Idiot Savants

maxpi · Aug 19, 2003

Quote from randynutts:

Ok, how about just Idiots? Know of any?
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They are in the Chit Chat section, can't prove it to any of them however.

-EntropyTrader · Aug 19, 2003

MYSTERY OF THE IDIOT SAVANT

To describe the enigmas of the idiot savant, we can do no better than quote the first two paragraphs of a review article by D.A. Treffert:

"At the 1964 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, a discussant concluded, 'The importance, then, of the Idiot-Savant lies in our inability to explain him; he stands as a landmark of our own ignorance and the phenomenon of the Idiot-Savant exists as a challenge to our capabilities.' In the years that have followed, the inability to explain the idiot savant has not lessened, and the challenge to our capabilities remains undiminished. However, no model of brain function, particularly memory, will be complete until it can account for this rare but spectacular condition, with its islands of mental ability in a sea of mental handicap and disability.
"Through the past century, since Down's description of this disorder, the several hundred idiot savants reported in the world literature have shown remarkable similarities within an exceedingly narrow range of abilities, given the many possible skills in the human repertoire. Why do so many idiot savants have the obscure skill of calendar calculating? Why does the triad of retardation, blindness, and musical genius appear with such regularity among them? Why is there a 6:1 male-to-female ratio in this disorder? What accounts for the more common occurrence of the idiot savant among patients with infantile autism than among those with other developmental disabilities?"

Other questions that can be framed based on the rest of the paper are: How do some talents arise from injuries? Why do some talents disappear when other, different, skills are learned?

Treffert admits to science's complete bafflement over this phenomenon. No wonder, for how can we, in our present state of knowledge, account of these two cases:

Twin savants who can instantly name the day of the week over a span of 8000 years, and who may have an unlimited digital span; i.e., an unlimited memory for numbers.

Blind Tom, possessing a very lim ited IQ, who played Mozart on the piano at 4, and who could play back flawlessly any piece of music, re gardless of complexity. He could also repeat a discourse of any length in any language without the loss of a syllable.
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-EntropyTrader · Aug 19, 2003

What is savant syndrome?
Savant Syndrome is a rare, but spectacular, condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have astonishing islands of ability, brilliance or talent that stand in stark, markedly incongruous contrast to overall limitations. The condition can be congenital (genetic or inborn), or can be acquired later in childhood, or even in adults. The savant skills co-exist with, or are superimposed upon, various developmental disabilities including autistic disorder, or other conditions such as mental retardation or brain injury or disease that occurs before (pre-natal) during (peri-natal) or after birth (post-natal), or even later in childhood or adult life. The extraordinary skills are always linked with prodigious memory of a special type â exceedingly deep but very, very narrow.

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How common is savant syndrome?
Approximately one in ten (10%) of persons with autistic disorder have some savant skills. In other forms of development disability, mental retardation or brain injury, savant skills occur in less than 1% of such persons (approximately 1:2000 in persons with mental retardation). Since these other forms of mental disability are much more common than autistic disorder however, it turns out that approximately 50% of persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder, and the other 50% have some other form of developmental disability, mental retardation or brain injury or disease. Thus not all savants are autistic, and not all autistic persons are savants.

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What is the range of savant skills?
Savant skills exist over a spectrum of abilities. The most common savant abilities are called splinter skills. These include behaviors such as 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, for example. Talented savants are those persons in whom musical, artistic, mathematical or other special skills are more prominent and highly honed, usually within an area of single expertise, and are very conspicuous when viewed against their overall handicap. The term prodigious savant is reserved for those very rare persons in this already uncommon condition where the special skill or ability is so outstanding that it would be spectacular even if it were to occur in a non-handicapped person. There are probably fewer than 50 prodigious savants living worldwide at the present time who would meet this high threshold of special skill.
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-EntropyTrader · Aug 19, 2003

Might there be a little Rain Man in each of us?

The idea that some savant capabilities â a little Rain Man â might reside in each of us rises from several observations. First, there have been instances reported of previously non-disabled, "normal" persons in whom some previously latent savant skills emerged following a head injury, a phenomenon called "acquired" savant syndrome. Second, Dr. Bruce Miller's work, as described in detail elsewhere on this site, documents 12 cases of elderly persons, previously non-disabled, with no extraordinary savant skills, whose savant abilities newly emerged, sometimes at a prodigious level, after a particular type of dementia-fronto-temporal dementia-began and progressed. Thirdly, some procedures such as hypnosis or sodium amytal interviews in non-disabled persons, and brain surface electrode exploration during certain types of neurosurgical procedures, provide evidence that a huge reservoir of memories lies dormant, and non-accessed, in each of us. Fourth, the images and memories that surface, often to our surprise, during some dreams , also tap that huge store of buried memories beyond that available in our everyday waking state. Finally, often as we relax or 'tune out' other distractions, sometime after 'retirement' for example, some previously hidden, latent interests, talents or abilities quite suddenly, and surprisingly, emerge. Sometimes that emergence is actually a re-kindling of some earlier childhood abilities, such as art, for whatever reason set aside with maturation and 'growing up'.

