Mental Abilities: Genius, Savant, and Autism

1. Explain in detail what "savant syndrome" means.

Savants are people who despite serious mental or physical disability have quite remarkable, and sometimes spectacular, talents.

Savant syndrome is exceedingly rare, but a remarkable condition in which persons with autism, or other serious mental handicaps, or major mental illness, has astonishing islands of ability or brilliance that stand out in stark contrast to their overall disability. The condition can be congenital or be acquired by an otherwise normal individual following CNS injury or disease. It occurs in males more frequently than in females in an approximate ratio of 6 to 1. The skills can appear suddenly, without explanation, and have been reported as sometimes disappearing just as suddenly. It is useful to put these special skills into the following three categories: Splinter Skills where the individual possesses specific skills that stand in contrast to their overall level of functioning, Talented Savants where the individual displays a high level of ability that is in contrast to their disability, and Prodigious Savants which involves a much rarer form of the condition, where the ability or brilliance is not only spectacular in contrast to the disability, but would be spectacular even if viewed in a non-disabled person. It is very likely that many savants do go unnoticed, and depending upon whether the three categories above are recognized, estimates of the incidence of savant syndrome can vary widely. In the case of prodigious savants it has been estimated that there may be fewer than 100 cases reported in the world literature in the past 100 years.

http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/Savant%20Syndrome.htm 

2. What does genius mean?  Explain the difference between genius and savant.

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight.

The difference between a genius and a savant is that a genius is not handicapped. A savant has talents in a particular area, but they have mental or physical disabilities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius

3. What is a stroke and how could it affect your mental functioning?

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is the rapidly developing loss of brain function(s) due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia (lack of blood flow) caused by blockage (thrombosis, arterial embolism), or a hemorrhage (leakage of blood).

 As a result, the affected area of the brain is unable to function, leading to inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body, inability to understand or formulate speech, or an inability to see one side of the visual field. A stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurological damage, complications, and lead to death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke 

4. What is a functional MRI and how does it help us understand brain activity?

Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) is a type of specialized MRI scan. It measures the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging. Since the early 1990s, fMRI has come to dominate the brain mapping field due to its relatively low invasiveness, absence of radiation exposure, and relatively wide availability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging

5. What is the corpus callosum and what role does it play in your brain's activity?

The corpus callosum, is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath thecortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure. It connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates the communication between them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum


6. What is epilepsy and how might it affect your brain's abilities?
Epilepsy is a brain disorder involving repeated, spontaneous seizures of any type. Seizures  are episodes of disturbed brain function that cause changes in attention or behavior. They are caused by abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.
It might affect brain abilities causing difficulty learning and permanent brain damage (stroke or other damage).


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001714/


7. What is autism?
Autism is a developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002494/


8. What is Asperger's Syndrome?
Asperger's syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome