Autistic savants

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There's an article at http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlser ... =1545-7885

It's interesting because it compares animal and autistic (and probably aspy) thinking.

G'Aut to be Savvy topic

This is an excellent, detailed article dealing with right versus left brain thinking. Etails, de tails. then we go into animal tails. Animals. Right brain. People living on the Autistic Spectrum tend to right brain tasks. Or maybe we just use both sides of the brain, but the right is more dominant? I need to reread the article again.

Recommended reading.

I don't think that people with AS tend towards right-brained tasks. Aspies are often associated with music, math, and language skills, which are all centered in the left brain.

Wait, I thought language was on the opposite hemisphere of math and logic. Am I mistaken?

Maths is right-brained, as are images and artistic talent. In savants, the left hemisphere doesn't fully develop, so the right side learns to deal with more of the cognitive processes. It means it becomes overdeveloped. Language and logic are both on the left hand side of the brain. This has been demonstrated in people who have had brain injuries to the left side and have then shown savant-like ability.

The whole left-brain/right-brain thing is largely a pop science myth (much like the idea that we only use 10% of our brains). It's not really possible to locate something like "math," or "music," or "language" in one specific area of the brain.

This is true, it's largely a misconception. I recall reading about it recently in a book about neuroplasticity.

Well this is comforting, as anything which involves left/right tends to confuse me, except in the realm of politics.

Wait, it is possible to locate the language centres in our brain. In a MRT for example. But it's true that it's not possible to determine how much one side of the brain is used (unless the other would be non-existent).

And the myth about 10 to 20% of our brain used is probably based on the fact that in earlier times, scientist stimulated certain parts of a dead brain to see whether a muscle in a dead body would move. In a dead frog for example. And they found out that about 20% of the brain parts would make muscles contract. (This was real science.)
Go figure, the other 80% of the brain were a mystery to them of course and they said that these parts seemed to have 'no use'.

Gee, most of the muscles, etc... won't be noticed by a third party, and SOME wouldn't even be noticed by the affected person. So, even if the brain was JUST to move muscles, their test would STILL be meaningless.

That's not true, I, turns out, use more of the right side of my brain. I learn better visually.

I didn't say that all aspies are left-centered. I just said that it's certainly not true that we are right centered.

And while the whole left/right brain thing is somewhat of a myth, I see a lot of false information being spread here. There most definitely ARE centers for different types of thinking. The brain works very globally, interacting in all sorts of ways, but there is a language center and it is located in the left hemisphere.

There is some truth and some falsity to the idea of "localized" functions (i.e., a certain function is located in a certain area). Most of these localized functions are noted via brain damage: a focal area of the brain is damaged and affects a function, say mathematical computation, or depth perception, but doesn't seem to negatively affect anything else. Therefore, it's concluded that that specific area is the "seat" of said function. But no part of the brain works alone. So that focal function still needs the cooperation of other areas of the brain in tandem in order to work. So is that particular area imperative to the functioning of math or depth perception but not so for other functions/behaviors? Yes. But can it process math or perceive depth without the cooperative processing of other areas of the brain? No.

Also, some functions are more localized than others.

By this reasoning, a bullet to your brain would have an 80-90% chance of leaving you unharmed. This inference is certainly not empirically supported. The sensorimotor cortex is roughly 10% of the brain, but most neuroscientists would agree that our brains do more than coordinate muscle movements. And yes, certain specific functions can be localized (Broca's area, Wernicke's area, etc) but entire skill sets or patterns of thought can not be said to reside in a particular region of the brain. We do not do math problems on the left side and listen to music with the right side.

Actually, that is FAR from true! For instance, if a bullet hit you in the wrist, ir the side of the neck, it would be FAR from the brain, and likely cause no damage there, but you would STILL probably die within minutes due to loss of blood. Of course, with 10% coverage, it is unlikely the bullet could go through the brain without hitting neurons.

As for how much of the brain is used? I have NO idea, but I know it is less than 1% in a given day by most people. At least I HOPE! I know *I* don't use that much even though I am constantly trying to learn, remembering different things, looking for problems to solve, and solutions. It is almost like your average computer today.... The disk drive is probably less than 90% capacity, and you probably use less than 10% of it in a given day.

Well, agreed of course. On both things, since I didn't mean anything else (not common knowledge then I take it), although you do must remember that people weren't so clever back in the early 20th century or the 19th century. I don't doubt that they'd have tried removing all that they thought to be useless of the brain if they had the chance, just to give it a try.