Tuesday, 03 November 2009
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Rare But Remarkable Abilities
So, I just came back from an exam today. the readings [by Treffert, Wallace, and Sack] described something that is called savant syndrome, where those who have developmental disorders or is autistic or an idiot with an IQ below 25...possibly, but rarely ranging up to IQ 100 develop or possess an ability. I dont recall the names of the cases, but 1 in every 10 autistic may possess this ability, and 1 in 2000 of other developmental disorders.
These abilities range from amazing complex math abilities. one who was able to calculate how many seconds he has lived if he had died at age 40 in a matter of a minute and a half, also putting into consideration of the leap years, and another [who happens to be blind] being able to play a piece on the piano after hearing the song ONCE on tv, and btw, he has never taken a piano lesson in his life. Another draws just wonderfully with no prior art experience before. And another.. a human encyclopedia, able to recite a book word for word after reading it just once... or telling you things like... the day on which you were born if you had just told him yoru birthday for the first time. People like this is truly amazing.
And it is said that we... regular normal people of everyday lives sometimes encounter the elements of savantism: Like those few times where we just "know" or "get it" all of a sudden... don't you get those moments?
It seemed like the reading was leading to the question of how it might be related to our memories. where these talents, skills, abilities or whatever may be accessible in our memories. Memories that we have pushed to the back of our minds.....that's when we use things like hypnosis or uhm... even as simple as dreaming to "revive" these memories. I don't know if this made sense to you but the savant syndrome might have a connection to our brain.
Another talent I wanted to bring up is the absolute pitch. This one is probably a little less incredible but in short terms, people have the ability to identify pitches and tones by just listening to it... as instantly as it is for us to be able identify colors. To these people, each pitch have their own characteristic that many others cannot make out.
People who are likely to possess this are those who are musically involved at a young age, around age 7. Or for those who are native speakers and are constantly surrounded by a tonal language- a language that is more or so based on different tones of the same sounding words, for instance - mandarin and vietnamese speakers.
To these people.... it is difficult for them decipher the same song in different tones, or even listen to a song where the instrument is slightly off tune. Imagine that... to them... its like ... walking into a grocery market where oranges have become blue and bananas pink - disturbing isn't it?
There was this one case where a composer possessed the absolute pitch but due to brain damage, and a surgery removing the frontal lobe, he lost the ability. He now only recalls these pitches from memories, but it felt as if a part of him has "eroded".. I guess, almost like becoming colorblind. ..maybe.
So in relation... it's more likely for you to develop the absolute pitch at a young age if you are constantly surrounded or being forced to learn something by its tone or pitch. My conclusion is that perhaps... it is because at a younger age, your memory is stronger [etc] as opposed to when you get older. Think about it... if you don't continue to use the ability... even in the savant syndrome, there is a chance... even if its a small chance, that you can lose the ability. But if you do use it... you can sustain it and possibly improve.
What do you think? Is savant syndrome connected to the memory?
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- From: kuro_kokoro@xanga
- About Me: "i have yet to thank you, yet to sacrifice, yet to show others and share others of your awesomeness and your glory, yet to worship you... and yet to be moved by you." -Me Just another person out there... striving to overcome God's obstacles so his glory can be shown through my life's testimony. visit and leave a comment, always ready to meet new people and share God's word.
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Comments (19)
Mine has improved for sure.
I do have a form of this ability. I can write music in my mind faster than I can notate it, multiple instruments simultaneously; but only when I'm half-conscious.
What people know me better for though, is that I can taste anything, and I can almost always identify and replicate it in one attempt. I can eat a dish, and immediately spit out a list of component ingredients, amounts, and the procedures to make it. And then I can adjust it on-the-fly, and improve it. Music and Flavor both produce synaesthetic reactions in me too. I can "taste" music; and I can "hear" flavor; in the way that I can produce something that tastes like Mozart's style, or adjust a dish to taste like Bach, or Trent Reznor's music.
Certainly the people I know who have some sort of savantism alongside autism or aspergers, have excellent memories for their particular interest. It's also possible that more people with ASDs have savantism, but are unable to show it, perhaps through lack of experience, lack of exposure to something they would excel at (eg a potentially talented pianist whose family does not own a piano), or through their social difficulties.
I know that my own daughter has a photographic memory, 'Gestalt' imagery is important with her, she will adjust things to how she feels they need to be, each time exactly the same. She also arranges her things with minute accuracy, I have no idea what her reasoning is, but she knows exactly how she wants things to be and will spend a lot of time and effort making it 'just right'.
A friend of mine who has aspergers can also do the 'day you were born' thing, his main talent is that he can also tell you what was number 1 in the pop chart on that day, he has memorised them all and collected all but two to date.
@chow@ireallylikefood - wow I'd be fascinated to know what Nine Inch Nails' music tastes like
I'd like to actualy have one or a few of these abilities. Stuff like this fascinates me to no end
No, I don't think its to do with memory and I don't think that 'normal' can have a touch of it, if they do, or they have special abilities those are abilities, talents sometimes. I think autism is a total rearrangement of the brain. Mostly this scrambling is to the detriment of the person, but occasionally it results in the idiot savant syndrome. Sometimes the person is able to communicate their amazing ability to us, as Temple Grandin. The ability to taste music is called synesthesia and although not common isn't that rare either. In my youth I used to trip a lot on LSD and synesthesia is an amazing part of that experience
Heyy I just took this SAME test!! Comparing absolute pitch with savant abilities!! Its called the CPE exam. I go to CUNY Queens College in NY
@chow@ireallylikefood - You're truly a Renaissance Man.
