Psychology

Savant syndrome is a condition in which people with serious mental handicaps, from retardation or a major mental illness (early infantile autism or schizophrenia), have spectacular islands of ability or brilliance. Some have skills that are remarkable in contrast to their handicap (talented savants or savant I); others have an ability that would be spectacular even in a normal person (prodigious savants or savant II).

The syndrome is six times more common in males than in females and occurs for a very narrow range of skills: calendar calculating, music (almost exclusively limited to the piano), lightning calculations and mathematics, art, mechanical ability, prodigious memory, or, rarely, unusual sensory discrimination abilities (smell or touch).

When the condition was first described in 1887, the person with the syndrome was called an "idiot savant," with "idiot" referring to an IQ below 25 and "savant" meaning learned person. The term "idiot" was improper from the beginning simply because the savant's IQ is above 25, usually in the range of 40 to 70.

Here are some case studies of savants:

George and his identical twin brother Charles can give you the day of the week for any date over a span of 80,000 years. Ask them to identify the years in the next two centuries in which Easter will fall on, say, March 23rd, and they will give correct answers with lightning speed. The twin brothers can describe the weather on any day of their adult life. At the same time, they are unable to add or count to 30, and they cannot figure change from a $10 for a $6 purchase.

Kenneth can accurately cite the population of every U.S. city over 5,000; the distance from each city or town to the largest city in its state; the names, number of rooms, and locations of 2,000 leading hotels in the U.S.; and statistics concerning 3,000 mountains and rivers. Kenneth has a mental age of 11 years and a vocabulary of 58 words.

Upon hearing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 for the first time in his teen years, Leslie played it back flawlessly and without hesitation. He can do the same with any other piece of music, no matter how long or complex. Leslie is severely mentally handicapped, blind, and he has cerebral palsy.

Ellen, also a musical genius, constructs complicated chords to accompany music she hears on the radio. She was able to repeat the soundtrack of the musical Evita after hearing it only once, transposing orchestra and chorus to her piano by using complex, precise chords, including intense dissonances, to reproduce mob and crowd noises. Like Leslie, Ellen is blind and has an IQ score of less than 50.