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Scientific American

June 1, 2002

1 min read

Islands of Genius

Artistic brilliance and a dazzling memory can sometimes accompany autism and other developmental disorders

By Darold A. Treffert & Gregory L. Wallace

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Darold A. Treffert, a psychiatrist, met his first savant in 1962 and continues research on savant syndrome at the Treffert Center in Fond du Lac, Wis. He was a consultant for the 1988 movie Rain Man and maintains a Web page at www.savantsyndrome.com, hosted by the Wisconsin Medical Society.

More by Darold A. Treffert

More by Gregory L. Wallace

This article was originally published with the title “Islands of Genius” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 286 No. 6 (June 2002)

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