Abstract
Savant syndrome is a phenomenon whereby individuals with cognitive impairments have one or more outstanding abilities, inconsistent with their general intellectual functioning. Approximately 50% of savant individuals have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 10–30% of people with ASD have savant skills. To shed additional light on this considerable overlap, we compared autistic traits as measured by the Social-Responsiveness-Scale (SRS) between 712 children with at least one reported savant skill, as determined by designated questions from the ADI-R questionnaire (savant group), and 2,032 non-savant children from the Simons-Simplex-Collection (SSC) database. We also examined SRS scores of the parents of these children and compared parent-child differences in SRS scores between the savant and non-savant groups. Savant children had significantly lower SRS scores (less deficiencies) compared to non-savant children (P < 0.05), while no such differences were observed among their parents. Further intra-familial analyses revealed weak pairwise-correlations (r = −0.015–0.141) between SRS scores of parents and their children, and significantly larger parent-child differences in standardized SRS scores within savant families (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that the less severe autistic traits among savant children with ASD compared to other people with ASD is not likely to be a familial trait.
Highlights
Savant syndrome is a phenomenon whereby individuals with cognitive impairments have one or more outstanding abilities, inconsistent with their general intellectual functioning
There is a high concordance between savant syndrome and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) where approximately 50% of savant individuals have ASD5,10,11, and 10–30% of persons with ASD have exceptional abilities[4,12,13]
The considerable concordance between ASD and savant syndrome could stem from a shared etiology of these two conditions, and/or from a mechanism by which one condition predisposes the emergence of the other
Summary
Savant syndrome is a phenomenon whereby individuals with cognitive impairments have one or more outstanding abilities, inconsistent with their general intellectual functioning. The “Empathizing–Systemizing” theory, suggests that the attention to detail observed in ASD individuals occurs in the service of achieving an ultimate www.nature.com/scientificreports understanding of a system, and may predispose the emergence of savant skills[28] In their “Fractionable Triad Proposal”, Happé and Vital showed that the greater number of ASD-like traits found in savant-autistic children was due to increased restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBIs), while their social and communication impairments were somewhat reduced[17]. We compared various autistic traits as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) questionnaire[30] between children with ASD and their parents These analyses allowed us to assess whether the elevated social skills observed among individuals with ASD and savant skills may have a familial origin
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