The Null Device

Now you too can have the mental skills of an autistic savant: (New Scientist)

"It's not that savants are cleverer than the rest of us," says Snyder, "it's just that most of us go one step further in our brain processing--from detailed facts to meaningful concepts--and once we've done that we can't go back."

He cites, for example, a non-autistic student whose calculating skills rival those of the best mathematical savants. Electrical monitoring of the student's brain waves while he was doing a calculation showed that his brain was more active than usual at the start but less active just before he answered... "This student seems to be able to prevent (high-level conceptual thinking) from occurring when he is calculating--leaving him free to access the earlier low-level processes."

It may be that all very young children perceive the world in a savant-like way. One incredible skill shown by children is language acquisition...

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