The savant syndrome is a rare psychological phenomenon in which people manifest extraordinary skills beyond their usual abilities (Rudzinski et al., 2023). Here, we will discuss possible causes of this phenomenon, as well as how savant abilities might be elicited.
There are three recognized types of this syndrome:
Congenital. Affected individuals typically have an associated developmental mental disability, and approximately half of these have a diagnosis of autism. In 2015, there were 287 known cases of this type (Treffert & Rebedew, 2015).
Acquired. In 2015, there were 32 known cases of neurotypical individuals who developed savant abilities following a head injury, stroke, onset of dementia, or other central nervous system disorder (Treffert & Rebedew, 2015).
Sudden onset. In 2021 there were 11 reports of neurotypical individuals without developmental disabilities or a central nervous system disorder who suddenly developed transient or permanent savant abilities (Treffert & Ries, 2021).
Savant abilities usually relate to five general areas (Rudzinski et al., 2023; Treffert, 2009):
Art. This has usually involved drawing, painting, or sculpting.
Calendar computation. Savants can quickly calculate the day of the week of any date in history.
Mathematics. Involves lightning calculation or the ability to compute prime numbers, sometimes in the absence of simple mathematical abilities.
Music. Usually, this has involved the performance of music, most often with the piano. Some have developed perfect pitch, and some have composed music once they have honed their abilities to perform.
Visuospatial/mechanical skills. These include the ability to measure distances precisely without instruments, to accurately construct complex structures, or to make maps.
Less commonly reported savant abilities include sudden extensive mastery of one or more foreign languages, unusual sensory discrimination in smell, perfect appreciation of passing time without access to a clock, and outstanding knowledge in specific fields such as neurophysiology, statistics, history, or navigation (Treffert, 2009).
Savant syndrome is typically associated with a single extraordinary ability in affected individuals.
Talented savants are considered those whose savant abilities are highly developed in comparison to the individual’s abilities in other areas of their life.
Prodigious savants are those whose skills are so outstanding that they would be spectacular even in a non-impaired person. In 2009, there were fewer than 100 known such people in the world. (Treffert, 2009).
Speculated mechanisms for developing savant syndrome include that left brain dysfunction leads to the right brain developing new abilities to compensate for a loss of function on the left, or uncovering of pre-existing right brain abilities that had been suppressed by the left brain (Treffert, 2009). Evidence for these mechanisms include:
From an evolutionary perspective, it never made sense to me that individuals would possess a latent extraordinary right-brain ability that would rarely be expressed in the absence of brain damage. What evolutionary advantage would be gained by the resource expenditure required to develop such an ability were it unlikely ever to manifest?
If the right brain acts to compensate for left brain dysfunction, why would this lead to the development of extraordinary abilities rather than the resumption of usual abilities?
Experiences from my work with hypnosis have helped shape a new hypothesis regarding the nature of the right brain ability that is usually suppressed by an intact left brain.
From these observations, I formed the following hypothesis about an ability of the right brain that can be activated through hypnosis or because of savant syndrome: The right brain can serve as a conduit to information from outside of the individual brain, similar to psychologist Carl Jung’s concept of how we tap into a collective unconscious (Doyle, 2018).
I speculate that in neurotypical individuals the left brain suppresses the right brain conduit ability to prevent confusion between reality and information from outside of our usual reality. Such suppression may, in part, be the result of how preschoolers in the Western world are taught to think of “imaginary friends” (which may represent images from outside of our reality) as “pretend.”
When the left brain is damaged, perhaps the conduit activity is restored, which allows individuals access to extraordinary information including that leading to savant abilities.
The existence of savants pushes us to ask whether it is possible for neurotypical individuals to tap into extraordinary abilities. The use of hypnosis may be one such route for some individuals.
References
Anbar RD. (2001). Automatic word processing: A new forum for hypnotic expression. Am J Clin Hypnosis. 44:27-36.
Anbar RD. (2021). Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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de Haan EHF, Corballis PM, Hillyard SA, et al. (2020). Split brain: What we know now and why is it important for understanding consciousness. Neuropsychol Rev. 30:224-233.
Doyle, DJ. (2018). What Does it Mean to be Human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
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Hou C, Miller BL, Cummings JL, Goldberg M, Mychack P, Bottino V, Benson DF. (2000). Autistic savants. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol. 13:29-38.
Knecht S, Drager B, Deppe M, Lobe L, Lohmann H, Floel A, Ringelstein EB, Henningsen H. (2000). Handedness and hemispheric dominance in healthy humans. Brain. 123 pt. 12:2512-2518.
Rudzinkski G, Pozarowska K, Brzuszkiewicz K, Soroka E. (2023). Psychiatr Pol. Jun 17:1-11.
Treffert DA. (2009). The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future. Phil Trans Soc B. 364:1351-1357.
Treffert DA, Rebedew DL. (2015). The savant syndrome registry: a preliminary report. WMJ. 114:158-162.
Treffert DA, Ries HJ. (2021). The sudden savant: a new form of extraordinary abilities. WMJ. 120:69-73.
Young RL, Ridding MC, Morrell TL. (2004). Switching skills on by turning off part of the brain. Neurocase. 10:215-222.
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