calculation of multiplications, square roots, etc.

• Calender calculating - the ability to identify the day of the week upon which a particular date falls

Savant Skills

• Musical ability - great skill in playing instruments or singing; the piano is the most popular instrument. (Ex:the ability to play the piano without being taught.)

• Artistic ability - exceptional painting, sculpture and especially drawing skills

• Language ability - fairly rare - the person may be unusually gifted in languages.

• Mechanical or spatial skills: the capacity to measure distances precisely without benefit of instruments, the mastery of mapmaking and direction finding.

Savant Skills cont.• The skills tend to be right hemisphere oriented: - These skills can be characterized as non-symbolic, artistic, concrete, and directly perceived, in contrast to left hemisphere skills that are more sequential, logical, and symbolic.• Generally a single special skill exists, but in some instances

several skills exist simultaneously.• Whatever the particular savant skill, it is always linked to

massive memory. • Savant skills characteristically continue, rather than

disappear, and with continued use, the special abilities either persist at the same level or actually increase.

Theories• No single theory has emerged that can explain all savants:

• Biological-Developmental - genetic, neurochemical, left hemisphere dysfunction, frontal and temporal lobe damage

• Cognitive - deficits in executive function and abstract thinking may cause highly developed procedural memory and photographic imagery (Happé, 1994; Schopler & Mesibov, 1995)

• Deficit in theory of mind (Frith, 1989)

• Modularity of mind - when executive cognitive functions are disrupted the mind exhibits a striking modular organization (Smith & Tsimpli, 1995)

How do they do it?

• Increasingly plausible explanation for savant abilities in many cases is left brain injury with right brain compensation.

Genes?

• It is possible that a gene, or genes, in the chromosome 15q11-13 region may be responsible for the savant skills.

• Nurmi and colleagues (2003) identified (among 94 families) 21 families as “savant skills positive” and 73 families as “savant skill negative.”

Kim Peek, the Real «Rain Man»a prodigious savant

• the inspiration for the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie.

• born with severe brain damage. • His childhood doctor told Kim's father to

put him in an institution and forget about the boy.

• Kim's father disregarded the doctor's advice.

• Kim is severely disabled, has difficulty walking and cannot even button his shirt. His IQ tests are well below average.

• His deficits result from corpus callosum disorder.

Nickname: "Kimputer"

• What Kim can do is astounding: • He has read 12,000 books and remembers everything about them. • Reads two pages at once - his left eye reads the left page, and his

right eye reads the right page. • It takes him about 3 seconds to read through two pages - and he

can remember everything. • Kim can recall facts and trivia from 15 subject areas from history to

geography to sports. • He also remembers every music he has ever heard• Tell him a date, and Kim can tell you what day of the week it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhcQG_KItZM

References• Better Health Channel. (2014). Autism Spectrum Disorder and Savant Syndrome. Accessed

April, 24, 2014. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Autism_spectrum_disorder_and_savant_syndrome

• Families Affected By Autism. (2013). Autistic Savants – Kim Peek http://www.familiesaffectedbyautism.co.uk/autistic-savants-kim-peek/ Accessed May, 1, 2014.

• Heaton, P., & Wallace, G. L. (2004). Annotation: the savant syndrome.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(5), 899-911.

• Hiles, D. (2002). Savant Syndrome. http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/Savant%20Syndrome.htm Accessed April, 26, 2014.

• 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), 1351-1357.

• Wisconsin Medical Society. (2013). Savant Syndrome 2013— Myths and Realities. https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/resources/articles/savant-syndrome-2013-myths-and-realities/ Accessed April, 26, 2014.

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