Veridical mapping in savant abilities, absolute pitch, and synesthesia: an autism case study

Lucie Bouvet,Lucie Bouvet,Lucie Bouvet,Sylviane Valdois,Sylviane Valdois,Sylviane Valdois,Sophie Donnadieu,Sophie Donnadieu,Sophie Donnadieu,Michelle Dawson,Michelle Dawson,Laurent Mottron,Laurent Mottron,Chantal Caron

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00106

Abstract

An enhanced role and autonomy of perception are prominent in autism. Furthermore, savant abilities, absolute pitch, and synesthesia are all more commonly found in autistic individuals than in the typical population. The mechanism of veridical mapping has been proposed to account for how enhanced perception in autism leads to the high prevalence of these three phenomena and their structural similarity. Veridical mapping entails functional rededication of perceptual brain regions to higher order cognitive operations, allowing the enhanced detection and memorization of isomorphisms between perceptual and non-perceptual structures across multiple scales. In this paper, we present FC, an autistic individual who possesses several savant abilities in addition to both absolute pitch and synesthesia-like associations. The co-occurrence in FC of abilities, some of them rare, which share the same structure, as well as FC’s own accounts of their development, together suggest the importance of veridical mapping in the atypical range and nature of abilities displayed by autistic people.

Highlights

Savant abilities involve a marked contrast within the same individual, in whom apparent intellectual or developmental disabilities co-exist with strong, sometimes outstanding, specific talents
The EPF model has recently been extended via a proposed veridical mapping (VM) mechanism, which represents an attempt to address how and why savant and other related unusual abilities develop in autism (Mottron et al, 2009; Mottron et al, 2013)
We will discuss to what extent his savant abilities are related to what is called synesthesia in nonautistic people, how this is beneficial to his performance, and how it supports the role of VM in the acquisition of savant abilities in autism

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Savant abilities involve a marked contrast within the same individual, in whom apparent intellectual or developmental disabilities co-exist with strong, sometimes outstanding, specific talents. Based on parental report only, they observed that items considered related to a detail-focused cognitive style were more pronounced among children with “special abilities” than among those without This cannot explain the acquisition of savant abilities in autism, and the concept of local bias itself is ill-defined and intrinsically multi-level. As with proposals based on detailed-focused cognitive styles and/or hyper-systemizing, there is insufficient evidence as to how enhanced perception leads to the development of savant abilities (Dawson et al, 2008) To address this shortcoming, the EPF model has recently been extended via a proposed veridical mapping (VM) mechanism, which represents an attempt to address how and why savant and other related unusual abilities develop in autism (Mottron et al, 2009; Mottron et al, 2013). We will report a description and empirical study of FC’s abilities as well as his own accounts of the acquisition of these abilities

CASE REPORT

Computation ability

Findings

DISCUSSION