Table of contents hide 1 Let's make a little history 2 How common is Savant Syndrome? 3 Some examples of Savant skills 4 Now, inside the brain of the Savant 5 Can we all find our inner Savant?

When Dustin Hoffman starred in the 1989 Hollywood movie, Rain Man, an autistic sage with Savant Syndrome, suddenly transformed from being a rare disability that few people had They heard, even talking about the term in a family home.

In fact, the term Savant Syndrome is preferable to "autistic, " since only about 50% of people with this syndrome actually have autism. Others have a different cause of severe mental disability that coexists with exceptional talent or ability. The "island of genius" is always linked to the capacity of incredible memory, and can involve musical, artistic, mathematical or mechanical talents. It is even more remarkable, since it exists within a sea of ​​mental deficiency.

Let's do some history

The first recorded case of Savant Syndrome was the severe mental disability of Thomas Fuller, in 1789, who showed remarkable abilities to clarify the calculus. When asked how long a man who was 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old had lived, he gave the correct answer after 90 seconds, even with the correction of 17 leap years. However, apart from this amazing ability, Fuller was able to "understand almost nothing."

The term "idiot savant or wise idiots" was introduced in 1887, since at that time it was the idiot term for anyone with an IQ of less than 25. "Savant or wise" is derived from the French "savoire", which means "to know". In fact, almost all cases occur in people with IC over 40, and the term Savant Syndrome is more precise, as well as being less offensive.

How common is Savant Syndrome?

About 10% of people with autistic disorders have savant abilities, and in the non-autistic population, including those with mental retardation, the prevalence is less than 1%. It is much more common in men than in women.

Some examples of Savant skills

The impressive mathematical skills that sages often possess include the calculation of lightning. The memory of the agenda is sometimes seen, with which the wise man is asked a question how what day of the week was January 14, 1973? And you can give the answer in a matter of seconds.

At the 1964 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, two autistic identical twin brothers were presented, which had a space calculation calendar over 40, 000 years ago and forward.

Others can multiply and divide huge numbers and calculate square roots in their heads, however, they often have difficulties with simple arithmetic and are not able to achieve simple mathematical operations of daily life, such as counting change in a store.

Some scholars are talented artists and musicians. For example, the successful artist Stephen Wiltshire is a wise man, with autism. It has been filmed to complete a very precise and detailed drawing of London covering 4 square miles, 12 important landmarks and another 200 buildings, all drawn to scale and perspective, after observing everything during a helicopter ride that only took about 12 minutes Savants with musical talent often have a perfect tone and remarkable musical memory.

Some scholars have remarkable mechanical or spatial abilities, such as the ability to build complex and detailed models, or to measure distances with great precision and without instruments.

The true sage who was the inspiration for the character of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man had memorized more than 8600 books and possessed, in addition they have encyclopedic knowledge of geography, music, literature, history and sports. He also had a fascinating ability to read very quickly, and the exploration of one page with the left eye and the other with the right at the same time.

Now, inside the brain of the Savant

Many researchers believe that the underlying cause of Savant Syndrome is left by a brain injury with compensation of the right part of the brain. Images of the brain with CT, PET and MRI often show evidence of brain deficits on the left side.

The theory is also supported by cases of Acquired Savant Syndrome, where savant skills appear after damage to the left side of the brain, either after trauma such as a fall or gunshot wound, or after the onset of dementia that mostly damages the left side of the brain.

The Savant has been mentioned above, especially on what the character of Rain Man was based , where substantial brain damage was found on MRI , including any absence of the corpus callosum, which normally connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Can we all find our inner Savant?

Since the existence of this remarkable syndrome was recognized for the first time, people have been fascinated by the way in which these prodigious talents can coexist with severe disability in the same individual.

In recent years, researchers have begun to wonder if they can reveal skills as savant in healthy volunteers if parts of the left brain are temporarily immobilized with a technique called Repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation . In some people, there was an improvement in savant-type skills, such as drawing and proofreading, but the improvements were not dramatic, and did not occur in all patients.

The existence of Savant Syndrome remains an enigma that fascinates us and challenges our understanding of what the human brain is capable of doing.

AUTHOR: JoT333, editor of the great family of hermandadblanca.org