Savant syndrome

drawing Mexico City Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, memory, arithmetic, musical abilities, and spatial skills. Calendrical savants A (or ) is someone who – despite having an intellectual disability – can name the day of the week of a date, or vice versa, on a limited range of decades or certain millennia. The rarity of human calendar calculators is possibly due to the lack of motivation to develop such skills among the general population, although mathematicians have developed algorithms that allow them to obtain similar skills. ==Mechanism==

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 empathising–systemising 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 hypothesized that some savants operate by directly accessing deep, unfiltered information that exists in all human brains that is not normally available to conscious awareness. Further researchers have proposed the autism-linked trait of obsessiveness as a contributing factor to savant syndrome. In other words, some savants may over-rehearse their skills due to obsessive special-interest. A 2012 study showed that savant children are likely to score higher on a 'obsessions and special interest' metric than their autistic-nonsavant counterparts. Neurological In some cases, savant syndrome can be induced following severe head trauma to the left anterior temporal lobe. Other cases includes neurodivergent people who developed savant syndrome after experiencing certain diseases. One example being otherwise healthy elderly persons with frontotemporal dementia who develop savant syndrome later in life. ==Epidemiology==

There are no objectively definitive statistics about how many people have savant skills. The estimates range from "exceedingly rare" to one in ten people with autism having savant skills in varying degrees. As many as 50 cases of sudden or acquired savant syndrome have been reported. The sex ratio disparity is slightly higher than for autism spectrum disorders of 4.3:1, with males with savant syndrome outnumbering females with savant syndrome by an approximately 6:1 ratio. ==History==

The term '''''' (French for 'learned idiot') was first used to describe the condition in 1887 by John Langdon Down, who is known for his description of Down syndrome. Down described approximately ten cases of youth he had known with unusual mental powers, like "verbal adhesion" (e.g. memorizing books read once), photographic memory for artistic drawing, model-building, or music, autobiographical memory, arithmetic & calendrical calculation, and always knowing the current time down to the minute. Down noted that they were all male, none had a family history of similar talents, and that the extraordinary memory was usually associated with "very great defect of reasoning power". The term idiot savant was later described as a misnomer because not all reported cases fit the definition of idiot, originally used for a person with a very severe intellectual disability. The term autistic savant was also used as a description of the disorder. Like idiot savant, the term came to be considered a misnomer because only half of those who were diagnosed with savant syndrome were autistic. Upon realization of the need for accuracy of diagnosis and dignity towards the individual, the term savant syndrome became widely accepted terminology. ==Society and culture==

Notable cases • Daniel Tammet, British author and polyglot • Derek Paravicini, British blind musical prodigy and pianist • Henriett Seth F., Hungarian autistic writer and artist • Nadia Chomyn, British autistic artist • Kim Peek, American "megasavant" • Jodi DiPiazza, American musician • Leslie Lemke, American musician • Rex Lewis-Clack, American pianist and musical savant • Matt Savage, American musician • Richard Wawro, British crayon artist • Stephen Wiltshire, British architectural artist • Temple Grandin, American professor of animal science • Blind Tom Wiggins, American blind pianist and composer • Kodi Lee, 2019 ''America's Got Talent'' winner (musician) Acquired cases • Alonzo Clemons, American acquired savant sculptor • Tony Cicoria, American acquired savant pianist and medical doctor • Derek Amato, American acquired savant composer and pianist • Patrick Fagerberg, American acquired savant artist, inventor and former lawyer • Orlando Serrell, American acquired savant • Tommy McHugh, British artist and poet • Jason Padgett, American acquired savant artist Fictional cases • Park Shi-on, autistic savant in the 2013 South Korean medical drama Good Doctor • Shaun Murphy, autistic savant in the 2017 American medical drama television series The Good Doctor (remake of the 2013 South Korean series) • Raymond Babbitt, autistic savant in the 1988 film Rain Man (inspired by Kim Peek) • Kazan, developmentally disabled savant in the 1997 film Cube • Patrick Obyedkov, acquired savant in a 2007 episode of the U.S. medical drama House. • Forrest Gump, savant in the 1986 novel Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. • Ireneo Funes, acquired savant in the 1942 short story Funes the Memorious by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. • Christian Wolff, autistic savant in the 2016 film The Accountant and its 2025 sequel The Accountant 2. • Woo Young-woo, autistic savant in the 2022 South Korean television series Extraordinary Attorney Woo. • Maria Bagtikan-Cruz, acquired savant in a 2011 episode of the Philippine television sitcom series Pepito Manaloto. == See also ==