Heaton Pamela, Wallace Gregory L
Psychology Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2004 Jul;45(5):899-911. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.t01-1-00284.x.
Whilst interest has focused on the origin and nature of the savant syndrome for over a century, it is only within the past two decades that empirical group studies have been carried out.
The following annotation briefly reviews relevant research and also attempts to address outstanding issues in this research area. Traditionally, savants have been defined as intellectually impaired individuals who nevertheless display exceptional skills within specific domains. However, within the extant literature, cases of savants with developmental and other clinical disorders, but with average intellectual functioning, are increasingly reported.
We thus propose that focus should diverge away from IQ scores to encompass discrepancies between functional impairments and unexpected skills. It has long been observed that savant skills are more prevalent in individuals with autism than in those with other disorders. Therefore, in this annotation we seek to explore the parameters of the savant syndrome by considering these skills within the context of neuropsychological accounts of autism. A striking finding amongst those with savant skills, but without the diagnosis of autism, is the presence of cognitive features and behavioural traits associated with the disorder.
We thus conclude that autism (or autistic traits) and savant skills are inextricably linked and we should therefore look to autism in our quest to solve the puzzle of the savant syndrome.
尽管一个多世纪以来人们一直关注学者综合征的起源和本质，但直到过去二十年才开展了实证性的群体研究。
以下注释简要回顾了相关研究，并试图解决该研究领域中尚未解决的问题。传统上，学者被定义为智力受损但在特定领域表现出特殊技能的个体。然而，在现有文献中，越来越多地报道了患有发育性和其他临床疾病但智力功能正常的学者病例。
因此，我们建议关注点应从智商分数转向功能损伤与意外技能之间的差异。长期以来人们观察到，学者技能在自闭症患者中比在其他疾病患者中更为普遍。因此，在本注释中，我们试图通过在自闭症的神经心理学背景下考虑这些技能来探索学者综合征的参数。在那些具有学者技能但未被诊断为自闭症的人中，一个显著的发现是存在与该疾病相关的认知特征和行为特质。
因此，我们得出结论，自闭症（或自闭症特质）与学者技能有着千丝万缕的联系，因此在我们试图解开学者综合征之谜时，应该关注自闭症。
