References:
What Genius and
Autism Have in Common. Maia Szalavitz. 2012.
Child prodigy: A
novel cognitive profile places elevated general intelligence, exceptional
working memory and attention to detail at the root of prodigiousness. Joanne
Ruthsatz & Jourdan B. Urbach. 2012.
Summary:
Time Magazine author Maia Szalavitz
begins her article with this statement: “Child prodigies evoke awe, wonder and
sometimes jealousy: how can such young children display the kinds of musical or
mathematical talents that most adults will never master, even with years of
dedicated practice?” (Szalavitz 2012) This is, in truth, the feeling I think
many musicians would echo regarding the existence of child prodigies, but now
there is research being done that is trying to figure out why this children
have these unbelieveable abilities.
The study performed by Joanne
Ruthsatz and Jourdan B. Urbach looks at 8 different prodigies – 6 of whom are
still children and 2 of whom are adults – and attempts to compare them and
discover the similarities in their neurological functions.
One major factor appears to be an
increase in working memory: whereas most people can hold a maximum of 7 numbers
in their head at a time – mercifully, the same number of digits in a phone
number – prodigies are capable of holding many more, as well as being able to
put them to use in mathematical functions. This does not apply only to numbers
– in the case of musicians, it would also mean patterns of notes, which is why
many child prodigy musicians can play a complex piece of music by memory after
only seeing it once.
A surprising outcome was that the
prodigies were not necessarily linked to exceptionally high IQ’s. They all had
higher-than-average intelligence, but their IQ scores were clearly not in
correlation to their prodigious abilities.
The most striking thing found in
the study was the correlation to autism – prodigies were found to score high on
the autistic scale, especially in terms of their great attention to detail
(which was even higher than many people diagnosed with Aspergers would have.)
They have two other major associations with autism – the higher likelihood of
being male, and their mothers having had difficult pregnancies.
One school of though regarding how
autism functions in the brain is that higher levels of local connectivity can
heighten attention and perception, but diminished connections between more
distant regions cause the sensory overload inherent in autism. The connection
to prodigies might be that while the local connections remain more highly
connected, the distant connections are not diminished, leaving them with the
high level of perception without the sensory overload effect.
Reflection:
As a musician, I can’t say I didn’t
find the fact that these prodigies are certainly thought to be “born” as
opposed to “created”, since I have difficulty imagining how any amount of
practicing might lead to the unbelievable musical skills required to do some of
the things these prodigies are capable of doing.
I found it very interesting that
there might be links between autism and child prodigies, since the two are so
oppositionally placed in terms of society – the child prodigy revered and the
autistic child sometimes discouraged. If anything, this should be leading the
scientific community, and honestly, everyone
to be re-examining how we look at the education and treatment of children with
severe autism. If they do in fact share the same level of heightened perception
as child prodigies, then there’s nothing saying they can’t use the same
fantastic abilities very constructively if we’re able to figure out how to
strengthen the connections to these more distant regions.
1 comment:
The research referenced in this blog aligns with a lot of other research in the area of high level skills in individuals with lower cognitive functions. Memory is definitely considered to be an important factor in the development of these skills, but other research also suggests that memory is not the sole reason for the emergence of these skills. I was really surprised to read that one of the consistent factors was that the mothers of these individuals usually had difficult pregnancies!
Research also suggests that localized processing is a major factor in the high level of skill demonstrated by these individuals. I haven’t read anything in this research that suggests whether the aim is to determine if the best approach with these individuals is in developing the localized processing, or attempting to elicit regional connectivity, but it would be interesting to know.
I’m so glad you brought up the point about autistic children being discouraged. Research in this area holds the potential to change the quality of life for these individuals for the better!
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