Savant Syndrome and Daniel Tammet

Keywords: savant syndrome, autism, memory, brain, education.

What is syndrome?

The word of syndrome etymologically comes from Ancient Greek. This word occurred at the mid-16th century from syn- “together” and dramein-“to run”. As a definition, it is given “a characteristic combinations of opinions, emotions, or behaviors

Savant syndrome is a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. Savant syndrome is a rare, but extraordinary, condition in which persons with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, have some ‘island of genius’ which stands in marked, incongruous contrast to overall handicap. As many as one in 10 persons with autistic disorder have such remarkable abilities in varying degrees, although savant syndrome occurs in other developmental disabilities or in other types of central nervous system injury or disease as well. Whatever the particular savant skill, it is always linked to massive 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.

What do we know?

a. The condition is rare but one in 10 autistic persons show some savant skills.

In Rimland's (1978) survey of 5400 children with autism, 531 were reported by parents to have special abilities and a 10 per cent incidence of savant syndrome has become the generally accepted figure in autistic disorder. Hermelin (2001), however, estimated that figure to be as low as ‘one or two in 200’. But the presence of savant syndrome is not limited to autism.

Thus, not all autistic persons have savant syndrome and not all persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder.

b. Males outnumber females in autism and savant syndrome

Males outnumber females by an approximate 6: 1 ratio in savant syndrome compared with an approximate 4: 1 ratio in autistic disorder.

c. There is a spectrum of savant skills

Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, memory, arithmetic, musical abilities, and spatial skills. The most common are splinter skills, which include obsessive preoccupation with, and memorization of, music and sports trivia, license plate numbers, maps, historical facts or obscure items such as vacuum cleaner motor sounds. 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. 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. Advanced memory is the key "superpower" in savant abilities. Talented savants are those cognitively impaired persons in whom the musical, artistic or other special abilities are more prominent and highly honed, usually within an area of single expertise and are very conspicuous when viewed in contrast to overall disability. Prodigious savant is a term reserved for those extraordinarily rare individuals for whom the special skill is so outstanding that it would be spectacular even if it were to occur in a non-impaired person.

d. Savant syndrome can be congenital or it can be acquired

Most often savant skills emerge in childhood, superimposed on some underlying developmental disability present at birth. However, ‘acquired’ savant skills can also appear, when none were previously present, in neurotypical individuals following brain injury or disease later in infancy, childhood or adult life.

An important question is whether special skills are found in first-degree relatives of savants. Two studies, one with 25 savants and another with 51 subjects, showed relatives with special skills in some but certainly not all cases. Another study of 23 relatives of carefully studied savants found only one family member with special skills.

Young (1995) travelled to a number of countries and met with 51 savants and their families, completing the largest study performed on savants to date using uniform history taking and standardized psychological testing. Forty-one savants carried a diagnosis of autism and the remainder some other type of intellectual disability: 12 were rated as prodigious savants; 20 were rated as talented; and the remaining 19 had splinter skills.

e. No single theory can explain all savants.

Since Down's first description of savant syndrome, numerous theories have been put forth to explain this astonishing juxtaposition of ability and disability in the same person. One mechanism in some savants, whether congenital or acquired, is left brain dysfunction with right brain compensation, a form of ‘paradoxical functional facilitation’ as described by Kapoor (1996). Brink (1980) raised that possibility with a case in which left brain injury in a child gave rise to some mechanical and other savant skills. Miller's recent work with persons with front-temporal dementia (FTD) in whom savant skills surfaced, sometimes at a prodigious level, adds impetus to that speculation. Those studies led him to conclude that ‘loss of function in the left anterior lobe may lead to facilitation of artistic or musical skills’. Hou et al. (2000) stated it this way: ‘The anatomic substrate for the savant syndrome may involve loss of function in the left temporal lobe with enhanced function of the posterior neocortex’.

Other current theories, including genetic, cognitive and neural, will be explored in other contributions to this volume.

Training the talent: successful educational approaches

What is the best approach to the savant and his or her special skills? Phillips framed the controversy in 1930 when he stated: ‘the problem of treatment comes next…is it better to eliminate the defects or train the talent?’ Experience has provided a clear answer—‘train the talent’! And as one does so, some of the ‘defect’ subsides. The special talent, in fact, becomes a conduit towards normalization, using the unique savant skills to achieve better socialization, language acquisition and independence, all without the trade-off or loss of special abilities for those valuable gains in other areas of functioning. The special skills can be used as a way of engaging attention of the savant, and rather than seeing the special abilities as frivolous, they can be used as a form of expression with the goal of channeling those abilities more usefully.

This special curriculum proved highly successful in the functional application of savant skills and an overall reduction in the level of autistic behaviors in many subjects. Improvements in behavior, social skills and academic self-efficacy were reported, along with gain in the communication skills of some subjects.

Donnelly & Altman (1994) noted that increasing numbers of ‘gifted students with autism’ are now being included in gifted and talented classrooms with non-disabled gifted peers.

Some specialized schools are emerging as well. For example, Soundscape Centre in Surrey, England began operating in 2003 as the only specialized educational facility in the world uniquely dedicated to the needs and potential of persons with sight loss and special musical abilities, including musical savants. Orion Academy (www.orionacademy.org) in Moraga, California, USA specializes in providing a positive educational experience for high school students with Asperger's syndrome. Hope University (www.hopeu.com) in Anaheim, California is a fine arts facility for adults with developmental disabilities. Its mission is to ‘train the talents and diminish the disability’ through the use of fine arts therapy including visual arts, music, dance, drama and storytelling.

Daniel Tammet

Now, I want to give brief information about one of the Savant Syndrome with the specific details. Daniel Tammet is “savant”, an individual with an astonishing, extraordinary mental ability. He is 40, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to the 22.514 decimal places. Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn’t “calculating”: there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colors, and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. “When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and the third shape emerges. Years ago, he broke the European record for recalling pi, the mathematical constant, to the furthest decimal point. He found it easy, he says, because he didn’t even have to “think”. To him pi isn’t abstract set of digits; it’s a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes.That is the answer. It’s mental imagery. It’s like math without having to think”.

Typically, savants have a limited vocabulary but there is nothing limited about Tammet’s |vocabulary. Tammet is creating his own language, strongly influenced by the vowel and image-rich languages of northern Europe.( He already speaks French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Esperanto).

Tammet is softly spoken, and shy about making eye contact. He lives in on the Kent coast, but never goes near the beach –there too many pebbles to count. The thought of a mathematical problem with no solution makes him feel uncomfortable. Trip to the supermarket are always a chore. “There is too much mental stimulus. I have to look at every shape and texture. Every price and every arrangement of the fruit and vegetables.

Psychological

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.

References:

NorthStar 4( forth edition) by Andrew K, Laura Monahon ( page 6-8)