The ‘Rain Man’ Effect: Memory in Autistic Savants
Is there a Rain Main hiding in us all? Scientists have used special technology to temporarily immobilize part of the brain in healthy adults. The volunteers showed incredible skills similar to autistic savants, such as naming the day when given a date in history (calendar calculating) and drawing abilities.
An autistic savant is someone who is autistic with a special skill, usually related to memory. For example, they might be able to draw an accurate replication of a scene or location after looking at it for just a few minutes. Another example is an amazing ability to perform complicated maths problems in their head or tell you what day it was on 25 February 1869. A child who has savant abilities would be drawing three-dimensional pictures while their friends are scribbling. They might be able put together a jigsaw puzzle that adults struggle doing, without even looking at the picture. Their exceptional memory helps them to recognize patterns in things that would take us ages to figure out.
In an odd twist of nature, autistic savants have such specialized skills because part of their brain is damaged: the left hemisphere that deals with language and processing information. This damage leads to learning disabilities and difficulty coping in everyday situations. To deal with this damage, their right side of the brain is unlocked, resulting in a ‘spotlight’ on one of the five senses. If there is a spotlight on hearing, then the autistic savant has amazing musical skills.
