The Inner Savant: Physicist Allan Snyder’s new theory about the origins of the skills of autistic savants, covered here in this article from Discover, challenges the prevailing consensus that they are based on compulsive learning. He suggests that we may all have such latent abilities, but that it is some of the higher-order cognitive abilities we use most of the time, and in which people with autism are deficient, that interfere with the efficiency and rapidity of the brain’s natural processing powers. Some aspects of the theory account for thought-provoking phenomena — that there are cases of the spontaneous development of savant capacities after blows to the head; and that the deterioration of executive functions seen in frontotemporal dementia — which has an early, profound effect on linguistic competencies such as the naming of objects — can prompt the emergence of new interests and skills in music and art. By the way, I blinked to the BBC’s report of these findings in March, 2001.
Snyder is using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to “temporarily (inhibit) neural activity” and stimulate the development of such nonverbal skills in nonautistic individuals; a reader asked me what I thought of the plausibility and risks of such a practice. Its plausibility will, of course, have to be established by more extensive double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trials (the control subjects receiving sham TMS). TMS, which has attracted both research and incipient clinical attention over the past decade, does affect brain functioning in profound ways, and is being investigated as a treatment tool for a variety of CNS dysfunctions, especially depression. But, if it works to develop ‘savant-like’ skills, I suspect that conceptualizing it as ‘turning off’ certain frontotemporal regions and releasing untapped brain potential will turn out to be a hopelessly reductionistic oversimplification. The brain remains a ‘black box’; when we see a manipulation work (a psychoactive drug, electroconvulsant therapy, hypnosis, psychoanalysis, or TMS…), we spin yarns about what must be going on inside the box to account for it, beautiful theories — beautiful because they compellingly enlist us in believing in their explanatory power (until challenged by a counterexample), not necessarily because they have any relationship to reality. I would particularly like to see functional MRI (fMRI) studies addressing exactly what changes to cortical activity occur in subjects receiving TMS.
My greatest concern about TMS emanates from this rudimentary oversimplification about how it works and what it is doing in the brain. We have no way of knowing its longterm consequences, and the literature (which I have recently reviewed) is not extensive enough a body of knowledge to draw any reassuring conclusions. While several series have reported negative findings, there are case reports suggesting the induction of both absence (petit mal) and generalized (convulsive) seizures, the development of persistent memory deficits, and the induction of mania with repetitive TMS (rTMS). Most animal studies have failed to demonstrate tissue changes in lab animals exposed to TMS, but there is one study demonstrating brain damage in rats. Hearing loss in rabbits has been reported. Hormonal changes and changes in EEG brainwave recording indicative of alterations in brain function have not been found. You can do your own Medline search if you want to pursue this further. Here is similar BBC coverage of Allan Snyder and the ‘thinking cap’.
There are, of course, other techniques that arguably ‘turn off’ aspects of cortical functioning to defeat our conscious brain’s interference with more innate instinctual abilities. I’m reminded of the simple but powerful techniques for developing artistic skills pioneered in Betty Edwards’ 1989 book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It appears from the article that similar techniques are being used by Snyder’s research group, seemingly uncredited to Edwards. Certain meditative and biofeedback techniques may also be analogous.
