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The mysterious power of the brain: Autism

Autism is a mental disease which prevents those who suffer from it from

communicating with the world. Victims seem to live in a world of their own

which, even now, doctors are unable to penetrate. The illness was first given a

name in 1943, and yet doctors have made very little progress in their

understanding of the disease since then. According to statistics, between two and

four children out of every 1, are born autistic.

!ften victims are not able to spea", read or write. #ut what is most

e$traordinary about the illness is the fact that in other areas many of the children

can perform almost super%human feats of the brain. !ne of the more common

s"ills these so%called autistic savants have is calendrical calculation, that is the

ability to say which day of the wee" a particular date falls on. &ac"ie, forinstance, who is now 4', could do this from the age of si$, when she first began

to tal". (he can tell you what day of the wee" it was on 1 April 1933 with

scarcely a moment)s hesitation. #ut if you as" her how she does it, she)ll say she

doesn)t "now.

*eslie *em"e only has to hear a piece of music once and he can play it bac"

on the piano note%perfect. +et he has never had any formal musical training, is

blind and has an - of /. f you as" 0ichard the route of any bus in the *ondon

district, he will give you an answer immediately. (tephen iltshire has

e$ceptional artistic talents and, li"e both *eslie and 0ichard, combines this talentwith a remar"able memory, and can draw buildings with complete architectural

accuracy, sometimes only hours after seeing them for the first time. !ther

savants are able to carry out ama2ing mathematical computations in their heads,

but cannot add up simple numbers.

The mystery of how savants perform such tric"s is as elusive to the medical

world as it is to &ac"ie and the others li"e her. ertain common characteristics

have, however, emerged. (trangest of all, perhaps, is the fact that about / per

cent of all recorded cases are male. #ut what is also pu22ling is why the range of

savant s"ills is so narrow these include music 5usually the piano6, calendrical or

other mathematical calculation, art, e$tra%sensory perception, e$traordinarysensitivity of touch or smell and 5more unusually6 mechanical ability.

t has been suggested that autistic people do not suffer7 that they are perfectly

happy to remain in their own world and that a cure is only necessary in order to

reduce the terrible pain of re8ection felt by the victims) families. This

controversial opinion is, however, only held by a few.

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The sub8ect has become the focus of particular media interest since ustin

:offman)s portrayal of an autistic savant in the filmRain Man, for which he won

an !scar. This has increased public awareness of the disease and hopefully will

result in more money being given to research and a cure being found as soon as

possible.

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# uma doen>a f?sica uma doen>a da mente

' ! ;ue < particularmente incomum com rela>@o s pessoas autistas < ;ue muitas

delas tBm

A memCria e$tremamente curta talentos naturais e$traordinDrios # c