Mechanism
Savant syndrome is poorly understood. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains savants' combination of talent and deficit. It has been suggested that individuals with autism are biased towards detail-focused processing and that this cognitive style predisposes both individuals with and without autism to savant talents. Another hypothesis is that savants hyper-systemize, predisposing them to show talent. Hyper-systemizing is an extreme state in the empathizing–systemizing theory that classifies people based on their skills in empathizing with others versus systemizing facts about the external world. Also, the attention to detail shown by many savants is a consequence of enhanced perception or sensory hypersensitivity in these unique individuals. It has also been confirmed that some of these savants operate by directly accessing low-level, less-processed information that exists in all human brains but is normally unavailable to conscious awareness.
Read more about this topic: Savant Syndrome
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