Asperger's Savants
Asperger's Savants
Exploring the neurological substrate of emotional and social intelligence
Reuven Bar-On1, Daniel Tranel2, Natalie L. Denburg2 and Antoine Bechara2
1 Emotional Intelligence Research Laboratory, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, and 2 Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA
Correspondence to: Antoine Bechara, Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA E-mail: antoine-bechara@uiowa.edu
The somatic marker hypothesis posits that deficits in emotional signalling (somatic states) lead to poor judgment in decision-making, especially in the personal and social realms. Similar to this hypothesis is the concept of emotional intelligence, which has been defined as an array of emotional and social abilities, competencies and skills that enable individuals to cope with daily demands and be more effective in their personal and social life. Patients with lesions to the ventromedial (VM) prefrontal cortex have defective somatic markers and tend to exercise poor judgment in decision-making, which is especially manifested in the disadvantageous choices they typically make in their personal lives and in the ways in which they relate with others. Furthermore, lesions to the amygdala or insular cortices, especially on the right side, also compromise somatic state activation and decision-making. This suggests that the VM, amygdala and insular regions are part of a neural system involved in somatic state activation and decision-making. We hypothesized that the severe impairment of these patients in real-life decision-making and an inability to cope effectively with environmental and social demands would be reflected in an abnormal level of emotional and social intelligence. Twelve patients with focal, stable bilateral lesions of the VM cortex or with right unilateral lesions of the amygdala or the right insular cortices, were tested on the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), a standardized psychometric measure of various aspects of emotional and social intelligence. We also examined these patients with various other procedures designed to measure decision-making (the Gambling Task), social functioning, as well as personality changes and psychopathology; standardized neuropsychological tests were applied to assess their cognitive intelligence, executive functioning, perception and memory as well. Their results were compared with those of 11 patients with focal, stable lesions in structures outside the neural circuitry thought to mediate somatic state activation and decision-making. Only patients with lesions in the somatic marker circuitry revealed significantly low emotional intelligence and poor judgment in decision-making as well as disturbances in social functioning, in spite of normal levels of cognitive intelligence (IQ) and the absence of psychopathology based on DSM-IV criteria. The findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that emotional and social intelligence is different from cognitive intelligence. We suggest, moreover, that the neural systems supporting somatic state activation and personal judgment in decision-making may overlap with critical components of a neural circuitry subserving emotional and social intelligence, independent of the neural system supporting cognitive intelligence.
Are the cognitive deficits in social cognition seen in people with Asperger's syndrome related to "handicap theory", or the postulation that for many given evolutionary benefits there are tradeoffs?
Also, Daniel Tammet, a "savant" that has a seemingly limitless capacity to manipulate numeric information, claims to see numbers in various colors, shapes, and patterns.
This got me thinking... multiple stimulus processing...
It seems like his brain has really efficient communication from the regions dealing with, say, color, to those that manipulate numbers. Is this a way of understanding how >1 n-back works? By working on it, are we "training" brain cross-talk?
If true, could we ever take it as far as Tammet? How long would it take? Are adult brains plasticity limited in this case (he had a seizure when he was a child that he claims is responsible for his "abilities")? Would it be advantageous to train with constantly changing modalities to bring up the weakest links in the neural-communication-circuit?
The hallmark of intelligence is, supposedly, abstraction.
Can this be enhanced by improving regional cortical communication efficiency?
