Each hemisphere of the human brain is responsible for important but often very different functions. The left deals with language, logical thinking, and interpretation of symbolic information. In other words, how we communicate with each other, solve problems, and organize our lives. The right hemisphere controls many of our audio-visual faculties and is often linked with a human's capacity to appreciate but more importantly create art and music.
Some cases of people with autism – for whom communicating with other people and understanding cues in body language is difficult – involve damage to the left hemisphere of the brain. This forces the right hemisphere to compensate, and in certain cases may lead to "islands of genius", as Dr. Treffert of the Medical Society of Wisconsin calls autistic savants. Sometimes they are also referred to as idiot savants, though for the purpose of this article "autistic savant" will be used.
Memory - Left vs. Right Hemispheres
Memory is fascinating, particularly given the differences in how each hemisphere stores the material available to it. Whereas left hemisphere memory might categorize an event as "karaoke with Paul and Mary" or "the summer of two-thousand-and-seven", in words that is, right hemisphere memory will more likely remember that same event as a collection of song lyrics, images of Paul and Mary laughing or on stage, the unmistakable timbre of an amateur attempting "Hotel California".
This is significant because savant syndrome is "always linked to massive memory", says Dr. Treffert. Along with astounding feats of memory recall, savants are known to display incredible skill in the arts. Often these skills are so extraordinary they'd be impressive in non-impaired people, like the case of Stephen Wiltshire who drew a 12-foot panorama of Rome after having been flown over the city just once in a helicopter for 45 minutes. The drawing is done in such detail that individual buildings, like the Pantheon, can be made out.
Autism and Savants
Though "autistic savant" is the label of preference in this article, it is important to establish that not everyone with autism is a savant and not every savant is necessarily autistic. According to Dr. Treffert, maybe 1 in 10 autistic people display savant skills while maybe half of savants are autistic. Nevertheless, central nervous system damage is common even among the other half of savants. For these reasons "autistic savant" seems an adequate, if not quite comprehensive, term.
Following are short profiles of two "autistic" savants. Both are male, which is worth mentioning because savant syndrome appears much more commonly in men than women.
Kim Peek
The 1988 film Rain Man, featuring Dustin Hoffman in the lead role, brought one savant to fame. Kim Peek, a 58-year-old Mormon living in Salt Lake City, suffered damage early in life to his corpus callosum, a connector between the two hemispheres of the brain. Kim is the perfect example of the "massive memory" Dr. Treffert alluded to. He can read a book in an hour and recall it word for word from memory. Researchers who have worked with him, Dr. Treffert included, estimate he has some 12,000 books stored in his memory. A fan of the piano as well, Kim has been known to play a song that he heard years before. Interestingly given the social difficulties faced by many autistic savants, an element emphasized in Rain Man, Kim's social skills are said to be improving.
Christopher Taylor
Christopher Taylor, a 47-year-old living in Yorkshire, England, is what is known as a polyglot savant. He can read, write, and translate in more than 15 languages. This may seem odd, given the preponderance of language skills based in the left hemisphere of the brain. But Christopher hasn't mastered language as a form of communication – his conversations are monosyllabic – or as a system of organizing information. For example, he can translate entire texts into other language, but does it almost word for word, with little consideration or understanding of grammar. Unfortunately, along with the expected social awkwardness associated with his condition, Christopher has extremely poor motor coordination, necessitating daily care.
References:
Treffert DA (2009). "The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future". Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364 (1522): 1351–7.
Smith, N., & Tsimpli, I., (1993). A specialist intelligence: The case of a polyglot savant. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics, 5, 413-450.
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