Acquired Savantism: The Genesis of Accidental Genius

Abstract

A cquired S avantism : T he G enesis of A ccidental G enius Kapil Gururangan B S J At age ten, Orlando Serrell was struck on the left side of his head with a baseball; he is able to clearly remember the weather and details about his personal activities for every day since that accident (Hughes 2010, 149). Some elderly patients battling the debilitation of dementia have discovered newfound abilities in music, art, and language (Miller 2008, 8). A former molecular biologist loses her ability to speak but becomes amazingly talented in painting that fuses music, vision, and feeling onto a canvas titled Unraveling Bolero (8). These examples all have one thing in common: the individuals acquire impressive abilities following damage to the central nervous system, predominantly in the left hemisphere of the brain. Savant syndrome is the presence of extreme talent in the wake of profound disabilities and while this normally presents in early development, scientists have observed a fascinating mechanism for the occurrence of savant syndrome after an accident (Hughes 2010, 149). This latter condition has come to the attention of researchers as acquired savant syndrome, the development of savant-like abilities following traumatic injury to the central nervous system. These prodigious abilities were once thought to be purely congenital, but case studies of patients with brain damage have uncovered the possibility that these abilities may not be uniquely inherent to savants, but are also latent in unimpaired people as well. The research of acquired savant syndrome creates the possibility for greater insights into how the human mind functions and develops, as well as how talent and genius can manifest by pure accident. Advances in this field have begun to create new opportunities in science that could expand the potential of the human mind and may one day change the way the world perceives disability and talent. N euroscience of D imensia and T alent The majority of recognized savants are products of genetic mutation or disabilities in early development; their talent is therefore natural to them and it is difficult to determine exactly what factors may have combined to produce such astounding ability. Researchers have several theories about the underlying mechanism of savant syndrome after observing the neural activity of savants, both congenital and acquired. The autistic model for savantism stems from the high incidence of autism in the savant population. Nearly half of all savants display some condition that can be classified as an autism spectrum disorder, leading scientists to presume that some facet of autism may also predispose the human mind to the formation of these amazing abilities (Treffert 2009, 2). This model is based on the principle of weak central coherence theory, Figure 1. “Unraveling Bolero” - Former molecular biologist Anne Adams produced this piece after losing her ablility to speak. which postulates that the development of talents with extreme obsession is due to an autistic mind’s focus on local rather than global processing (Hughes 2010, 149; Wallace 2008, 233). Central coherence is the “driving force to bring together vast amounts of information” to acquire a global understanding of various sources of information (Wallace 2008, 233). Recall John Godfrey Saxe’s 19th century poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” where 1 • B erkeley S cientific J ournal • A ccidents • V olume 14 • I ssue 2