The phenomenon of savantism has always been in the center of attention of scientists, but until now, questions related to the nature of occurrence and the mechanisms of this rare phenomenon remain open. Nevertheless, research in this area could not only help develop new effective methods of rehabilitation and integration of children with psychological development disorders, but also reveal and develop latent abilities in each person.
Savant syndrome (from the French savant - "scientist") is a condition in which people with developmental disabilities have outstanding abilities in one or more areas of knowledge against a background of general mental disability.
History of the issue
For the first time the term "savant syndrome" was used by D. L. Down in 1887, the scientist described 10 savant patients who met him during 30 years of work at Earlswood Psychiatric Hospital (London, UK). He rejected the incorrect and outdated French term "idiot savant" - "learned idiot", which was proposed by E. Seguin, who first described savants from a scientific point of view in 1866 in his work "Idiocy and its treatment by psychological methods." Since the nineteenth century. in scientific and popular literature, mentions of savants begin to occur.
Perhaps the most famous and already historical figure was Tom Wiggins ("Blind Tom"), described by Seguin, a black slave who lived in the family of American Colonel Bethune from 1849 to 1908. Tom was blind and his vocabulary consisted of no more than 100 words, and until the age of 5 he did not speak at all, but already at the age of 13 he masterly performed thousands of pieces of music, as soon as he listened to them only once, and created his own plays.
He was considered the eighth wonder of the world - Tom was never taught to play the piano, but as a child he often listened to the colonel's daughters practicing the piano, and at the age of 4 he showed phenomenal talent for playing music, and at 6 he already began to compose his own own works, by 8 he earned 100 thousand dollars, by 11 he gave concerts in the White House in front of the American president.
Not only did he unmistakably imitate the pieces he had ever heard, but he could play with his back turned to the piano, or simultaneously perform several pieces of music on different pianos, singing the third motive. Although Seguin believed that Tom was mentally retarded, modern researchers express the opinion that his behavior was more characteristic of autism.
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An American psychiatrist, D. Treffert, who studies this phenomenon, proposed a specific term for determining the abilities of savants - the so-called island of genius, contrasting with the general incapacity of such people and being a secondary education in relation to disorders of the central nervous system. In total, about 100 cases of savantism are described in the scientific literature, half of the savant people are our contemporaries.
50% of known savants are diagnosed with autism, the rest have other mental disorders, while savantism is not always congenital - it can be acquired as a result of traumatic brain injury, encephalitis, episyndroma and even dementia. In one form or another, the phenomenon occurs in one in 10 autistic people and in one in 2 thousand people with other disorders.
The gender ratio of the frequency of cases is also uneven - there are 4 to 6 male savants per woman with savant syndrome. The IQ of such people rarely goes beyond 40-70 points, but in some cases, the intelligence remains intact (for example, with highly functional autism).
In those cases when the savant syndrome is secondary in relation to various forms of mental dysontogenesis, genius abilities are manifested in early childhood, bypassing the preliminary phases of development. For example, most of the savant artists have never studied painting, but they are perfectly familiar with the methods of depicting objects, while their peers are at the stage of depicting scribble and dots.
At the same time, the spheres in which the savants demonstrate their skills are limited to a small cognitive area: they all have a phenomenal memory, but usually already against its background, to the level of genius, either musical or artistic abilities or skills for complex arithmetic calculations and calculations develop, less often - mechanical or ability to orientate in space, even less often - linguistic. Savants' talents are truly incomprehensible - they are able to read books in a matter of minutes, in a second to give the result of multiplying multi-digit numbers, ideally perform a Mozart symphony, having heard it only once.
The memory of savants is primarily distinguished by the ability to memorize details and particulars, it is specific-situational, which gives rise to violations of the ability to select information - along with the main features of phenomena, they also highlight minor ones, which does not allow them to realize the essence of the phenomenon as a whole and generalize life experience.
It is characteristic that the memory of savants, despite its limitless depth, is devoid of a meaningful component - they can memorize huge amounts of information, completely not understanding its meaning - Down called this symptom "verbal adhesion" or verbal adhesion. As an example, he cited one of his patients - a boy who read and memorized the six-volume work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", but during the reproduction he lost one single line all the time, even despite the doctor's corrections.
