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An autistic savant may be defined this way: “A person with autism who is exceptionally gifted in a specialized field. That field may, for example, be mathematics. The autistic savant may be able to do rapid, complex mental calculations. Or the field may be music. The autistic savant may be able to perform a entire piece of music after hearing it only once.” (source: medterms) Typically, the autistic savant cannot explain the intuitive process. Usually the ability is much of a mystery to the autistic individual as it is the observers. The musical savant rattles off amazing scores of music at will. The mathematical savant does massive calculations in his or her head. But they seem at odds to explain how they do it. Daniel Tammet is also a savant, but he seems to have the unusual ability to tell us how he does it. Regardless, the results are shocking, to say the least.
Daniel Tammet was born January 31st, 1979 in London England. Daniel Tammet always had a penchant for numbers. His mother recalled how he was drawn to the numbers on the page of a book. She seemed to indicate that Daniel always was drawn to these things. But a seizure when Daniel was four seemed to have accelerated an ability that was hidden within. Since that time, Daniel could recall very specific details. And he could also do intensive mathematical calculations in his head. His memory seems to have become almost limitless. Daniel sees numbers and calculations in his head. But he doesn’t picture numerals. Instead, he sees them as vibrant colors and shapes or landscapes. And it’s not only numbers that seem to come to Daniel easily. Daniel can learn languages in a week’s time. The following video illustrates these facts best.
And so it’s easy to see in the above video that Daniel has astonishing memory and calculation ability. But how would Daniel do when it comes to learning a language in a very short amount of time? Well, researchers not only put him to the task, but they put him to one of the most severe tests by asking Daniel to learn Icelandic in a week. Icelandic has been called one of the most, if not the most, difficult languages in the world. Now, for anyone who has learned a different language, it is one thing to learn vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. It is a different thing entirely to speak the language to someone else, let alone a native. The following video shows Daniel’s progress.
Daniel meets Kim Peek in this clip. Kim was the inspiration for the movie RainMan.
Daniel chats with David Letterman about the positives and the negatives of being a “prodigious savant.”
Daniel is in an elite class of people that have extraordinary abilities. But he’s also in a class totally by himself because he is so well functioning socially. Though he makes quips about his social ability, Daniel functions on a much higher level than most other savants. Maybe the interconnections between the senses helps Daniel in some odd way. He comments that his synesthesia, or experience of seeing colors when thinking about numbers, is a usual occurrence. And this probably aids in memory in some way. But getting to the bottom of how that actually occurs in the brain is tricky business indeed. Scientists really have a very limited understanding of how normal individuals can arrive at calculations in their heads. Understanding the truly phenomenal will take a long time to conjure up. Maybe we need Daniel to undertake study in this area?
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