Savant brains are severely compromised. Yet some savants have, as neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran says, "islands of astonishing talent." A few such savants have astonishing musical talents. Others show an awesome ability to replicate what they on paper. Others have amazing mathematical skills.
I recently wrote about Savants in the most current edition of 3rd Act Magazine. I explored a set of hyper-activated abilities that seem to explain how savants achieve their super-powers. The list of hyper-skills (suggested by Alan Snyder of the Brain & Mind Centre at the University of Sydney) are all skills possessed by the average human brain. In the article, I suggest that cultivating these set of skills might help those of us with "normal" brains to ramp up our cognitive performance.
Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.