The life of wonderful people
Kim Peak is the most famous savant of our time. It was his life that inspired the screenwriter of the film "Rain Man" to create a screen image of an autistic person with an extraordinary ability to count. However, Kim himself has little in common with the screen hero brilliantly played by Dustin Hoffman, primarily because he does not suffer from autism. At birth, Kim Peak was diagnosed with numerous anomalies in the development of the brain: cranial hernia, hydrocephalus, deformity of the cerebellum, and absence of the corpus callosum.
His later diagnosis was “nonspecific developmental disorder”; the researchers concluded that this anomaly may be associated with a mutation on the X chromosome.
Kim's phenomenal abilities fall into three areas: mnemonics, numeracy, and music. His memory is really outstanding - he read and knew by heart about 10 thousand books, could accurately recreate a map of any American settlement, remembered all the postcodes and telephone codes of the United States, read a page in 10 seconds, thoroughly knew the history of music, including the biographies of musicians. and could easily tell on what day of the week the celebration of the New Year would fall in a couple of hundred, or even thousands, years.
Kim demonstrated his abilities from an early age - he learned to read at the age of 1.5, and at the age of 7 he already knew the Bible by heart. And at the same time, the deficits in mental development do not allow doubting that he was deprived of full-fledged functioning in society.
Kim learned to walk at the age of 4, until the end of his life he had a shaky gait and low muscle tone (the consequences of cerebellar pathology), he could not serve himself in everyday life. The way to a comprehensive school was closed for him, and his father took over Kim's training, who took care of and strongly supported the development of his son's abilities. Determining Kim's true intelligence turned out to be an overwhelming task for specialists, since each time he tested he showed different results with a wide range - from almost normal intelligence to deep dementia (on average, IQ was 87 points).
And yet, Kim's ability to abstract was significantly reduced - for example, the figurative meaning of proverbs remained beyond his understanding, and he thought in specific images, which is typical for people with mental retardation. One day, during a family dinner at a restaurant, his father asked Kim to lower his voice, to which he literally slid under the table so that his voice could be heard from below.
Kim's reading addictions were limited to certain topics (there were a dozen of them in total - for example, history, sports, religion, cinema, etc.), and the technique was very unusual - he read the right page with his right eye, and the left with his left, while the book itself could even upside down. Unlike most eidetic savants, who also grasp information in a matter of seconds, Kim understood the meaning of what he read in many cases.
It is surprising that a person, seemingly devoid of the ability to learn, was able to develop his talents - by the end of his life, Kim Pik's theoretical interest in music found practical application - he learned to play the piano perfectly, despite problems with coordination of movements, including parts other tools.
Neurologists speculate that the secret of Kim's genius lies in the absence of a corpus callosum that connects the hemispheres of the brain. Perhaps Kim's brain has developed backup channels of communication between the hemispheres. This anomaly is quite rare, but most people who have it congenital do not have superpowers, but they also do not have a mental defect, but when the corpus callosum is cut in adulthood, people develop “split brain syndrome”.
George and Charles Finn, twin brothers, were kept in special institutions from the age of 7 with various diagnoses - from psychotic disorder to autism and severe mental retardation - accompanied by stigmas of dysontogenesis: cleft palate, disproportionate skull, congenital myopia, tics. The brothers, like two peas in a pod, resembled each other not only in appearance, but also in gestures, habits, voices, and behavioral manifestations.
In the 60s. they became known as "calendar calculators" and managed to participate in numerous shows, demonstrating their talent. The twins had unlimited numerical memory and could instantly name which day of the week any date within 40 thousand years would fall. Moreover, their IQ was equal to 60 points, and elementary arithmetic operations were not available to them.
It is believed that their ability to compute is not associated with memory, but with a subconsciously developed algorithm for calendar calculations, the main mechanism of which was not operating with numbers, but their direct representation, visualization (the brothers themselves explained their ability to compute with one phrase: “We see this ).
Nevertheless, with the dispassionateness of documentary filmmakers in monotonous voices similar to lifeless sounds emitted by a computer program, they could tell with all the details about any event that ever happened to them, but they had no general idea of either the course of history or the experience they lived through. life. By the way, the famous episode from the movie "Rain Man", in which the main character instantly counts the scattered toothpicks, is taken from the life of George and Charles, and is described by Oliver Sachs, who researched their abilities.
