Congenital Savant Syndrome: Good Or Bad?

Savant Syndrome: Good or Bad?
By: Thomas Scott
Most people have probably wondered what it would be like to have a super power. Some certain people, who are classified as savants, get to know what having a superpower is like. Savants are classified as either a congenital savant, or an acquired savant. A congenital savant would be like Superman in the fact that they are born with their powers, while an acquired savant is like Spiderman because they have obtained their powers through situations in life. Although being a savant does not mean that they can leap a building in a single bound or shoot spider webs out of their hands, being a savant does mean that they are able to do things that most ‘normal’ people cannot do. Savant syndrome
Despite the effects it bequeaths unto the brain, savant syndrome can be beneficial and good for the handicapped themselves and the people around them. Savant syndrome is a rare disability that can either be congenital or acquired and is usually present in people with autistic spectrum disorders. Congenital savant syndrome is the term used to describe someone who was born with their special skill (Treffert). Congenital is a term used often to refer to disabilities or physical irregularities that are present from birth. The movie “Rain Man” is based on Kim Peek, a congenital savant who was born with many cognitive disabilities that left a bundle of his nerves that were supposed to connect to two hemispheres of his brain missing. These cognitive disabilities are what doctors believe led to Kim’s savant abilities. An Acquired savant is the term we use to describe someone who was not born with their special skill but obtained it often due to a head injury or seizure (Treffert). Daniel Tammet stated in an interview with David Letterman that he had epilepsy as a small child and he believes that “[A] seizure kicked something in the brain” and that is what made him a savant (Tammet). Since Daniel seemed to obtain his special skills after a seizure when he was four; he is classified as an Acquired Savant. Sadly, most people with
Since researchers do not know everything about savant syndrome, there are many hypothesis and speculations on whether or not normal brains can become savant brains. After doing an interview, Adam Piore asked “If [savant abilities] could emerge spontaneously in [Derek] Amato, an acquired savant, who’s to say what spectacular abilities might lay dormant in the rest of us?” (Piore 53). Piore’s question remains unanswered to this day and is a question often asked by many others. Bruce Miller, the director of UCSF memory and aging center in San Francisco, has offered a wonderful piece of this puzzling syndrome. In a recent interview he said, “The skills [of savants] do not emerge as a result of newly acquired brain power; they emerge because for the first time, the areas of the right brain associated with creativity can operate unchecked” (Bruce Miller, Piore 49). Miller’s input is very interesting because he is basically saying that our own brain is sabotaging us so that we cannot become savants. Savant syndrome has the ability to amaze society because most of us never heard of anything like it happening before. Darold A. Treffert wrote that to the public’s eye “[Savant syndrome] is seen as a ‘Gee Whiz’ Phenomenon” (Treffert). This is one of the best descriptions of savant