Reuven Bar-On1, Daniel Tranel2, Natalie L. Denburg2 and Antoine Bechara2
1 Emotional Intelligence Research Laboratory, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, and 2 Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA
Correspondence to: Antoine Bechara, Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA E-mail: antoine-bechara@uiowa.edu
The somatic marker hypothesis posits that deficits in emotional signalling (somatic states) lead to poor judgment in decision-making, especially in the personal and social realms. Similar to this hypothesis is the concept of emotional intelligence, which has been defined as an array of emotional and social abilities, competencies and skills that enable individuals to cope with daily demands and be more effective in their personal and social life. Patients with lesions to the ventromedial (VM) prefrontal cortex have defective somatic markers and tend to exercise poor judgment in decision-making, which is especially manifested in the disadvantageous choices they typically make in their personal lives and in the ways in which they relate with others. Furthermore, lesions to the amygdala or insular cortices, especially on the right side, also compromise somatic state activation and decision-making. This suggests that the VM, amygdala and insular regions are part of a neural system involved in somatic state activation and decision-making. We hypothesized that the severe impairment of these patients in real-life decision-making and an inability to cope effectively with environmental and social demands would be reflected in an abnormal level of emotional and social intelligence. Twelve patients with focal, stable bilateral lesions of the VM cortex or with right unilateral lesions of the amygdala or the right insular cortices, were tested on the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), a standardized psychometric measure of various aspects of emotional and social intelligence. We also examined these patients with various other procedures designed to measure decision-making (the Gambling Task), social functioning, as well as personality changes and psychopathology; standardized neuropsychological tests were applied to assess their cognitive intelligence, executive functioning, perception and memory as well. Their results were compared with those of 11 patients with focal, stable lesions in structures outside the neural circuitry thought to mediate somatic state activation and decision-making. Only patients with lesions in the somatic marker circuitry revealed significantly low emotional intelligence and poor judgment in decision-making as well as disturbances in social functioning, in spite of normal levels of cognitive intelligence (IQ) and the absence of psychopathology based on DSM-IV criteria. The findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that emotional and social intelligence is different from cognitive intelligence. We suggest, moreover, that the neural systems supporting somatic state activation and personal judgment in decision-making may overlap with critical components of a neural circuitry subserving emotional and social intelligence, independent of the neural system supporting cognitive intelligence.
Are the cognitive deficits in social cognition seen in people with Asperger's syndrome related to "handicap theory", or the postulation that for many given evolutionary benefits there are tradeoffs?
Also, Daniel Tammet, a "savant" that has a seemingly limitless capacity to manipulate numeric information, claims to see numbers in various colors, shapes, and patterns.
This got me thinking... multiple stimulus processing...
It seems like his brain has really efficient communication from the regions dealing with, say, color, to those that manipulate numbers. Is this a way of understanding how >1 n-back works? By working on it, are we "training" brain cross-talk?
If true, could we ever take it as far as Tammet? How long would it take? Are adult brains plasticity limited in this case (he had a seizure when he was a child that he claims is responsible for his "abilities")? Would it be advantageous to train with constantly changing modalities to bring up the weakest links in the neural-communication-circuit?
The hallmark of intelligence is, supposedly, abstraction.
Can this be enhanced by improving regional cortical communication efficiency?
medicalstudent | 3 years ago
Reply
"true, could we ever take it as far as Tammet? How long would it take? Are adult brains plasticity limited in this case (he had a seizure when he was a child that he claims is responsible for his "abilities")? Would it be advantageous to train with constantly changing modalities to bring up the weakest links in the neural-communication-circuit?
T"
I seriously doubt non-invasive procedures would allow this to happen. Tammet's sensations, as far as I know, should be happening at the perception stage. The cross-wiring should occur before executive processing takes place, so he gets multimodal perception from single-modality stimuli, and after that, processing and memory encoding. There is something fundamentally different going on at the biological level.
There was an article not long ago about a non-artist who, after recovering from a brain injury, developed a gift and passion for drawing. I suppose it can be engineered someday, after we know exactly where to look.
There was an article not long ago about a non-artist who, after recovering from a brain injury, developed a gift and passion for drawing. I suppose it can be engineered someday, after we know exactly where to look.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
"so he gets multimodal perception from single-modality stimuli"
that is completely insane...
...like hearing (while concurrently seeing) pictures?
that would seem untrainable
...like hearing (while concurrently seeing) pictures?
that would seem untrainable
medicalstudent | 3 years ago
Reply
It isn't. In neuroplasticity: "What fires together, wires together."