The brothers loved to play a mysterious game, naming each other alternately prime numbers (despite the fact that there is no direct way of calculating prime numbers in nature), the meaning of which remained unsolved. At the age of 37, the twins were separated, believing that their symbiotic relationship was preventing them from acquiring new skills. George and Charles did manage to gain some independence and learn to do simple jobs, but, losing communication with each other and numbers, they also lost their abilities.
A similar thing happened to Nadia, an autistic girl who, from the age of 3, began to create graphic drawings of horses with the skill of a gifted artist. Usually, in the process of development, the child's ability to draw undergoes changes - all normal children in their drawings go through the stage of drawing scribbles, Nadia has passed this stage - already her first drawings were created with accurate and confident lines, according to the laws of perspective, with the transfer of the play of light and shade and individual traits with which she endowed all the characters of her work. At the age of 7, the girl was sent to school, where she began to undergo intensive speech therapy. Nadia did become more socialized, but her drawing ability was gone.
A rigid fixation on one topic is typical for autistic children, including autistic savants. So, if Nadia was obsessed with the image of horses, then the autistic artist Jessica Park painted only the starry sky and natural anomalies, and the sculptor Alonzo Clemons creates only animal sculptures - 20 minutes of watching the program "In the animal world" is enough for him to with amazing precision and elegance create casts of the animals seen.
Scottish autistic artist Richard Vuoro specialized in pastel landscapes that he created from memory, recalling the corners of nature, the seaside, houses and animals ever seen.
He did not speak until he was 11, but as soon as he started walking, he showed a great interest in drawing. Surprisingly, after the cataract surgery, Richard went blind, but this did not affect the quality of his work. Vuoro's paintings were collected by John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher.
Steven Wiltshire, an outstanding artist from Great Britain, who suffers from autism, creates beautiful sketches of architectural structures, street scenes and panoramas of the cities he has visited. Stephen is able to draw an accurate panorama of the city after a short helicopter flight - he has created large canvases depicting London, New York, Tokyo, Rome and other cities.
Although he is now 37, his drawing abilities have remained at the same level of development as in childhood (needless to say, already at the age of 10, Stephen mastered this skill almost at a professional level). At the age of three, Stephen was diagnosed with early childhood autism, he was slowly developing physically, avoided other children, barely spoke until he was 6 years old, was prone to stereotypical behavior, and his IQ is only 52 points.
For the first time, Stephen began to paint at 7 - then it was mainly cars (he still retains his passion for cars, knows almost all brands and is very happy when he sees an unfamiliar car on the street), less often - animals and people, but soon he switched to architectural subject. Possessing a unique visual memory, he only needs to look at the building once to draw an exact copy of it.
Stephen's drawings are devoid of symbolism - unlike other children who fantasize in their drawings, he always drew what he saw. At the same time, the artist is not devoid of the ability to improvise - sometimes he can add some details in the building from himself, because it is “more beautiful” or “more convenient”. In addition, he has excellent motor memory and can repeat any noticed movement, as well as perfect pitch - having heard a song once, he can repeat it without mistakes.
From childhood, Stephen was not worried about the safety of his work, and he could easily throw out a beautiful view of one of London streets just drawn. He is also absolutely indifferent to praise, and only through the efforts of doctors and teachers who in every possible way supported the talent of the young artist, the publishers were able to release several albums of his work.
Many savants are gifted with music. For example, the American musician Leslie Lemke was born prematurely. After doctors diagnosed organic brain damage, cerebral palsy, retinopathy and glaucoma, which led to the removal of the eyeballs, the mother abandoned the child. Leslie was adopted by a nurse who worked at the hospital where he was born. The future musician learned to move independently only in adolescence, at the same time his abilities were revealed. Once he heard Tchaikovsky's Concert No. 1 being broadcast on TV, he unexpectedly played it the next night on the piano with the skill of a Conservatory graduate.
The story of the Englishman Derek Paravicini is in many ways similar to the story of Leslie Lemke. He was born at 25 weeks, weighed about 500 g, and went blind after oxygen therapy. Disorders of his mental development are so serious that he is not able to independently satisfy elementary everyday needs; at 32, his intellect is comparable to that of a 4-year-old child.
Derek's abilities were revealed at the age of 2, and at 4 he was already giving full-fledged concerts on a par with his adult colleagues. Having perfect pitch and phenomenal musical memory, he can play a piece of music after hearing it only once, and critics consider him to be one of the outstanding jazz musicians of our time for his masterful ability to improvise.
