Science and Asperger's Syndrome

[abacus9900]

Why is it that people with Asperger's Syndrome often seem to possess abilities that allow them to excel in maths and science, etc? Such individuals do not function well in social situations and, in fact, find such situations baffling and something out of their 'comfort zone'. Could it be that these people tend to retire into a world of their own and focus on logical interests rather than relating to other people?

It has been speculated that some great geniuses of the past may have been subject to this condition such as Einstein, Mozart, Charles Dickens, Beethoven, et al. Does suffering from Asperger's Syndrome mean you have something more or something less within your brain that allows you to be good at science?

[speakertoanimals]

You back again then abacus?

Simple -- assuming that people with Aspergers can be as intelligent as anyone else, then someone with Aspergers is MORe likely to study a subject which doesn't involve all that messy interpersonal stuff (like computer science), and perhaps MORE likely to stay in and study than hang out at the corner with their mates..........................

But the geeky brilliant at science label doesn't exactly help with Aspergers who aren't such high achievers.

And a restrictive (and repetitive) fascination with numbers ISN'T necessariy the same as being a mathematician.

[abacus9900]

Jul 5, 2011 15:03:43 GMT 1 speakertoanimals said:

You back again then abacus?

Yes, but you'd better be nicer to me.

[speakertoanimals]

Yes, but you'd better be nicer to me.

I'll be as I'll be, abacus.

Perhaps its more accurate to say that successful scientists and mathematicians often share some traits in common with aspergers (ability to focus obsessively on a narrow area, liking for logic and detail), but I don't think that having those traits means you have Aspergers per se. Just that if you DO have Aspergers as well, then the anti-social aspects aren't necessarily such an impediment if you become a mathematician!

Perhaps just easier to do your 10,000 hours IF you are high-achieving Aspergers, rather than the rest of us who get distracted by all those messy interpersonal issues as well.

The point about Aspergers is that they don't necessarily get obsessive about anything USEFUL. As I said before, being able to compute the day of the week for any date someone throws at you may seem impressive, but its not exactly useful, and doesn't make you a mathematician.

[principled]

Hi abacus
Good to see you posting. I wish more would as it was starting to get like a club of five posters!

I agree to an extent with STA.
Towards then end of the 1990s and into the early years of 2000 I noticed an increase in students who were diagnosed with Aspergers (and other autistic spectrum disorders-ASD). This may, of course, just be down to better diagnosis. My memory isn't perfect, but I don't remember any of these being particularly outstanding students.

In recent months I've done much more research into ASD. My reason is that I believe one of my grandchildren is autistic. One interesting hypothesis is that around 1yr old some children have an abnormal brain growth spurt in the frontal lobes that prevent synapses being correctly made. If so, then this could go some way to explaining the fixation on detail noted in autistic individuals (and from my recent personal experience this is a very observable trait). Whether that connects with the idea of that Aspergers sufferers are good scientists or mathematicians, I don't know.
brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/123/4/836.full
P

[abacus9900]

Thanks for the welcome back, Principled.

I gather that an important aspect of ASD is that the usual 'filters' ordinary people have are not shared with people with ASD so that they do take in much more details of their particular area of interest. The rest of us simply do not pay attention to all of the details we experience and possibly somebody like Einstein would have had the ability to view the world 'anew' so to speak in that he did not make the usual assumptions about the physical universe but looked at reality in a 'childlike' way thus revealing new features of the universe not noticed before.

There is also some research to show that people with ASD tend to use areas of the brain that for the rest of us would be used to assess social situations so that one might suggest that ASD sufferers have the ability to specialise in certain areas but as a result forgo social abilities. It's probably true that outstanding individuals have high abilities in a given area to begin with but the ASD part of their personality enhances such abilities even further. It may turn out that people like high functioning 'savants' are the way they are not because they possess something more than the rest of us but something less.