Savant

The kinds of talents displayed by savants throughout the last century are remarkably similar. Music and memory appear to be the most common skills displayed in savant syndrome. Often these two skills are tied together.

Most savants with musical skills express their talents by playing the piano, singing, or humming. One savant, an African American slave named Blind Tom, born in 1849, reportedly could play a different piece of music on the piano with each hand while singing a third.

The memory capacity displayed by many savants is truly astounding. Some savants have memorized entire telephone directories; others have memorized sporting statistics or everyone they have met during their adult lives. They might memorize entire books, or population figures for all the cities in the country in which they live.

Mathematical calculation talents reported in savants have ranged from being able to figure and report the cube roots of six digit numbers within seconds to calculating complex word problems which would take a normal person hours to solve. Calendar calculation—the ability to provide the day of the week on which a certain date fell or will fall—is a talent of some savants that requires not only memorization of large quantities of material, but mathematical abilities as well. One set of twin savants reportedly can do this for a time span of 8,000 years.

The artistic talents of savants have been noted over the years. One three-year-old girl could make accurate drawings of any animal that she saw. Some visually artistic savants seem to specialize in certain subjects. Other skills that some savants exhibit are the ability to memorize maps, an extremely sensitive sense of touch and smell, and the ability to measure the passage of time without a clock. Model building and memorization in languages the savant does not understand have also been recorded.