My family has really enjoyed the “Stumble” website, and my only hesitation about looking at it as frequently as they suggest is that I wouldn’t get anything else done. One interesting website leads to another.
If you have about 40 minutes of time, I think you would enjoy a video posted on Stumble called Brainman, which explores the world of savants. Savant behavior is usually defined as an exceptional talent, such as the ability to calculate future calendars, paint or draw, or perform musically without training, that occurs in a person whose other behavior is often otherwise impaired, such as in individuals with autism.
Rain Man’s Dustin Hoffman interacts with real-life savant Stephen Wiltshire.
If you find this video interesting, you might also want to check out Darold Treffert’s work on savants with the Wisconsin Medical Society. Treffert’s site includes additional videos about savant behavior, including one featuring musician Leslie Lemke. Lemke, who is blind and mentally retarded, heard Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 played a single time on television. Several hours later, Lemke sat down at the piano, which he had never played, and performed the entire concerto perfectly from memory.
Some savant researchers, including University of California, San Francisco’s Bruce Miller, believe that we all have the potential to be savants, too, but that our pesky frontal lobes, particularly the left one for most of us, interfere. By temporarily “turning off” this part of the brain using repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), some participants suddenly show savant-like behaviors that last a few hours. I’m not sure I’d like that. It reminds me of Flowers for Algernon, or the movie version, Charly. I wouldn’t want to feel smarter and then feel it go away.
4 Comments
bblaine · January 15, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I agree, I wouldn’t want to live the life Charlie had to live. The book was a sweet story though. Also, a good movie on savants would be August Rush. The little boy has an amazing talent and the movie proves to be another sweet story that leaves you feeling better after watching it. I recommend it.
rcrowley · January 19, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I am not sure I agree with the suspected link between savant-like behavior and autism. Autism is a spectrum disorder that affects every individual in a different way. For some, it may be that they have repetitive behaviors that classify them as savants, however, many individuals with autism display repetitive, self-stimulatory behaviors that are not linked to any area of expertise (i.e. hand-flapping, stacking or compulsively organizing objects, etc.). Perhaps it is possible that all savants could be on the autism spectrum, but it would seem that not all individuals with autism are savants.
amandam · March 10, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Yes, Savants are very talented. I once watched something on TV about a savant and his abilities amazed me. It was awhile ago, but I believe he could calculate outrageous mathematical problems and recite names and numbers out of a phone book, I was in awe. It does seem interesting that by shutting off our frontal lobe we can become savants, but I’d be afraid of any side effects, or like you said, being extremly smart for a couple hours and then not.
ccallag · March 13, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I find the brain activity of savants fascinating! It shows us how truly remarkable the human brain really is! I wonder why there are limits to the use of our brain by the frontal lobe. I think it could be a possibility in the future that a scienctist discovers how to make ordinary people’s brains perform more like a savant’s permanently.
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