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Brief Report: Two Day-Date Processing Methods in an Autistic Savant Calendar Calculator

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 46, pages 1096–1102 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Special ability in computing the day of week for given dates was observed in a 24 year-old male (FB) diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. FB performed almost flawlessly (98.2 %) both with past and future dates, over a span of 40 years. Response latency was slower as temporal remoteness of future dates increased. Within the future timespan, FB’s performance was consistent with the active use of calendar regularities. On the contrary, within the past timespan (for which no remoteness effect was seen), his performance was mainly linked to memory retrieval of personal events. The case presented here complements the existent literature on calendar calculators, as, for first time, two distinct day-date processing styles are described in the same individual.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to FB for his patient cooperation. Moreover we would also like to thank Gregg Rawlings for his careful revision of the manuscript.

Authors Contributions

MD performed the statistical analysis, participated in the interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript. AI conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the measurement, and reviewed the manuscript. GS conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the measurement, and reviewed the manuscript. SG conceived of the study, participated in its design, coordination, and interpretation of data, drafted and reviewed the manuscript

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, University of Sheffield, Beech Hill Road, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, N Floor, Room N125e, Sheffield, S10 2RX, UK

    Matteo De Marco

  2. UOC di Neurologia, Ospedale CTO, AORN “Ospedali dei Colli”, Napoli, Italy

    Alessandro Iavarone & Giovanna Santoro

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Sergio Carlomagno

Authors
  1. Matteo De Marco
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  2. Alessandro Iavarone
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  3. Giovanna Santoro
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  4. Sergio Carlomagno
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Correspondence to Matteo De Marco.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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De Marco, M., Iavarone, A., Santoro, G. et al. Brief Report: Two Day-Date Processing Methods in an Autistic Savant Calendar Calculator. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 1096–1102 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2626-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2626-z

Keywords

  • Asperger
  • Autism
  • Calendrical calculation
  • Memory
  • Algorithm