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The savant syndrome

Genius and mental handicap combined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. A. M. Schipperheijn  and
F. J. Dunne
J. A. M. Schipperheijn
Affiliation:
Napsbury Hospital, Herts
F. J. Dunne
Affiliation:
Warley Hospital, Brentwood, Essex CM14 5HQ
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Idiot-savants are people of low intelligence who have one or two outstanding talents such as calendar calculation, drawing, or musical performance. The syndrome occurs with high frequency among autistic children (autism is about four times commoner in boys), and the male to female ratio is about 6:1 suggesting a sex linked disorder (Hill, 1977). It is estimated to occur in 0.06% of the mentally handicapped population or about 1 in 2,000 of those living in institutions (Treffert, 1988). The gift starts apparently spontaneously between age 5 and 8 years. Frequently the parents claim that they themselves do not have the talent and know of no one in the family who has, but there is a tendency for savant skills to run in families, suggesting that genetic factors play a role.

Type
Articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 14 , Issue 8 , August 1990 , pp. 475 - 476
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990

References

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