Neurobiology of Savant Syndrome

Examples of individuals who demonstrate extreme variations between abilities present a challenge to our understanding of brain functioning and in particular a unified view of intelligence. Such individuals often referred to as “savants” are the focus of this chapter. The question as to how brilliance can be achieved in a specific domain despite limited cognitive functioning in all other domains has occupied researchers for more than a century. Several explanations have been advanced which include inheritance, eidetic memory, attention, concrete thinking, sensory deprivation, compensation, reinforcement and intuition yet there remains no clear understanding as to the nature of the mental functioning involved.