SAVANT SYNDROME

INTRODUCTION  It is a rare, but spectacular, condition in which a person who has developmental disorders also has astonishing level of ability, brilliance or talent.  Condition can be acquired genetically or later in life( from CNS injury, disease, etc)  Unclear what the cause is; many savants have abnormalities in the left hemisphere of the brain  Only about recognized prodigious savants in the world currently.

SAVANT SKILLS  Savants can have outstanding abilities in music, artistic talent, calendar calculations, multilingual acquisition ability, complex math calculations.  Splinter skills-preoccupation with, and memorization of, music and sports trivia, maps, historical facts etc  Talented savants- possess special musical, artistic, mathematical skills.  Prodigious savants- Rare persons where their special skills are so outstanding that it would be spectacular even if it were to occur in non-handicapped person.

FAMOUS SAVANT: KIM PEEK

KIM PEEK Has read and memorized over 12,000 books and reads a book in about 1 hour( 10 sec/page). He can retain a very high 98% of information he reads. Also memorized historical facts and can do calculations involving dates etc. Has scored well below on IQ tests, but scored high on some subtests Inspiration for the film ‘Rain Man’, which introduced people to this rare disorder However, he has trouble doing simple tasks such as buttoning up his shirt and other ordinary motor skills

DANIEL TAMMET

 Can do complex math calculations instantly. He recited pi to 22,514 places from memory in 5 hours  He has synesthesia, so he sees numbers and letters as shapes. For him every number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape  He speaks 11 languages and is creating a new language called Manti  He was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Then he was interviewed on Icelandic television speaking the language fluently

ALONZO CLEMENS

STEPHEN WILTSHIRE

CONCLUSION  Unknown what the cause of savant syndrome is  Therefore, there are no treatments or methods of prevention  Scientists hope studying people with savant syndrome might help us answer these questions and better understand how our brains function.  And this might one day lead us to have these extraordinary abilities but without any drawbacks such as lack of social interaction with people and other side effects!