Autism and Talent: The beautiful otherness of the autistic mind

Why are talents in music, maths, art or memory so much more common in autism than in any other group? Professor Happé discusses aspects of the autistic mind that may contribute to striking talents. Being less aware of others’ thoughts may allow autistic people to have more original ideas, un-blinkered by prevailing views. It is the autistic eye for detail, however, that seems to be the starting engine for talent, and to explain why genetic influences on individual differences in autistic traits overlap with genetic influences on talent.

Professor Francesca Happe, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London.

Chair: Professor Cathryn Lewis

[watchingthebees]

I don’t think I’m a savant, but I’m autistic and my talent is with words. I’m hyperlexic and learned how to read on my own when I was 3 years old. I have a massive special interest in words and etymology, my reading/writing levels at school were always very advanced compared to the other kids, and I can learn foreign languages very easily, because they’re basically just pattern recognition

[tracywilliamsliterature]

Thank you for this, it helped me to understand myself better... I have suspected that I may be mildly autistic for at least 20 years and have somewhat come to terms with it... this was a reassuring talk that is very much appreciated, plus I went to King's College many years ago so it was slightly nostalgic too... depression has been a huge part of my journey, the inability to read other people has brought me to a very isolated lifestyle which I have somewhat accepted now... doubt I will ever understand why most people do not get so fixated on specific tasks as I do, sadly there were no such encouragements when I was little and I think my parents just didn't know what the hell to do with me... I could go on but it seems inappropriate to do so, suffice it to repeat my gratitude one last time; thank you!

[asantaimeep]

As with many people in the comments, I am an autistic person. I'm a woman, and quite young, and it's very interesting to watch people theorise about this sort of thing.

[joane]

Very interesting distinction (ad. 'mindblindess'), recognizing thinking/intending vs. emotions.
I don't have much difficulties to understand what others feel, what I don't know is how to PROCESS/REACT/EXPRESS in relation to it. It seems to me as if something's missing along the way, like other people do this automatically, it somehow goes organically through their body, mimic, reactions, etc. In me it seems as if going through a different circuit, different route. I can learn the behaviors by mimicking them, but there's still something that other people seem to do which I don't. But it's not like I can't see someone's emotions, etc. In fact O feel like I'm absorbing it like a sponge, because I don't have this natural outlet, this organic reactions that other people have. Especially I can understand others when watching/reading/observing, when myself in the inside situation it's a bit different, more difficult, many of these informations seem to me like I need more time to process them in order to potentially react. As I said, it's as if it was coming through a different route in the nervous system/body, etc. I may seem uninterested or cold to some, which is the further from the truth, because I really do care. There's also other things like difficulty processing when people speak in a group and what they're saying if they all speak, or if there's to much background noise, or to know when and what to say something, things like that. But on the test for recognizing (naming) emotions in the eyes my scores is very normal/average. What is difficult, is navigating in real time social interaction, processing & answering.
I'll have to now think about recognizing what others are really thinking/intending when they say something. I know that I often ask people to clarify what they meant. I think I get the thoughts and intentions as well, to some degree at least, but it's more of an conscious analysis, deduction, learnt meanings, etc.

[GeoffreyPilkington]

It would seem mind bias would limit bias because everything is always fresh and we’re not influenced by the herd. But I don’t see people ever talking about it from that perspective. My mind blindness gives me far less bias than most. And that’s the talent in and of itself.

[AnthonyWade]

31:29 the scratch markings above and to the left of the slanted screw, but to the right of the highlight/ reflection in the gold colored material are also different. And the scratch markings on the same surface as the slanted screw, next to where the black meets the gold, are different. Also, the shadow cast by the black arm which hangs to the right is different. In general the bottom photo is warmer in color than the top. And, the dark line at the very top left, in the corner makes it apparent that these images are cropped differently. Disclosure: I paint and draw realistically and I’ve been looking at these images for 15 minutes… bit of a challenge accepted moment.

[ThoseVagabonds]

Our son Bradley has Autism and although he is very intelligent he does have a complete lack of patience and no concept of time, and is pretty forgetful, although he can be a complete pain in the butt sometimes, he can be very funny and we love him to bits.

[malectric]

My particular interest was innate. It began preschool. I just worked on it alone and unprompted. It became my means of earning a living, was never boring and always fun. I see a lot of questions by young people like "what is a good area to study, what job should I aim for?" etc. It was never like that for me. It just happened. I never studied it at formal education. I always practiced it alone in my own space.

[statickaeder]

A comment about the child who could not recognize his mother when she changed her earrings. Making eye-contact is very difficult for us in general (yes, I am autistic), and while I think that I have an easier time of it than many people, I am aware of the feeling of how eyes are very overwhelming, and there are times where I have felt that I was losing my balance and "falling into/toward the eyes" of the person I was making eye-contact with. If this child has great difficulty making eye-contact, he may be hiding this by looking at areas of his mother's face that are not the eyes. The ears are close to the eyes in relation to what direction your own eyes are pointing in vertical space. When your mother asks you to look at her, that is clear direction - and one does the best they can to meet a clearly communicated desire. SInce we tend to memorize solutions that seem to work for us and earrings are very distinctive... the child may not be face-blind (I don't remembe rthe term for this, sorry), and just be using the method that has worked.

Oh yes, my dyslexia was diagnosed early, the ADHD in my teens, and the autism 4 years ago, when I was 40.

Personally, I don't think people should ask questions if they don't want an honest answer. At the same time, we can learn to be sensitive and skilful with our words, to be honest without being brutal.

[GeoffreyPilkington]

The problem with Theory of mind is the neurotypicals are mind readers but they aren’t very good at it. People with autism don’t mind read at all. So yes we’re bad at mind reading because we’re not naive as to think we can. Lol

[Michael_H_Nielsen]

I am autistic. I dont feel like I have mind blindness. I just dont care what people think.

[barefoot_and_brave]

Or, we could explain to allistic people how to learn to communicate differently. We could stop assimilation, stop assuming there’s a problem with the autistic but a problem of inflexibility on the neurodivergent end. This video is… kinda gross.

[cujimmy]

I've never used teeth to draw anything, let alone a Snow man.

[woodenspoon]

I hope you realise how utterly condescending this entire enterprise is