Autism and Talent Special Edition

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-04-17 16:00:00 UTC
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a brick wall painted white, multi-colored butterflies are painted on it, below it reads 'awakening brilliance'The Royal Society has put out a special edition of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B* entitled Autism and Talent. A list of abstracts is up on Medical News Today.

The issue itself is available in full text, as is information on, and a recording of, the preceeding discussion meeting.

Special issue description:

Extraordinary Talent remains one of the big unexplained puzzles, which will only be solved by a true collaboration between sciences and humanities. This special issue follows a Discussion Meeting on Autism and Talent under the joint auspices of the British Academy and Royal Society. Contributors from psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, history and sociology explore aspects ranging from the history, origin and prevalence of exceptional talent to its basis in the brain, from cognitive theories to the representation of talent and autism in biography and fiction. The papers in this issue show some remarkable convergence of ideas: A detail focused processing style may predispose to talent; the incidence of special skills may be higher than previously thought; there are tangible practical benefits from fostering talent in autism. Some of the challenging questions addressed in this special issue include: Are great artists fundamentally different from the rest of us? Is there a price to pay for exceptional ability in one domain? What is the role of practice? Could we all become savants?

Some interesting questions there. I'm curious about the role of practice one in particular. Like my reading list wasn't long enough already...

EDIT 4/23/2009: CORRECTION Only the first article is available for free.

Dora Raymaker
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