Overview of literature review and position paper
| Number | Study | Purpose | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dawson et al. [25] (2008) | Review of autistic learning, covering accounts of learning in the autism intervention research and in the cognitive and savant literatures | • Learning in autism is characterized both by spontaneous—sometimes exceptional—mastering of complex material and an apparent resistance to learning in conventional ways. • Learning that appears to be implicit seems to be important in autism, but autistics’ implicit learning may not map directly onto non-autistics’ implicit learning or be governed by the same constraints. |
| 2 | Wallace [26] (2008) | Explores some of savant skills and derives implications for the study of giftedness | • Savant skills are inextricably linked to autism spectrum disorder • Neuropsychological models of ASD may help to explain the raised incidence of savant skills in ASD • Neuropsychological research into savant skills may have direct implications for better understanding the neuroscience of giftedness |
| 3 | Baron-Cohen et al. [27] (2009). | The relationship between talent in autism and hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity | • The hyper-systemizing theory argues that the excellent attention to detail • Law-based pattern recognition systems can produce talent in systemizable domains. • The excellent attention to detail in ASC is itself a consequence of sensory hypersensitivity. • The origins of the association between autism and talent begin at the sensory level, include excellent attention to detail and end with hypersystemizing. |
| 4 | Happé and Frith [23] (2009) | Exploring the basic theories of autism and savant, talent, creativity | • Special skills are associated with autistic disorder, but not everyone with talent is autistic, and not every person with ASD shows savant skills. • Savant skill and practice • The importance of fostering talent |
| 5 | Happé and Vital [28] (2009) | Explore why are striking special skills so much more common in autism spectrum conditions (ASC) | • Detail-focused processing bias (‘weak coherence’, ‘enhanced perceptual functioning’) appears to be the most promising predisposing characteristic, or ‘starting engine’, for talent development. • ASC-like traits, and specifically ‘restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests’ related to detail focus, were more pronounced in children reported to have talents. |
| 6 | Mottron, L., Dawson, M., & Soulièes, I. (2009) | Enhanced perception in savant syndrome: patterns, structure and creativity | autistics' enhanced perception and their possible contribution to the creativity evident in savant performance, are explored. |
| 7 | Plaisted Grant and Davis [30] (2009) | The qualitative differences in perceptual processing between individuals with and without ASCs | • Savant abilities are relatively rare, but the skills observed in individuals with ASCs are common. • These skills need as much training and encouragement as is given to any individual with talent in detailed processing |
| 8 | Snyder [29] (2009) | Explaining and inducing savant skills: privileged access to lower level, less-processed information | • Savants have privileged access to lower level, less-processed information. • Owing to a failure in top-down inhibition, they can tap into information that exists in all of our brains but is normally beyond conscious awareness. • A strategy of building from the parts to the whole could form the basis for the so-called autistic genius. |
| 9 | Treffert [5] (2009) | A brief review of the savant skills | • The phenomenology of savant skills, the history of the concept and implications for education and future research |
| 10 | Vital et al. [13] (2009) | Investigate the association between special abilities and ASD-like traits | • Children with special abilities showed significantly more ASD-like traits than those without such abilities. • General intelligence did not mediate this relationship: IQ was found to be positively associated with ability, but negatively associated with ASD-like traits. Special abilities were more strongly associated with restricted/repetitive characteristics than with social or communication traits. |
| 11 | Barale, F., (2010) | The relationship of Autism and Genius | • Analyze the eccentricity the major functional hypotheses on autistic hyperfunctioning, advancing proposals for functional testing. • The potential involvement of rhythm-entrained systems and cerebro-cerebellar loops opens new perspectives for the investigation of autistic disorders and brain hyperfunctioning |
| 12 | Murray [37] (2010) | To explain savant skills with synaesthesia and concrete representations | • The reification of abstract concepts and synaesthesia can explain savant skill • Two main strands about synaesthesia are 1) There are many anecdotes about recognizing abstract concepts as concrete concepts. 2) synaesthetes who possess these structures experience cognitive benefits in the same domain. |
| 13 | Bokkon et al. [33] (2013) | Essential role of picture representation in ASD and that extraordinary savant-like skills | • Savant abilities can emerge through transcranial magnetic stimulation and top-down cortical inhibition in the left frontotemporal lobe. • In people with autism, there is improved visual function. • The visual cortex influences the processing of visual cues, mathematical thinking, and auditory cues. • ASD is better at visual representation than verbal representation |
| 14 | Mottron et al. [35] (2013) | Elaborate veridical mapping as a specific mechanism which can explain the higher incidence of savant abilities | • Veridical mapping and savant syndrome • Prevalence and specificity of domain-specific abilities in autism. • The atypical neural connectivity characteristics of ASD are consistent with the developmental predisposition to veridical mapping, and as a result, the appearance of servant ability, absolute pitch, and synesthesia is high. |
| 15 | Treffert [3] (2014) | Sorts out realities from myths and misconceptions about both savant syndrome and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) | • The reality is that low IQ is not necessarily an accompaniment of savant syndrome; in some cases, IQ can be superior. • Savants can be creative, and the skills increase over time on a continuum from duplication to improvisation to creation. • Emphasizes the critical importance of separating ‘autistic-like’ symptoms from ASD |
| 16 | Gyarmathy [24] (2018) | Examines the savant syndrome and its connection to other syndromes and the talent development. • The savant syndrome, autism and talent development lead to some mutual developmental and neurological characteristics • A savant is not a talent automatically, but many talents can possess savant abilities. • The relationship between talent and the savant syndrome indicates that the savant syndrome might be a special form of talent, a neurological predisposition arising, like any other congenital potential, as a function of environmental influences in the form of different-from-normal behavior. |
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| 17 | van Leeuwen et al. [39] (2020) | Review the association between synaesthesia and autism | • The overlap between synaesthesia and autism is established most convincingly at the level of alterations in sensory sensitivity and perception, with synaesthetes showing autism-like profiles of sensory sensitivity and a bias towards details in perception. • Autism and synaesthesia co-occur in the same individual, the chance of developing heightened cognitive and memory abilities is increased |
| 18 | van der Zee and Derksen [38] (2020) | Provides an overview of the current state of research regarding the systemizing concept | • High systemizing abilities are characteristic and specific in autism and as a result, three non-social features of autism are seen: restricted and repetitive behavior, obsessional interests, and savant skills. • In order to identify autism in clinical practice, the use of an instrument which is specialized in measuring one’s systemizing abilities is required. |
| 19 | Mottron et al. [36] (2021) | Prototypical autism, the genetic ability to learn language is triggered by structured information | • Autistic Learning of Complex Structures: The Veridical Mapping Model as a Structure Acquisition Device • Recognizing the Human Genetic Nature of Autistic Language Learning Changes Our Strategy for Intervention |
| 20 | Baron-Cohen and Lombardo [32] (2017) | The cognitive and neural basis of systemizing of ASD and savant syndrome | • People with autism are on average hypersystemizers, scoring higher than average on the systemizing quotient and on performance tests of systemizing. • Consider the neural basis behind the SM |