I think you have to differentiate a child prodigy who is born with an ability to soak up and efficiently process information in a particular field such as music, art or whatever and has an overall high intelligence with an autistic or mentally handicapped savant who would likely fall in the lowest range of overall intelligence but has a singular intelligence that is literally off any scale of measurement.
The example I always remember is the guy who can recite a whole encyclopedia because his dad read it to him once. He copies the inflection and whatever other things his dad did (coughs, etc.) and when interrupted has to start all over. So he heard this once and can repeat it over and over.
Does the SciAm article mention transcrania magnetic stimulation? This is fascinating, and it seems this could shed some light on what’s going on.
Isaac Asimov had this ability. He told us at a picnic that it saved him tons of time, since he never had to look up data in reference books that he had read once.
I agree with others that a lot more is going on here than practicing. I’m no savant, but in a period of a few weeks in the second half of the first grade I went from struggling with Dick and Jane readers to being able to read at a sixth grade or higher level. (Complete Jules Verne books that summer.) I certainly didn’t practice, my parents didn’t tutor me, and I don’t remember anything special happening. It just happened.
Mozart, from listening to his father give his sister music lessons, was able to pick up everything at an astounding rate. I don’t think this thing has anything to do with intelligence, but I suppose the surprise of someone with low intelligence being able to do one thing very well gave rise to the category of idiot savant.
It doesn’t talk about that. However, the brain scan picture comparing Kim’s brain to a normal brain is one of the most striking pictures I have ever seen. Whole brain structures are cleanly and neatly missing like they were removed by an expert knife. It is absolutley bizarre that would give him the ability to memorize over 9000 books by speed reading them once.
Those of us with more traditionally-functioning minds can do this one, too. All you need to do is memorize a set of twelve numbers and be able to do a few simple math problems in your head.
Granted, autistic savants probably don’t use the same methods we employ to arrive at their dates, but it’s still a neat little trick that could possibly win you a few bar bets. 
I apologize in advance for sounding dogmatic, but this is just plain ridiculous.
Ok, I take it back. I just read a review of his book (after writing that previous sentence) and it is clear he is not discussing savants, he is discussing people we consider to be geniuses/highly successful, like Einstein or Mozart.
Either way, dismissing biological differences seems to imply all human brains have equal capability. But we would never say this about human eyes, ears, arms, etc.
Furthermore, is there any actual data to back up a claim that savants practiced for long periods of time before showing these skills?
I personally have a low opinion of the ability of psychologists (I know, he said sociology, but the book refers to psychology) to create accurate models of our brain. I think they certainly have discovered much valuable data as to how our brains respond to certain inputs, etc., but it is like testing a black box. The attempts by psychologists to explain how are brains store and process information appear to be far more flawed than the math and neurobiological approaches.
Just a quick comment on this. With some instruments it’s more than simply knowing which keys or buttons to press. Playing the piano takes hand and finger strength and can be very tiring if you don’t play regularly; guitar players need callouses on their chord hands or the chords might come out muddy (or their fingers painfully red). I’ve never heard of a savant brass player, but it’s gotta be more difficult than watching Charlie Parker push his fingers down and memorizing the configuration.
Not sayin’ that savants can’t do it — some can and do play musical instruments with no prior training. Whether they can play them well first time, without the hand strength or conditioning, depends on your definition of “well.”
Fair enough. The ones I’ve seen only played a keyboard or piano, including the young girl in the link I referred to in an earlier post. What’s amazing is she only uses three fingers on each hand, excluding the thumb and pinkie.
I actually saw her perform a few months ago. She is what is termed a “prodigious savant,” which is what I think there are less than 50 of in the world. She actually needed to be coached to even use six fingers - she used to play with four or five. And she can still nail just about anything after hearing it a couple of times.
That’s interesting because the transcranial magnetic stimulation (fixed link) disables areas of the brain. That link points to an article titled Savant-like skills exposed in normal people by suppressing the left frontotemporal lobe.
That sounds like The Boy With The Incredible Brain, a show (mostly) about Daniel Tammet. An interesting show. More on Tammet.