Temple Grandin, an author and public speaker/advocate for autism, claims that animals typically behave like people with autism. While Grandin’s work with autism can be a blog in itself, a LiveScience article by Marc Bekoff disproves her claims using a study titled, “Are Animals Autistic Savants?” Long story short, the answer is no, but what I wanted to focus on is what Bekoff means by “savants” and more specifically, savant syndrome. 

 

 

The noun “savant” is defined as “a learned person, especially a distinguished scientist,” but savant syndrome’s definition is not as straightforward. Savant syndrome is a rare and certainly extraordinary condition observed in people with serious mental disabilities (including but not limited to autism). About 1 in 10 people with autism have this condition, which provides them amazing “islands of genius” and remarkable skills that juxtaposes their autistic handicaps significantly. Other developmental disabilities experience this at the same ratio (1 in 10) as well as in other types of CNS (central nervous system) injury or disease as well.

 

 

These skills typically occur in five general areas: music, art, calendar calculating, mathematics, or mechanical/visual-spatial skills. Less common skills include language (polyglot), unusual sensory discrimination, athletics, or outstanding knowledge in specific fields like neurophysiology, statistics, navigation, or computers. People who experience savant syndrome usually have single skills, but multiple skills is possible. However, even if multiple skills develops in someone, the skills are always associated with massive memory of a habit or procedural type. 

 

 

These skills are usually very limited but incredibly thorough and deep within the confines of whatever the special skill may be. Sometimes, massive memory itself is one’s special skill. One thing observed in savant syndrome is that it occurs 4 to 6 times more frequently in males than females. However, research shows that due to the differences between developing female vs. developing male fetuses’ brains, this parallels with the same highly disproportionate male:female ratio seen in other forms of CNS injuries in autistic individuals. 

 

 

There have been select movies that feature autistic savants–can you think of any? If so, comment the movie below OR on my Insta post posted on this blog’s date!!! 🙂

 

 

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