How Well Do We Understand Autistic Savant Artists: A Review of Various Hypotheses and Research Findings to Date

Seungwon Chung; Jung-Woo Son

doi:10.5765/jkacap.230004

How Well Do We Understand Autistic Savant Artists: A Review of Various Hypotheses and Research Findings to Date

Soa Chongsonyon Chongsin Uihak. 2023 Apr 1;34(2):93-111. doi: 10.5765/jkacap.230004.

Authors

Seungwon Chung^{1

2}, Jung-Woo Son^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea.
² Autism and Developmental Disorder Treatment Center, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea.
³ Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea.

Abstract

The authors investigated the artistic characteristics of autistic savant artists, hypotheses on the proximate and ultimate causes of their emergence, recent psychological and other studies about them, and psychological and neuroaesthetic studies about non-savant autistic individuals. The artistic features of autistic savant artists were significantly similar to those of outsider artists. Furthermore, the authors investigated the explanatory power of the paradoxical functional facilitation theory, the superior visual perception hypothesis, the "Hmmmmm" hypothesis, and the Neanderthal theory of autism regarding the emergence of autistic savant artists. In addition, we investigated whether an increase in savant characteristics was related to a decrease in the ability for social communication. The authors suggested that in studies on the aesthetic experience of non-savant autistic individuals, their aesthetic experience ability is never lower than that of neurotypical individuals and that some non-savant autistic individuals may potentially have artistic talent. Finally, the authors reviewed the effectiveness of the "autism savant spectrum syndromic disorder" proposed by some researchers. More scientific and systematic studies on autistic savant artists from a multidisciplinary perspective are warranted.

Keywords: Autism; Evolutionary perspective; Neanderthals theory of autism; Neuroesethetics; Otherness; Outsider art; Raw perception; Savant artist.