Savant Syndrome

 

Savant syndrome is a rare condition that shows in people with mental disabilities and very commonly autism. Though not all Autistics are Savants and not all savants are autistic. (Savant syndrome was first described by Dr J. Langdon Down in 1887), although one in ten Autistics are thought to have savant abilities. “[…] the incidence of multiple skills appeared to be higher in savants with autism than in savants with other developmental disabilities. Whatever the special skill, it is always associated with prodigious memory. Some observers list memory as a separate special skill; however, prodigious memory is an ability all savants possess cutting across all the skill areas as a shared, integral part of the syndrome itself. Several investigators have shown that memory alone cannot fully account for savant abilities, particularly calendar calculating and musical skills.” Philos Trans, R. et al.

 

It can also occur in people with nervous system injuries. In this condition we see genius levels in memory especially and other abilities including in the area of music.

 

One of the most famous of savants in media and film is the character of Raymond Babbitt in the film Rainman, (1988) played by Dustin Hoffman alongside Tom Cruise. Hoffman based part of the character on a real-life savant named Kim Peek, and an autistic man named Bill Sackter. Rainman helped to put Autism onto the publics radar, (yet there is a love hate relationship with Autistics and the film as it can be seen as a damaging stereotype,) Peek showed amazing memory skills and later musical skills but struggled with daily tasks such as dressing himself. “[…] who has memorized over 6000 books and has encyclopaedic knowledge of geography, music, literature, history, sports and nine other areas of expertise. He can name all the US area codes and major city zip codes. He has also memorized the maps in the front of telephone books and can tell you precisely how to get from one US city to another, and then how to get around in that city street by street.

 

He also has calendar-calculating abilities and, more recently, rather advanced musical talent has surfaced. Of unique interest is his ability to read extremely rapidly, simultaneously scanning one page with the left eye and the other page with the right eye. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows the absence of the corpus callosum along with other substantial central nervous system (CNS) damage”. Philos Trans, R et al.

 

Another savant I want to take a closer look at is Derek Paravicini, a pianist from Reading who has a learning disability and is Autistic and blind. Derek showed amazing skill on the keyboard at an early age and can replicate any piece of music after only one listen. He also has absolute pitch. He gave his first concert aged seven in London. Aged nine he played with the Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra. In the same year he featured in a documentary called Musical Savants. Later he was given the Barnardo’s Children’s Champion Award presented to him by Lady Diana. He has gone on to appear on numerous documentaries on the mind and Savants and played a huge number of concerts. In a commentary on Grundy and Ockelford, Benedicte Poulin-Charronatt looked at their experiment on zygonic theory of musical understanding involving Derek.

 

“in the basis of the "zygonic" theory of musical understanding, […] investigated musical expectations evoked during the course of hearing a piece for the first time in a prodigious musical savant (Derek Paravicini). Overall, the results provided by Derek support the principles of the zygonic theory, especially that the higher the implication factor of a note, the more likely Derek would predict its occurrence […]. Poulin-Charronatt, B.

 

This experiment was conducted alongside non-Savant Musicians and non-musicians. The outcome supported the idea that savants and the zygonic theory knit together well although this must be validated in non-savant musicians and non-musicians to get a clear picture on the outcome. There is still a lot to learn from these people with incredible gifts such as Peek and Paravicini, and how they can have such amazing memory and recall yet cannot function in day-to-day tasks such as Kim Peek.

 

Autism and congenital blindness seem to produce extraordinarily gifted musicians. A study testing a seventeen year old pianist with autism and who is blind, against a control group of normal sighted musicians, both with similar expert musical ability, found after presenting a piece to the group to play in its original key and then to transpose, the autistic blind subject showed more advanced transposition skills through numerous keys and on the spot after only one week of being given the piece, compared to the control group who showed restricted abilities in transpotion. This feat by the seventeen-year-old subject is quite astounding when taking into consideration what skills are need for spontaneous transposition-

 

One aspect of musical talent, that has yet to be studied in individuals who are autistic, blind and do not fulfil strict criteria for savant syndrome, is the ability to transpose music from one key to another. Transposition consists in moving a collection of pitches up or down by a constant interval. To transpose, the musician must first possess a detailed representation of the interval and chord patterns within the composition. The architecture or macrostructure of the composition must also be accurately represented, and this will include microstructural details such as phrase. Finally, the transposition ability implicates an awareness of the auditory and spatial differences between the original and transposed key, which have a different sonority and implies different gestural signs. To transpose a musician must be able to adapt the architecture of the composition, that is fixed and constant, to the peculiar sonority and gestural automatisms of the transposed key. Boso, M et al.

 

Kodi Lee is a 26-year-old blind Autistic savant musician. Kodi won the 2019 Americas Got Talent show. Kodi has perfect pitch and musical recall after just one listen to a piece of music, known as Audio-Photographic memory. Kodi sings and plays piano all around the world. He has played Carnegie Hall in New York City. As well as Rock, Jazz, R&B and Pop Kodi also plays Chopin, Bach and Mozart amongst others. He has featured in numerous documentaries. Kodi is also an Autism advocate.