向左自閉，向右天才

對于那些曾經(jīng)想要獲得藝術(shù)技能但是沒有對此投入太多精力的人來說，這是個(gè)好消息。有可能(雖然不太可能)突然某一天你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己莫名其妙地被鋼琴所吸引，當(dāng)你的手指在琴鍵上舞動(dòng)，你發(fā)現(xiàn)自己居然是無師自通的鋼琴大師。

Or you might sit down one day with a pencil and draw a photorealistic picture of your dog, though you once couldn't draw a dog if your life depended on it. Just don't get your hopes up. Researchers are learning that every so often it does happen, and it's called sudden savant syndrome.

或者你可以坐在畫布前，用筆畫出照片般逼真的畫作。只是不要抱有太大希望。相關(guān)研究人員正在研究發(fā)生這種現(xiàn)象的具體情況，并且它被稱為間歇學(xué)者綜合征。

Autistic Savants

自閉天才

First, let's back up a bit. Savant syndrome is a condition that shows up in about 10 percent of people that fall on the autism spectrum. Dustin Hoffman won best actor at the 1989 Oscars for his portrayal of an autistic savant in the film "Rain Man." Congenital savants — those whose abilities show up in early childhood — often have some deep, impressive, but ultimately very narrow cognitive talents that are almost always associated with autism.

首先，讓我們后退一點(diǎn)。SavANT綜合征是大約10%的自閉癥患者中出現(xiàn)的一種癥狀。達(dá)斯汀·霍夫曼憑借在電影《雨人》中對自閉癥學(xué)者的刻畫贏得了1989年奧斯卡最佳男主角。那些先天學(xué)者——那些能力在童年早期就顯現(xiàn)的先天學(xué)者——通常有一些深刻的、令人印象深刻的、但最終非常狹隘的認(rèn)知天賦，幾乎總是讓人聯(lián)想到?；加凶蚤]癥的ED。

Congenital savants might be profoundly disabled in one aspect of their cognitive functioning, but they often have extraordinary abilities in another. Savantism sometimes shows up in the form of an ability to perform complex mental math or astounding feats of memorization. For example, some savants can almost instantaneously calculate that Feb. 27, 1913, fell on a Thursday, and others might be able to memorize every license plate number they encounter on a car trip between San Diego and Seattle.

有些學(xué)者可能在其認(rèn)知功能的一個(gè)方面嚴(yán)重殘疾，但他們卻在另一個(gè)方面具有非凡的能力。這有時(shí)會(huì)以復(fù)雜心算或令人驚嘆的記憶功能的形式表現(xiàn)出來。例如，一些學(xué)者幾乎可以立即計(jì)算出1913年2月27日是星期四，有些人能記住他們在一次旅途中遇到的每個(gè)車牌號(hào)碼。

Other savants might have exceptional skills in music or art. For example, Nadia Chomyn, a child from the U.K. who was profoundly autistic (she died in 2015 at the age of 48), started producing photographically realistic drawings of horses and people riding them when she was just 3. Without ever being taught, she instinctively knew everything about drawing: linear perspective, foreshortening and proportion, despite having limited to no social or communicative skills. Strangely, Chomyn lost her ability to draw when her communication improved at age 9.

其他人可能擁有音樂或藝術(shù)方面的杰出技能。例如，來自英國的孩子Nadia Chomyn，她患有自閉癥(她于2015年去世，享年48歲)，在她3歲時(shí)，她開始畫畫，畫里有馬以及騎馬的人，非常逼真。她無師自通地了解關(guān)于繪畫的一切：線性透視，透視和比例，但是她完全不會(huì)交際。奇怪的是，9歲時(shí)她的溝通能力得到改善，但與此同時(shí)也失去了畫畫的能力。

Acquired Savants

后天天才

Although congenital savants like Chomyn have been recognized throughout history — until the 1970s, they were called "idiot savants" — other types have been identified in the past couple of decades. People who've suffered from head injuries, strokes or other central nervous system (CNS) damage can occasionally develop abilities consistent with those seen in autistic savants.

像 Chomyn 這樣的天才已得到人們的認(rèn)可 - 20 世紀(jì) 70 年代之前，他們被稱為“白癡學(xué)者” - 在過去的幾十年中，也發(fā)現(xiàn)了別種天才。頭部受傷，中風(fēng)或其他中樞神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)(CNS)損傷的人偶爾會(huì)發(fā)展出與自閉癥患者一致的能力。

Dr. Darold Treffert, the founder of The Treffert Center in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and author of "Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired and Sudden Savant," has been studying savant syndrome for 57 years. He even worked as a consultant on the movie "Rain Man."

Darold Treffert 博士是威斯康星州 Treffert 中心的創(chuàng)始人，也是“天才島：《自閉癥，獲得性和突發(fā)性學(xué)者的豐富思想》的作者，57年來，他一直在研究相關(guān)癥狀。他甚至還擔(dān)任電影《雨人》的顧問。

Until about 15 years ago, Treffert worked under the assumption, as everyone in his field did, that savantism always was a symptom that showed up in conjunction with autism. But patients with brain injury or disease began appearing in his office with special abilities much like those of his patients with autism. This acquired savant phenomenon seems to be much less common — only one in 2,000 people with brain injuries develop these types of special abilities or interests, whereas one in 20 autistic patients exhibit it.

大約15年前， Treffert 博士提出這個(gè)假設(shè)。正如他所在領(lǐng)域的每個(gè)人所做的那樣，專業(yè)總是伴隨著自閉癥。患有腦損傷或疾病的患者開始出現(xiàn)在他的辦公室，他們與患有自閉癥的患者一樣，非常精通某些領(lǐng)域。這種獲得性的學(xué)術(shù)現(xiàn)象似乎不太常見 - 平均2000名腦損傷患者中只有一人發(fā)展出特殊能力或興趣，而20名自閉癥患者中平均只有一人表現(xiàn)出這種特殊能力或興趣。

However, since the scope of injuries that could be associated with savantism is pretty huge, acquired savantism accounts for about half the known cases, while autism accounts for the other half.

然而，由于相關(guān)損傷很多，所以獲得性專業(yè)天才占已知病例的一半左右，而孤獨(dú)癥占另一半。