Beautiful Minds The Einstein Effect 3/5

Synopsis
A fascinating look at the relationship between genius and autism, with particular focus on the phenomenon of savants; a small group of enigmatic talents with extraordinary mental abilities.

Savants number less than 100 worldwide. Some can work out five-digit multiplication in their heads, or recite thousands of books by heart. Others can play a piano melody after hearing it only once. Over half of savants are autistic; others develop these super human talents only after brain injury.

With scientists now able to see billions of neurons at work in the brain, experts are now investigating whether it is in fact a defect that turns a person into a genius. Could the giant minds of the past - from Newton, to Mozart, to Albert Einstein have been autistic?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Beautiful
• Minds
• Little
• Matter
• of
• Gender
• genius
• savants
• neurology
• science
• kim
• peek
• daniel
• tammet

[outtatime4you]

im very lightly autistic, im also the top biology student in the entire university of alberta, im going to find a cure for cancer, but the entire "savant" thing is very underlooked

[gr4nd7h3f731373]

As a top student in Biology, I would have hoped that you understood the meaning of cancer. Cancer is not just one biological disease, but many coming from different sources anatomically and physiologically. No offense but your comment only makes you sound like an idiological liar. The entire "savant" thing as you put it, comes from a Neurological problem. Neurology is still not fully understood to this day.

[gr4nd7h3f731373]

His name is Matt Savage, simply look it up and you'll find many sources to choose from.

[crunkedmonkey]

I wouldn't let a 40 year old dude with his his hat on backwards carry my groceries. These people are letting him switch off parts of their brain. Damn.

[Krenisphia]

My social skills are very poor, but I'm not autistic. I'm not clever in any way. In fact, everything about me is poor.

[susp1]

@Scarlette333 I agree! Horrible noise and they claim its music...pathetic! The sounds of flatulance after eating a can of beans sounds more like music than matts banging of the piano. I'm sure matt is a genius but I can't appreciate his genius because the music he plays manifests as pure noise to me...bummer. So I was hoping when they spoke to him, they would discuss something that impressed me..but no! They talked about roller coasters that any kid could have memorized..total bummer.

[neoman121]

@outtatime4you Let me know when you have the cure so that I can save one of my family members, you have about a year before it's to late.

[longfootbuddy]

the key to being a genius at anything, is to focus on it.. focus your energies on channeling what is there to be done.. when you start to lose this focus, and your mind becomes occupied to other things, or blocked through the interference of other things (and other people), you lose your mojo.. the info comes through you distorted, with errors.. your no longer a genius, holmes

[longfootbuddy]

its no different than being able to fling yourself over a rail and run down the road well. it comes naturally for some, but for others, it is hard.. to make up for their lack of just doing it, they try to figure out the best way to do it, but it never works well.. they hurt their arm, and awkwardly fall into the street below, twisting their ankle and limping down the road in a ridiculous girly run

[longfootbuddy]

just because people dont fit in a normal range or a thinking scale, i dont think they deserve to be called ass burgers...

[longfootbuddy]

schools goal is to mold you into what they want.. if you arent easily molded, youll have troubles.. hopefully theyll kick you out too!

[ninjatoothpaste]

They've only just managed to decode the brain's "inner eye" visualizations - it's still far from crystal clear but you can tell what it is - Tesla predicted that this would be possible, he predicted that it would be the preferred method of communicating complex ideas in the future - he had this idea somewhere between 1890 and 1930 - I forget the details, was some time ago that I read his autobiography. He had very clear signs of AS/D right down to counting his napkins. :)

[davegrohlrocks]

listening to matt describe that roller coaster was just about the cutest thing ever.

[aquahealer]

everyday life is confusing to matt becaue he can see that we do everything the wrong way! if we could only think like him, we'd be in a better much better world.