Most people have heard of savant syndrome, first described in 1887, whereby a person is naturally endowed from early life with remarkable skills in music, artistic, mathematics, memory or mechanical skills, an ability that stands out in marked contrast to their general impairments in social interactions, language and other mental faculties. Dustin Hoffman gave a good impression of the savant syndrome in the 1988 film Rain Man.
I was unaware of an alternative form of savantism, acquired savantism, until reading a fascinating account by David Treffert in Scientific American, August 2014
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