El Talento Autista

Talent in autism: hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity (aqui el articulo completo)

1. Simon Baron-Cohen*,
2. Emma Ashwin,
3. Chris Ashwin,
4. Teresa Tavassoli and
5. Bhismadev Chakrabarti

+ Author Affiliations

1. Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
   Douglas House, 18b Trumpington Road, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK

1. Author for correspondence (sb205@cam.ac.uk)

Abstract

We argue that hyper-systemizing predisposes individuals to show talent, and review evidence that hyper-systemizing is part of the cognitive style of people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). We then clarify the hyper-systemizing theory, contrasting it to the weak central coherence (WCC) and executive dysfunction (ED) theories. The ED theory has difficulty explaining the existence of talent in ASC. While both hyper-systemizing and WCC theories postulate excellent attention to detail, by itself excellent attention to detail will not produce talent. By contrast, the hyper-systemizing theory argues that the excellent attention to detail is directed towards detecting ‘if p, then q’ rules (or [input–operation–output] reasoning). Such law-based pattern recognition systems can produce talent in systemizable domains. Finally, we argue that the excellent attention to detail in ASC is itself a consequence of sensory hypersensitivity. We review an experiment from our laboratory demonstrating sensory hypersensitivity detection thresholds in vision. We conclude that the origins of the association between autism and talent begin at the sensory level, include excellent attention to detail and end with hyper-systemizing.

Keywords:

• autism
• Asperger syndrome
• savant

O SEA, QUE EL TALENTO AUTISTA SE RELACIONA CON LA PERCEPCIÓN, CON LA SENSORIALIDAD, O SEA, QUE VIENEN BUENOS TIEMPOS PARA LA SENSOSFERA, EN LA ERA DE LA SENSOSFERA