Savant syndrome comes in different forms. In built savant syndrome the extraordinary savant ability surfaces in early childhood. In acquired savant syndrome astonishing new abilities, typically in music, art or mathematics, appear unexpectedly in ordinary persons afterward a caput injury, stroke or other primal nervous system (CNS) incident where no such abilities or interests were present pre-incident.

But in sudden savant syndrome an ordinary person with no such prior interest or ability and no precipitating injury or other CNS incident has an unanticipated, spontaneous epiphanylike moment where the rules and intricacies of music, art or mathematics, for example, are experienced and revealed, producing near instantaneous giftedness and ability in the affected surface area of skill sets. Because in that location is no underlying inability such as that which occurs in congenital or acquired savant syndromes, technically sudden savant syndrome would be amend termed sudden genius.

The Case of Thousand. A.

A 28-yr-old admirer from Israel, K. A., sent his description of his epiphany moment. He was in a mall where there was a piano. Whereas he could play elementary popular songs from rote retentivity before, "all of a sudden at age 28 after what I can best describe as a 'just getting information technology moment,' it all seemed so simple. I suddenly was playing like a well-educated pianist." His friends were astonished as he played and suddenly understood music in an entirely intricate way. "I suddenly realized what the major calibration and minor scale were, what their chords were and where to put my fingers in gild to play certain parts of the scale. I was instantly able to recognize harmonies of the scales in songs I knew also equally the ability to play tune by interval recognition." He began to search the internet for information on music theory and to his amazement "well-nigh of what they had to teach I already knew, which baffled me as to how could I know something I had never studied."

Thousand. A. has a high IQ, is now an chaser and has no history of whatsoever developmental disorder. He makes part of his living at present doing musical performances. He described his musical epiphany in much more detail in a posting in the article section of www.savantsyndrome.com

The Case of Grand. F.

This 43-year-old woman woke up 1 night in December 2016 with what she chosen "the urgent need to draw a multitude of triangles, which rapidly evolved to a web of complex abstract designs. I stayed up into the morning with a compulsive demand to draw, which continued over the adjacent three days at an intense level." She had no prior interest or preparation in art. By the third day she was working on a piece of fine art she named "the Mayan," which took her two weeks to consummate. Three months subsequently she had created 15 pieces whose styles were reminiscent of artists including Frida Kahlo and Picasso. She presently spends about 8 hours a 24-hour interval on her arts and crafts in improver to her piece of work every bit a real manor agent. Incorporated into most of her pieces of art is mandalic manner of which she was totally unaware prior to her sudden art ability.

The Instance of S. S.

When she was in her mid-40s, S. S. began noticing changes in her perception of the physical world around her. She said when she looked at things similar trees and flowers, she started to encounter colors, textures and shadows in ways she had never seen before. This new fashion of seeing things compelled her to express her "new vision" on paper. She had never painted before in her life and was not comfy with a paintbrush, so she bought a inexpensive set of pastel pencils at Hobby Lobby, found a photo of a gorilla on the cover of an quondam National Geographic mag, and saturday down to describe it. The result—a rich, complex pastel painting with uncanny realism—stunned her friends and family, particularly in light of the fact she had never shown an aptitude for art or even an interest for that matter, and she never took an art class growing upwardly.

From that point frontwards drawing and pastel painting began to consume her every waking moment. Her "new vision" wouldn't permit her to just sit around and marvel at the beauty of this "new" world. She felt she had to act on it—she must act on it. From the very first this gift of seeing things in a new manner was inextricably tied to a compulsive desire to reproduce that new world on newspaper. It became an obsession that all but took over her life. "I establish it virtually impossible to put down my pastels and do things I needed to exercise," she stated, "I was spending mode too much money at Hobby Lobby and art supply stores. I was almost frenzied."

Fifty-fifty now, when she needs to focus on other more pressing things in her life, Due south. South. must put the pastels and art aside and shop them away in a identify where she is non tempted by them, sometimes for months at a time. She worries that "starting a new painting could completely derail her." In the case of S. South., as with other cases of sudden genius, at that place is no history of autism or CNS injury.

The Uniqueness of Sudden Genius

Many people pick upward a new skill or hobby, especially later in life. So what is different here?

—The skill has an abrupt onset with no prior interest in or talent for the newly acquired ability.

—At that place is no obvious precipitating event or CNS injury or affliction.

—The new skill is automatically coupled with a detailed, epiphany-type cognition of the underlying rules of music, art or math, for example—none of which the person has studied. They know things without ever having learned them.

—The new skill is accompanied with an obsessive-compulsive (OCD) component; in that location is the overpowering need to play music, draw or compute. Information technology is every bit much a force as a souvenir, as is usually the case with both built and caused savant syndromes.

—At that place is a fear the gift and OCD is evidence of losing ane's mind, and a tendency to hide the new ability from others rather than display it.

—I accept 14 such cases now. Ten are female person and four are male person. Age of onset of the new skill averages 47.2 years. The new skill was art, painting or cartoon in nine cases; mathematics or calendar-calculating in four; music in 1.

These cases came to my attention via unsolicited east-mails by people seeking caption or advice from cyberspace searches. We are in the process of exploring these cases further with a detailed survey instrument.

Daniel Tammet, a prodigious savant, is author of Born on a Blue Day . The style Daniel can describe his inner earth so articulately has given scientists a personal, verbal window into the brain that they never had earlier. In a documentary filmed at the Milwaukee Art Museum he states: "The line between profound talent and profound disability seems to be really a surprisingly thin one. Who knows there may be abilities hidden within everyone that tin can be tapped in some way."

Indeed, the acquired savant specially, and now the sudden savant, reinforce the idea that non only is the line between savant and genius a very narrow i but also underscores the possibility such savant abilities may exist dormant, to one caste or another, in all of us. The challenge is to tap those special abilities without caput injury or CNS incident only rather with some nonintrusive, more readily available methods.

We are working on that.