Historical examples of people gaining unusual cognitive abilities?

post by Nicholas / Heather Kross (NicholasKross) · 2022-11-24T19:01:14.105Z · LW · GW · 2 comments

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Like at the neurological/genetic level(s). Only debatable examples I can think of are Jason Padgett and a few other "acquired savants".

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comment by Shmi (shminux) · 2022-11-24T20:38:28.092Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I briefly went through the google hits for "acquired savant syndrome", and all the stories appear to be just that, nothing published/peer-reviewed. The only scientific-looking review is by Darold A. Treffert,  which is published in the author's own journal, from the looks of it.

Edit: oops, not an answer, was intended to be a comment.

Replies from: NicholasKross
↑ comment by Nicholas / Heather Kross (NicholasKross) · 2022-11-26T20:14:00.681Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Agreed, iirc he's one of the only people "studying" this, meaning he's more able to present shoddy evidence without pushback.