@methodElevated@xanga - And from what I know of you, you are a renaissance woman :)
I love your color palette in your house btw. Not sure if I told you that.
@chow@ireallylikefood -
Thanks.
Yes, you did tell me that, and you're one in a small group of people on Xanga whose opinion actually matters to me.
Possibly. Our brains are made up of connections.
I have this thing where I can 'sense' people on the other sides of walls or in different rooms without hearing or having prior knowledge of them being there. Some friends of mine and I have tested it before and I can sometimes even count how many people are in a room without looking.
I don't know if it has anything to do with memory, but I definitely can identify with having perfect pitch... and it is sheer torture to sit through the music at church if one of the instruments is even a little off. People used to get mad at me for cringing when some of the singers would go off key, but it hurts my ears... I couldn't help it.
I can sense the emotions of people, not the ones they're displaying, body language and all of that tends to be more what they want "you" to see... but I can feel who they are... what kind of person they are, etc. I can tell, usually with a good deal of accuracy what kind of past they've had. Some people have surprised me, but not many. I have had to learn to let people "decieve" me? Let them send the message they want me to get? I don't know how to put it better than that... people try to manipulate how others see them, so to "get along" with them I have to not look through their "faces."
I think people with Aspergers should take my COM101 class... boy was that sucker an eye opener to the "real" world. The text book "Looking out/Looking In" was absolutely amazing... a must read for anyone with Aspergers who wants to get a good look into how the rest of the world thinks about communication. I can't tell you how many times I went, "So THAT'S why they responded like that." *Lightbulb on over head*
i would love to have some of these ablilities. Their fascinating and make me wonder if it is connected to memory. It could be very possible. one thing i would love to have is photographic memory, that would help me wonders.
I don't think that it is so much a memory thing as it is that the human brain in some are wired differently than in others.
I had once met one with the ability to repeat a song, for instance - I tested his ability with an obscure Spanish song, and, phonetically, he had it down pat - although, when asked what he had for breakfast earlier that day, he would have no clue. Different portion of the memory? On being introduced to more than two people, he will get flummoxed and not remember the people's names, even when repeated a dozen times in the course of an evening. We switched the gears to having him sing-song the names of the people, in his head, and it seemed to help.
Other savants have shown themselves likewise to have relatively unremarkable memory skills, other than their specific "splinter skill".
No, I don't think it is so much a matter of memory as it is a matter of a different set of as yet unnamed senses wired into the unique brains the savants have. The brain processes things by hearing, touch, taste, scent, etc., with a specific series of neural pathways. It has been discovered that those within the autistic spectrum process the information in a manner different than neurotypicals, which explains such recurrent effects like echolalia and other obsessive/compulsive acts and actions, nervous tics, stimming, etc.
Savant abilities are certainly a remarkable talent, as are splinter skills, though not always seen just with those who are autistic. Also, not every savant has a direct memory to a given matter - one mathematical savant was asked, half an hour or so later, what problem they were asked to perform, and he had no clue.
No, it's just a unique wiring of how the brain operates, and the continued exercise of that particular skill set, whether voluntary or involuntary [as in a sort of stimming activity].
I'm not an expert, by any frame of mind, but I found savant abilities fascinating even as a kid.
Still, it is amazing to see these savant abilities in action.
i actually know someone that has that music ability. He can play ANY song on the piano after hearing it one time. He is actually very ADHD and what some would consider eccentric BUT amazing at playing songs. My little brother can actually play any song on his guitar as well. of course he is considered more normal by society's standards you know?
i guess my ability to understand and remember any language i study is pretty cool altho its not really supe like everything else hahah
I don't know. But I've seen documentaries about this before. It is so interesting.
I've played violin since I was four and developed or was born with perfect pitch. It can drive a person batty. Cassette players (thank God those are almost obsolete) are the worst as I can tell when one is broken as it plays the music faster or slower and screws up the pitch. I can also tell what key a doorbell is in and don't like when it is a flat rather than a sharp. Something about a flat doorbell just irks me. The worst is listening to people sing or trying to sing along with a video game. Rock Band is one of my least favorite games. I can do Karaoke, but having people try to match those little bars going across the top of the screen is awful. Plus sides, I can tune just about any instrument without needing a starter note, violin comes naturally, and rhythm and languages come easily. My recommendation...get your young children into kinder music programs and teach them a foreign language. And not just 15 key words in Spanish, I mean conversational or even fluent.
@chow@ireallylikefood - it seems that your mind is geared toward to visual and performing art.
@chow@ireallylikefood - woah that is super cool. youre like an human recipe book.
@Nicole - omg.. we might have been in the same room. i go to QC too lols. iono i just found it to be super fascinating so i wanted to share it on xanga. xD
@the_world_is_on_fire@xanga - woah i think thats super cool. that kinda reminds me of this thing i have or had. its sooo weird. its like. i can kinda uhh.. KNOW things. like i just met this couple. and like the minute i saw them, i was like "theyre gonna break up in march-ish" and THEY DID. small things like that idk. its not exactly connected to this entry, but its connected to your comment maybe. or maybe what i had was just intuition or something. *shrugs* mad scary though lols. oh. but i cant do that to myself because i start thinking about the situation too much... and it becomes all mixed in with my own thoughts. kind of like... having a separate subconscious mind.
and that reminds me of allllll those times where i knew my phone would ring before it actually does. spooky.