Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Harri on 22/02/2020 21:17:05
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I am referring to the rare neurological condition and the subsequent skills of people with Savant Syndrome. As this condition seems to bring out what most of us would call amazing skills of memory, math and music. If the causes are well enough understood could this condition be induced with a 'normal' brain?
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Well, researchers have invented a "thinking cap" - electrical stimulation of the brain enabled subjects to solve a problem that the majority previously found impossible: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-news/electrical-brain-stimulation-boosts-lateral-thought
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Thanks Chris. I guess what I'm getting at is ... does every brain have such potential? Some Savants experience an accidental blow to the head resulting in the emergence of new skills or an exceptional advance in the skills they already had. Which to me suggests the skills are already in the brain and I question whether they are in all our brains?
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There is a theory that many of the savant skills are inherent in all our brains, but are suppressed by the left anterior temporal lobe. Experiments using low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS; Snyder et al. 2003, 2006; Young et al. 2004; Gallate et al. 2009) temporarily inhibits neural activity in that lobe creating ‘virtual lesions’ and producing some savant like skills.
Why would they be suppressed by a higher order system? The way I think of it is, if you walk into a crowded room, a party say, you are looking to see who you know, what food & drink is there etc. The last thing you want is your brain telling you that there are 2479 repeat patterns on the wallpaper, 37 bottles on the bar shelf, 12 people wearing ties, etc. There has to be a switch, but the question might be why can’t we switch it on at will?