Ejudy
Thu, Jul-18-02, 01:04
Ok so **you got yer massive gorey skull cleavage injuries with
maybe less severe versions in this corner (fun and games to
induce unussual brain skills? nah!)
**and you got yer idiot savantism with its associated
incredible leaps in cognitive specific skills which jetison
the human hominid type out of their regular old dolldrums for
brief moments in history in this corner
so you put the two together and what do you get?
PALEO-lithic cave painters!
Here's my idea: Scroll down to the horsie drawing on this page
by Nadia at 3 years old. One very similar thing about those
animals in the paleo cave paintings and these savant drawings
is the lack of linguistic meaning....or at least there is a
difference and I BELIEVE this to be a good explanation of
sorts for some of these drawings on the cave walls. I also
think folks can see someone drawing and learn how to to it by
having seen the paintings. So i think it could be passed on to
a *limited* degree. I have done many years of drawing like
this and there is a very distinct difference in how you are
processing the information ....you are not trying to read it
for human meanings, IOW. You are just recording what it is.
Gets into the questions of signs and symbols and what is going
on in one's head while you are drawing this way.
http://www.discover.com/feb_02/gthere.html?article=feats-
avant.html
============================================================================
(pertinent excerpt) "...Can we shed the assumptions built into
our visual processing system?
"Perhaps someone like Nadia who lacked the ability to organize
sensory input into concepts might provide a window into the
fundamental features of perception.
Snyder's theory began with art, but he came to believe that
all savant skills, whether in music, calculation, math, or
spatial relationships, derive from a lightning-fast
processor in the brain that divides things—time, space, or
an object—into equal parts. Dividing time might allow a
savant child to know the exact time when he's awakened, and
it might help Eric find the sweet spot by allowing him to
sense millisecond differences in the sounds hitting his
right and left ears. Dividing space might allow Nadia to
place a disembodied hoof and mane on a page precisely where
they belong. It might also allow two savant twins to
instantaneously count matches spilled on the floor (one
said "111"; the other said "37, 37, 37"). Meanwhile,
splitting numbers might allow math savants to factor
10-digit numbers or easily identify large prime
numbers—which are impossible to split.
Compulsive practice might enhance these skills over time, but
Snyder contends that practice alone cannot explain the
phenomenon. As evidence, he cites rare cases of sudden-onset
savantism. Orlando Serrell, for example, was hit on the head
by a baseball at the age of
10. A few months later, he began recalling an endless
barrage of license-plate numbers, song lyrics, and
weather reports.
If someone can become an instant savant, Snyder thought,
doesn't that suggest we all have the potential locked away in
our brains? "Snyder's ideas sound very New Age. This is why
people are skeptical," says Ramachandran. "But I have a more
open mind than many of my colleagues simply because I've seen
[sudden-onset cases] happen."
Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California at
San Francisco, has seen similar transformations in patients
with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease
that strikes people in their fifties and sixties. Some of
these patients, he says, spontaneously develop both interest
and skill in art and music. Brain-imaging studies have shown
that most patients with frontotemporal dementia who develop
skills have abnormally low blood flow or low metabolic
activity in their left temporal lobe. Because language
abilities are concentrated in the left side of the brain,
these people gradually lose the ability to speak, read, and
write. They also lose face recognition. Meanwhile, the right
side of the brain, which supports visual and spatial
processing, is better preserved.
"They really do lose the linguistic meaning of things," says
Miller, who believes Snyder's ideas about latent abilities
complement his own observations about frontotemporal
dementia. "There's a loss of higher-order processing that
goes on in the anterior temporal lobe." In particular,
frontotemporal dementia damages the ventral stream, a brain
region that is associated with naming objects. Patients with
damage in this area can't name what they're looking at, but
they can often paint it beautifully. Miller has also seen
physiological similarities in the brains of autistic savants
and patients with frontotemporal dementia. When he performed
brain-imaging studies on an autistic savant artist who
started drawing horses at 18 months, he saw abnormalities
similar to those of artists with frontotemporal dementia:
decreased blood flow and slowed neuronal firing in the left
temporal lobe." (end excerpt)
ejudy
maybe less severe versions in this corner (fun and games to
induce unussual brain skills? nah!)