Using that single piece of information, you can figure out some type of exercise to train what you want.
Using that single piece of information, you can figure out some type of exercise to train what you want.
? | 3 years ago
Reply
"...like hearing (while concurrently seeing) pictures?"
Emotions too! Tammet said 333 is a "friendly number," and 289 is "ugly."
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
how can we be certain that he perceives a single modality as multiple, rather than seeing a number and then processing it with regions involved in processing other stimuli... leading to ancillary sensory interpretations?
the former would lead to interference with other types of perception, the latter would imply that his brain "talks" to *itself* exceptionally well.
if he is literally hearing, touching, and feeling numbers, he would have other sensory processing deficits while doing math problems, right? simply by interference...
i am not aware that this is the case...
or is my understanding incomplete or incorrect?
>1 n-back should help us relate one type of sensory stimulus to another during processing... or so it seems
hah... chicken or the egg?
the former would lead to interference with other types of perception, the latter would imply that his brain "talks" to *itself* exceptionally well.
if he is literally hearing, touching, and feeling numbers, he would have other sensory processing deficits while doing math problems, right? simply by interference...
i am not aware that this is the case...
or is my understanding incomplete or incorrect?
>1 n-back should help us relate one type of sensory stimulus to another during processing... or so it seems
hah... chicken or the egg?
medicalstudent | 3 years ago
Reply
"how can we be certain that he perceives a single modality as multiple, rather than seeing a number and then processing it with regions involved in processing other stimuli... leading to ancillary sensory interpretations?"
Good point. I simply assumed that this was a case of sensory cross activation, but I shouldn't have.
I suppose the question is where and when the crossover happens. If it's entirely at the sensory stage, then explanation would be easy. To verify, we'd have to give him a lesion and see if the sensations stop... (guess not). But as you pointed out, it may be more complicated than that.
In one of his interviews, Tammet said that numbers look like objects on a landscape, and when he multiplies them, they fuse into a new shape in front of him. Since this is no longer a bottom-up process, you could be right. If he is actually seeing new things, then something is feeding the visual cortex new post-processed imagery... fascinating!
I cannot even imagine what Tammet means by "landscapes." It's almost like a bat trying to describe what infrared "looks like."
I suppose the question is where and when the crossover happens. If it's entirely at the sensory stage, then explanation would be easy. To verify, we'd have to give him a lesion and see if the sensations stop... (guess not). But as you pointed out, it may be more complicated than that.
In one of his interviews, Tammet said that numbers look like objects on a landscape, and when he multiplies them, they fuse into a new shape in front of him. Since this is no longer a bottom-up process, you could be right. If he is actually seeing new things, then something is feeding the visual cortex new post-processed imagery... fascinating!
I cannot even imagine what Tammet means by "landscapes." It's almost like a bat trying to describe what infrared "looks like."
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
That, actually, is not terribly uncommon. Individuals in the prodromal, inchoate phase of the Alzheimer's disease process frequently develop great artistic ability - or rather their artistic ability improves - presumably because the brain structure(s) responsible for filtering out superfluous details become(s) damaged. This ability is generally lost as the disease progresses, I believe.
This can actually be reproduced by applying strong magnetic fields to certain portions of the brain. What happens is that the field actually temporally inactivates the brain region - or reduces activity - allowing the subject's artistic abilities to improve (in most cases only marginally). These magnetic-field-inducing wands are also being investigated for their ability to relieve depression, if I remember correctly.
This can actually be reproduced by applying strong magnetic fields to certain portions of the brain. What happens is that the field actually temporally inactivates the brain region - or reduces activity - allowing the subject's artistic abilities to improve (in most cases only marginally). These magnetic-field-inducing wands are also being investigated for their ability to relieve depression, if I remember correctly.
Okinamaro | 3 years ago
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Interesting as synesthesia in many cases proves to be very useful to for example musicians (hearing colour in tones) or writers (perceiving the "mood" of a sentence) as it provides with additional ways of organzing and chunking stimuli.
? | 3 years ago
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