Data Point to Link Between Autism Traits, Special Skills

A technology specialist recently told this reporter not only that he had a sister with autism, but that he suspected that he had inherited certain autistic traits himself—such as exceptional math talent and a novel way of thinking up computer passwords.

Could he be right? Perhaps.

For a number of decades, many people with an autism spectrum disorder have been found to possess exceptional skills in math, music, memory, or art. And now a new study has found, in a large population sample, a link between possession of a special talent and autistic-like traits.

The lead investigator was Pedro Vital, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London. Results were published online on March 31 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

More than 6,000 8-year-olds participated in the study. The researchers had the parents rate the children on whether they possessed “striking skills” or “special gifts” in the domains of art, math, memory, or music. About 1 in 6 children was reported to possess such a skill or gift. The researchers also had the parents use a screening instrument called the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test to evaluate their children for various autistic-like traits—say, social impairment, repetitive movements, narrow interests, a rigidity and insistence on sameness, or an unusual attention to detail rather than seeing the whole. The researchers then looked to see whether children with a special skill or gift had a significantly greater degree of autistic-like traits than children without a special skill or gift, even when I.Q. was considered.

It turned out that they did.

Furthermore, even when the researchers excluded subjects who had met DSM-IV criteria for an autism spectrum disorder (82 out of the more than 6,000 subjects), they still found a significant link between possession of a special skill or gift and autistic-like traits.

The researchers then examined whether possession of a special skill or gift could be significantly linked with any particular autistic-like trait. They found an association between having a special skill or gift with unusual attention to detail, but also to some degree with narrow interests and rigidity and insistence on sameness and to a weak degree with repetitive movements. In contrast, there was no link between having a special skill or gift and social impairment.

So might possession of a special skill or gift promote an unusual attention to detail, or might an unusual attention to detail foster a special skill or gift? “It is our belief that attention to detail facilitates, or even predisposes to, the development of ability,” Vital told Psychiatric News. “This is something we plan to investigate.”

Although this study appears to be the first large-scale search for a link between special talents and autistic-like traits, some smaller studies have already found such a link. For example, only 1 of every 10,000 individuals is thought to possess perfect pitch, rendering it a special skill or gift indeed. Yet musicians who possess perfect pitch possess more marked autistic traits than do musicians without perfect pitch, a 2003 study revealed.

This study was funded by the United Kingdom Medical Research Council.

An abstract of “Relationship Between Special Abilities and Autistic-like Traits in a Large Population-Based Sample of Eight-Year-Olds” is posted at<www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122295686/abstract>.▪