Not many people know that the son of the Nobel laureate, Japanese writer Oe Kenzaburo is also a savant. Hikari Oe was born with a developmental pathology of the brain, underwent a series of operations to remove a craniocerebral hernia, but neither mental retardation, nor epileptic seizures, nor poor eyesight prevented him from becoming a composer. Hikari learned to speak only at the age of 7 (his vocabulary is still small), at 11 he began to study music and by the age of 13 he created his first work. The birth of a child with special needs greatly influenced the work of Oe Kenzaburo himself - the image of a son repeatedly appears in his novels and is always filled with affection and love.
The talents shown by children with developmental disabilities should be treated with great care. Thus, active attempts to socialize and educate such children often led to the loss of unusual abilities (as was the case in the case of Nadia or the Finnish twins), but at the same time they became more adapted in society.
The experience of Kim Peak, Stephen Wiltshire and many other savants shows that with the right attitude towards such children, which is to support their giftedness, not only creative skills, but also the ability to communicate, and even develop new talents, can improve during life. Savant children, who feel the support of their relatives and find recognition of their talents in society, bear little resemblance to the inhabitants of special institutions for the disabled with a stamp of stigma on their faces.
The neurobiology of savant syndrome
In modern neuroscience, there is a point of view that the emergence of the abilities of savants is associated with the interference of exo-endogenous pathological processes in the morphology of the hemispheres, namely in the interhemispheric asymmetry. As you know, abstract-logical, verbal, discrete thinking is associated with the functioning of the left, leading, hemisphere, while the right one is responsible for spatial-figurative, non-verbal, simultaneous thinking, which is crucial for creativity. According to research results, in most savants, the left hemisphere is more or less damaged.
Considering the connection of "right-brain thinking" with eidetism, musical and artistic abilities, it can be assumed that the right hemisphere compensates for the losses that the personality has suffered as a result of damage to the left. Thus, in the course of pneumoencephalographic studies conducted in 1975, damage to the left hemisphere was found in 15 out of 17 autists, 4 of whom had the abilities of savants. Later, data on impaired functioning of the left hemisphere in autists compared to the more involved right hemisphere was confirmed by B. Rimland from the Institute for Autism Research in San Diego (USA), having analyzed data from 34 thousand people with this disorder.
The defeat of the left hemisphere, Harvard scientists N. Geshvind and A. M. Galaburda explains why men more often than women develop not only savant syndrome, but also speech impairments, hyperactivity and autism. It is known that the left hemisphere of the brain develops somewhat slower than the right one and remains vulnerable to unwanted prenatal influences for a longer time, and in the male embryo, a higher level of testosterone can have a toxic effect on the developing nervous tissue. Thus, aggressive testosterone inhibits the development of the left hemisphere and provokes a greater severity of hemispheric asymmetry in men.
In connection with the adaptation theory of savantism, clinical cases of the onset of supernormal abilities in people without developmental disorders, whose brain has been exposed to various postnatal pathological factors, are of particular interest. For example, there are cases of the development of artistic abilities in people with various forms of frontotemporal dementia, in which the left hemisphere was involved in the neurodegenerative process.
Interestingly, in such patients, the deafening process was suspended, and cognitive impairment developed at a slower rate. Psychologist T. L. Brink from Crafton Hills College, California (USA) in 1980 described a clinical case of a 9-year-old boy who, after a bullet wound to the left hemisphere, developed right-sided paralysis, mutism and deafness, but developed outstanding mechanical abilities.
If the development of the mental abilities of most children depends on the action of many factors, including social ones, then the talents of savant children are biological in nature, their intelligence is isolated and crystallized to one degree or another, which is of considerable interest for scientists seeking to find biological patterns of giftedness. …
The fact that the abilities of savants may be due to more than just genetic abnormalities raises a serious question for scientists about the possibility of unleashing the powerful creativity in each of us.
Australian neurophysiologists B. Miller and A. Snyder, when scanning the electromagnetic activity of the brain of several savants, found that they had increased electromagnetic activity in the left temporal lobe. Healthy people, with stimulation of the left temporal lobe, showed a short-term improvement in drawing and mathematical calculations, their creativity increased by 40%.
The development of special methods, neuropsychological exercises aimed at stimulating the work of the "zone of genius" and greater involvement in the thought processes of the right hemisphere is a relevant topic for scientific research, because it is likely that hidden talent lies dormant in each of us.
Olga Ustimenko