There are several theories as to why that might be the case. My own view, described in much greater detail here on this site under this same question, is that while each of us still has the same lower level memory circuitry the savant uses (non-cognitive, habit or procedural memory) we have come generally to rely on our higher level, broader and more versatile cognitive or semantic memory circuits because that particular memory function serves us well, and better. Correspondingly, while each of us have as well many right brain capabilities (non-symbolic, artistic, concrete, directly perceived) we live in a world that rewards left brain strengths (sequential, logical, and symbolic including language specialization). Thus we have generally come to rely on the well-worn circuits of left brain function + semantic memory, to the exclusion or relative disuse of right brain function + habit memory. But when those well worn circuits are disturbed by head injury or CNS disease, for example, the more primitive, lower level circuits of right brain/habit memory do come to the fore. Some refer to that in brain injury and disease as a compensatory phenomenon called "paradoxical facilitation". But is actual brain injury or disease necessary in order to tap some of that buried potential, or might there be other methods short of injury or disease itself to bring us in touch with more buried skills and memory function? Could specific cognitive techniques or other procedures facilitate such a process in all of us? Some investigators are using large magnetic circuits (rTMS) to temporarily disable brain function in certain areas in non-disabled persons to see if these more primitive, buried circuits can emerge in 'normal' persons. That work is described as well in much more detail elsewhere on this web site.

The search for hidden potential that lies, perhaps, within each of us is an intriguing area of research and savant research may provide some clues to that interesting possibility, as well as providing some useful insights to the interface between savant functioning and genius overall.
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-EntropyTrader · Aug 19, 2003

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/faq.cfm

What are the typical savant skills?

Particularly striking is the consistent observation also over this past century that savant skills typically, and curiously, are generally confined to only about five general areas of expertise â music, art, lightning calculating or other mathematical skills, calendar calculating and mechanical/spatial skills. This very limited, but spectacular, array of special skills is noteworthy considering the much wider palette of skills in the human repertoire, and the rarity of the obscure skill of calendar calculating in the general population, which seems an ability almost universal, innately so, among savants.

Music is the generally the most common savant skill-usually playing piano by ear and almost always with perfect pitch. Other percussion instruments such as marimba or drums can be mastered as well, but much less frequently. Musical performance abilities predominate, but outstanding composing skills have been documented as well, most often linked to performance ability, but not necessarily so. The triad of mental disability, blindness and musical genius occurs with a curious, conspicuous frequency in reports over this past century, particularly when one considers the relative rarity of each of those circumstances individually

Artistic talent, usually painting or drawing, is seen next most frequently. Other forms of artistic talent can occur as well, such as sculpting. Lightning calculating or other mathematical skills, such as the ability to compute multi-digit prime numbers contrasted with the inability to perform even simple arithmetic, has often been reported. Mechanical ability, constructing or repairing intricate machines or motors for example, or spatial skills such as intricate map and route memorizing, or being able to compute distances with precise accuracy just from visualization, do occur, but are seen somewhat less frequently.

Calendar calculating is curiously and conspicuously common among savants, particularly considering the rarity of that obscure skill in the general population. Beyond being able to name the day of the week that a date will occur on in any particular year, calendar calculating includes being able to name all the years in the next 100 in which Easter will fall on March 23rd, for example, or all the years in the next 20 when July 4 will fall on a Tuesday. The so-called 'calculating twins' reported extensively in the literature, have a calendar calculating span of over 40000 years backward or forward in time. They also remember the weather for every day of their adult life.

Other skills are occasionally seen including multilingual acquisition ability or other unusual language (polyglot) skills, exquisite sensory discrimination in smell or touch, perfect appreciation of passing time without access to a clock face, or outstanding knowledge in specific fields such as neurophysiology, statistics, history or navigation, to name a few. While always controversial, there have been some reports of extra-sensory perception skills occurring in savants as well.

Typically a particular one of these skills occurs singly in each person with savant syndrome. However in some instances multiple skills occur in the same person. Regardless of the type of skill, it is always combined with prodigious memory, and it is this special kind of memory-extraordinarily deep but very, very narrow â that cuts across all the various special skills and welds the condition of savant syndrome together.
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Ya mean they're not into trading...why not make $billions instead of calculating calenders.

maxpi · Aug 20, 2003

I guess if you are idiotic enough to look at charts for years then eventually you become a savant. I bought GERN premarket this morning at $7.68, right after 8am eastern. I was fiddling around for an hour or so looking at trading stuff, news, whatnot and this alarm went off in my head to sell the thing so I got out with 30 cents profit. Pretty much in at the low for the day and out near the top. I have no idea how that alarm goes off, it just does.

bubba7 · Aug 21, 2003

Do you know how this relates to biological knowledge?

Growing animals, growing plants and understanding soils?

ElectricSavant · Aug 22, 2003

Manic personality with extreme tendancies....a small cult of people we are.

Michael B.

nslaughter · Sep 2, 2003

I haven't known any savant traders, but most traders I have known are obsessive about knowing/memorizing something. It isn't always directly related to trading, but there could be parrallels in the skills.

PuffyGums · Sep 2, 2003

Girls, Boys and Autism
http://www.msnbc.com/news/958646.asp?vts=090120030800