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Their skills may be reinforced Where to get help
It is thought that habitual memory centres of the brain Your doctor
take over from higher memory centres, which helps to Autism Victoria Tel. (03) 9885 0533
explain why some autistic savants are like obsessive The Centre for Developmental Disability
hobbyists who do the same thing over and over. Apart Health Victoria (CDDHV) Tel. (03) 9564 7511
from habitual memory, other factors that may help an
autistic savant to hone their special skill could include:
The ability to focus and concentrate
Things to remember
Autistic savant means a person with autism
The desire to practise endlessly
who has a special skill.
Positive reinforcement by family, friends and
Around 10 per cent of people with autism
caregivers.
show special or even remarkable skills.
Every brain may have untapped savant Savant skills can be occasionally found in
skills people with other types of intellectual disability
San Franciscan neurologist Dr Bruce Miller recently and in the non-disabled population.
discovered new savant skills in some of his patients who
were undergoing a certain type of dementia. These
patients had a type of dementia that affected the left
temporal region of their brains (located over the left ear).
This page has been produced in consultation with, and approved by,
Autism Victoria. The Better Health Channel is part of the Department of
When the patients were given brain function tests, their Human Services, Victoria
results were similar to those of a young autistic savant.
Researchers from the Flinders University in Adelaide
were able to provoke new savant skills in volunteers by
using transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily
disable the frontal temporal lobe. (Transcranial magnetic
stimulation is a type of treatment for depression.) During
the test, five of the 17 volunteers showed new and
remarkable skills like calendar calculation. These studies
suggest that amazing savant abilities may be lying
dormant in all of us.
Updates
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