Prodigies and Savants

[GregoryJoseph]

Dear Doctor,

What is your opinion of "gifted" youngsters? Is there something genetically different with their brains that allows them to be far more intelligent than children their own age, or allows them to be musical virtuosos when they're barely out of diapers? Or is it merely a case of over eager parents pushing them and revealing that kids are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for?

As always, thank you for your time and consideration.

Your friend,

GregoryJoseph

[Dr Steve]

Dear Doctor,

What is your opinion of "gifted" youngsters? Is there something genetically different with their brains that allows them to be far more intelligent than children their own age, or allows them to be musical virtuosos when they're barely out of diapers? Or is it merely a case of over eager parents pushing them and revealing that kids are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for?

As always, thank you for your time and consideration.

Your friend,

GregoryJoseph

There are gifted children and then there are GIFTED children. I think those you are referring to are ones like Mozart, who composed his first concerto at age 4. Prodigies are a breed apart...they innately understand things that "normal" people could struggle with their whole life.

Savants are generally autistic kids with math or music skills hardwired that are so advanced as to defy explanation. One guy can name the day of the week for any given date in history, another can multiply huge numbers in his head faster than you can enter them into a calculator.

Prodigies may have wacky social skills, mostly because they have adult peers when they're little kids, but are "normal" otherwise.

There certainly must be anatomic differences in prodigies and savants' brains, but since we don't even know how consciousness works, it's impossible to explain these things based on structure.

There's a good article illustrating this on Einstein's Brain...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_brain) lots of conjecture but no real answers.