There was an interesting and reasonably balanced article in yesterday's Sunday Times (5 October) which focused on the relationship of intellectual gifts and "certain brain disorders" i.e. autism/AS. Autism up to 7 x more common in mathematicians. Stated that the genes responsible are usually beneficial causing "the disease" only if present in the wrong combinations. Quotes research of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen director of autism research centre at Cambridge University, UK. ". . .genes play a significant role in the causes of autism and that those genes are also linked to certain intellectual gifts." Quotes also Professor Patricia Howlin, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, UK, whose studies showed 29% of people with autism possessed an exceptional mental skill. Quotes Professor Allan Snyder, Director of the centre for the Mind, University of Sydney, that spectrum of autism includes Nobel prize-wining geniuses. Quotes Temple Grandin: "People with autism have played a vital role in human evolution and culture. Before computers it would have taken someon with an autistic-type memory to design great cathedrals, while scientists such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein show every sign of having been autistic. The world owes a great deal to those who design and programme computers, many of whom show autistic traits."
Despite the use of the word "disease" in the article, it does at least report that some of those with the condition resent being labelled "disabled" and have begun describing those without autism as "NTs" to make the point that they could be the ones missing out.
06 Oct 2008, 7:50 am