**and you got yer idiot savantism with its associated
incredible leaps in cognitive specific skills which jetison
the human hominid type out of their regular old dolldrums for
brief moments in history in this corner
so you put the two together and what do you get?
PALEO-lithic cave painters!
Here's my idea: Scroll down to the horsie drawing on this page
by Nadia at 3 years old. One very similar thing about those
animals in the paleo cave paintings and these savant drawings
is the lack of linguistic meaning....or at least there is a
difference and I BELIEVE this to be a good explanation of
sorts for some of these drawings on the cave walls. I also
think folks can see someone drawing and learn how to to it by
having seen the paintings. So i think it could be passed on to
a *limited* degree. I have done many years of drawing like
this and there is a very distinct difference in how you are
processing the information ....you are not trying to read it
for human meanings, IOW. You are just recording what it is.
Gets into the questions of signs and symbols and what is going
on in one's head while you are drawing this way.
http://www.discover.com/feb_02/gthere.html?article=feats-
avant.html
============================================================================
(pertinent excerpt) "...Can we shed the assumptions built into
our visual processing system?
"Perhaps someone like Nadia who lacked the ability to organize
sensory input into concepts might provide a window into the
fundamental features of perception.
Snyder's theory began with art, but he came to believe that
all savant skills, whether in music, calculation, math, or
spatial relationships, derive from a lightning-fast
processor in the brain that divides things—time, space, or
an object—into equal parts. Dividing time might allow a
savant child to know the exact time when he's awakened, and
it might help Eric find the sweet spot by allowing him to
sense millisecond differences in the sounds hitting his
right and left ears. Dividing space might allow Nadia to
place a disembodied hoof and mane on a page precisely where
they belong. It might also allow two savant twins to
instantaneously count matches spilled on the floor (one
said "111"; the other said "37, 37, 37"). Meanwhile,
splitting numbers might allow math savants to factor
10-digit numbers or easily identify large prime
numbers—which are impossible to split.
Compulsive practice might enhance these skills over time, but
Snyder contends that practice alone cannot explain the
phenomenon. As evidence, he cites rare cases of sudden-onset
savantism. Orlando Serrell, for example, was hit on the head
by a baseball at the age of
10. A few months later, he began recalling an endless
barrage of license-plate numbers, song lyrics, and
weather reports.
If someone can become an instant savant, Snyder thought,
doesn't that suggest we all have the potential locked away in
our brains? "Snyder's ideas sound very New Age. This is why
people are skeptical," says Ramachandran. "But I have a more
open mind than many of my colleagues simply because I've seen
[sudden-onset cases] happen."
Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California at
San Francisco, has seen similar transformations in patients
with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease
that strikes people in their fifties and sixties. Some of
these patients, he says, spontaneously develop both interest
and skill in art and music. Brain-imaging studies have shown
that most patients with frontotemporal dementia who develop
skills have abnormally low blood flow or low metabolic
activity in their left temporal lobe. Because language
abilities are concentrated in the left side of the brain,
these people gradually lose the ability to speak, read, and
write. They also lose face recognition. Meanwhile, the right
side of the brain, which supports visual and spatial
processing, is better preserved.
"They really do lose the linguistic meaning of things," says
Miller, who believes Snyder's ideas about latent abilities
complement his own observations about frontotemporal
dementia. "There's a loss of higher-order processing that
goes on in the anterior temporal lobe." In particular,
frontotemporal dementia damages the ventral stream, a brain
region that is associated with naming objects. Patients with
damage in this area can't name what they're looking at, but
they can often paint it beautifully. Miller has also seen
physiological similarities in the brains of autistic savants
and patients with frontotemporal dementia. When he performed
brain-imaging studies on an autistic savant artist who
started drawing horses at 18 months, he saw abnormalities
similar to those of artists with frontotemporal dementia:
decreased blood flow and slowed neuronal firing in the left
temporal lobe." (end excerpt)
ejudy