Savant abilities and learning differences relate to developing multiple talents
Daniel Tammet is able to recite 22,514 digits of pi from memory. An author with autistic savant syndrome, he thinks such astounding abilities are not due to some cerebral or genetic fluke, but based on an associative form of thinking and imagination.
He thinks differences between savant and non-savant minds have been exaggerated, to the detriment of how most of us value our own abilities and develop our talents.
In his new book, Tammet explains that people may consider his kind of extraordinary ability as just that – extraordinary, out of the realm of possibility for non-savant people, but he thinks that is a wrong presumption.
He says it is a “surprisingly common conclusion: that individuals with very different minds must use them in some fundamentally different, almost magical way.
“As one of the world’s few well-known autistic savants, I have received all manner of strange requests: from being asked to predict the following week’s winning lottery numbers, to requests for advice on building a perpetual motion machine. Little wonder then that conditions such as autism and savant syndrome remain poorly understood by most people, including many experts.
Not supernaturally gifted
“It is not only savant minds that are considered somehow supernaturally gifted and therefore set apart from those of most other people: the success of outstanding individuals in numerous fields, from Mozart and Einstein to Garry Kasparov and Bill Gates, has been attributed by many to minds they regard as unearthly and inexplicable.”
Tammet thinks “this view is not only erroneous but harmful, too, because it separates the achievements of talented individuals from their humanity; an injustice both to them and to everyone else.
“Every brain is amazing. Researchers know this after many years of studying the minds of highly gifted people, as well as those of housewives, cab drivers, and many others from all walks of life.
“As a result, today, we have a far richer, more sophisticated understanding of human ability and potential than ever before. Anyone with the passion and dedication necessary to master a field or subject can succeed in it.
“Genius, in all its forms, is not due to any mere quirk of the brain; it is the result of far more chaotic, dynamic, and essentially human qualities such as perseverance, imagination, intuition, and even love.
“Such an understanding of the human mind enriches, rather than detracts from, the popular appreciation of the accomplishments of highly successful individuals.”
From Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind, by Daniel Tammet.
Rain Man ability probably in all of us
In his article Is There A Little Rain Man In Each Of Us?, Darold Treffert, MD declares that “some Rain Man ability — savant-like skill and capacity — probably exists in each of us.”
He explains, “There is evidence that some savants, because of prenatal, perinatal or postnatal central nervous system damage, from a variety of genetic, injury or disease processes have substituted right brain capacity in a compensatory manner for left brain dysfunction and limitation.
“Simultaneously, because of those same injurious factors, these savants have come to rely on more primitive cortico-striatal (procedural or habit) memory rather than higher level cortico-limbic (semantic or declarative) memory.
“This combination of right brain skills coupled with procedural memory produces the constellation of abilities and traits that is savant syndrome.
“But that more primitive memory circuitry, and right brain capacity, both still exist in each of us.”
The image is from his book Extraordinary People: Understanding Savant Syndrome.
Also see more Learning differences articles, and quotes, books etc on the Learning differences page.
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Book: 
One of the myths of high ability, multitalented people is they can choose whatever personal and career paths they want, and realize their abilities without hindrance. It doesn’t always work out that way. From post: 
[...] Daniel Tammet is one of the extraordinary Savants who have very unusual gifts, in his case e.g. learning a difficult language like Icelandic in just one week. Still, he claims in his new book, that we all have access to unusual powers if we dare to ‘think’ differently: http://highability.org/savant-abilities-and-learning-differences-relate-to-developing-multiple-talen… [...]
What an interesting man. I could listen to him talk all day!
I’m so glad I found this site…Keep up the good work I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog. Thanks,
A definite great read…:)
-Bill-Bartmann
Just blowing some free time on Stumbleupon and I found your article . Not normally what I prefer to read about, but it was definitely worth my time. Thanks.
[...] From my post Savant abilities and learning differences relate to developing multiple talents. [...]
[...] See a video of Tammet in the High Ability post Savant abilities and learning differences relate to developing multiple talents. [...]
Hi, he is right on, this is something I have been sharing with people for years. I have wrote many blogs on our abilities to use the brain to a much higher level by allowing the mind to be remain open and at the same allow the five sense to do their job. The key is to be patient.
As a savant I have learned it is about waiting without thought, to allow the brain to process information taken in through the five senses, this is a process which takes time.
I can’t say a near drowning or a mental condition at birth created this ability. There is one memory at age 7 a year after the drowning. My dad one morning told me, if, you want to ride your horse, you will have to saddle him(my dad always gave me challenges)he turned walked away, I turned and saw an image of something in the barn. I had no clue what I was looking at, what I know today it was a complete pulley system.
Throughout my life this ability to see things has helped me to understand how to do things, just about anything, that is except learning things in school. Take me out of school give me a challenge and my brain would go to work.
Then, there are time when images just pop in to view like looking at a picture, sometimes I have no clue what it is until I start researching it.
I also have the ability to create anything in my head and watch it work and make changes. Were a friend of my who is a computer scientist has to put things on paper or use his computer. what I can do in hours may take him a month.
The problem with people is their mind gets in the way of a much deeper natural ability to think, instead they choose to think, due to being inpatient. This I believe is due most to the parents pushing the child and the child seeking independence.
By the time you are done with adolescents your mind set,it is run by a chain of habits. This is a big problem because it causes you to freely get impulses that feeds the mind and in turn you get a feeling without using the five senses.
when you understand all things around just didn’t pop up out of the ground or fall from the sky, people created it, all of you have this wonderful ability and guess what, employers are now wanting to hire people with the ability to use their imagination, more so today then ever before.
Use your imagination and change one thing with everything you do in a day. What ever it may be add something to it, make a change, slowly you will learn how to use your imagination and life will get easier.