Inside the mind of a savant.

ON LANGUAGE SAVANTS AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE MIND A review of Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli, "The mind of a savant: Language learning and modularity" by

Explaining and inducing savant skills: privileged access to lower level, less-processed information

I argue that savant skills are latent in us all. My hypothesis is that savants have privileged access to lower level, less-processed information, before it is packaged into holistic concepts and meaningful labels. Owing to a failure in top-down inhibition, they can tap into information that exists in all of our brains, but is normally beyond conscious awareness. This suggests why savant skills ...

Savant syndrome – theories and empirical findings 1 Running head: SAVANT SYNDROME – THEORIES AND EMPIRICAL FINDINGS Savant syndrome - Theories and Empirical findings

Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which some people have extraordinary talents despite some serious mental or physical disability. It is a syndrome with remarkable features, standing in stark contrast to a person’s overall character. The term savant, or idiot savant, describes a person who, in spite of low intelligence, has a skill in some specific narrow area. Savants can have a specific ...

From mind in the mouth to language in the mind

References 1 Norris, D. et al. (2000) Merging information in speech recognition: feedback is never necessary. Behav. Brain Sci. 23, 299–370 2 Norris, D. et al. (2003) Perceptual learning in speech. Cogn. Psychol. 47, 204–238 3 Fodor, J.A. (1983) Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology, MIT Press 4 Grossberg, S. and Myers, C.W. (2000) The resonant dynamics of speech perception: interw...

Is Synaesthesia More Prevalent in Autism Spectrum Conditions? Only Where There Is Prodigious Talent

Savant syndrome is a condition where prodigious talent co-occurs with developmental difficulties such as autism spectrum conditions (ASC). To better understand savant skills, we previously proposed a link with synaesthesia: that savant syndrome may arise in ASC individuals who also happen to have synaesthesia. A second, unrelated claim is that people with autism may have higher rates of synaest...