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Other literature type . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
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Data Paper . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Data Paper . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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Savant Cognition as Differential Access to Relational Structures: An FNC-Based Data Resource

Authors: Wikström, Björn;

Savant Cognition as Differential Access to Relational Structures: An FNC-Based Data Resource

Abstract

Savant syndrome presents a longstanding paradox in neuroscience: how can devel-opmental disorders or brain injury produce enhanced abilities, often with immediateonset and without prior training? Existing theories—compensation, disinhibition, andenhanced local processing—explain isolated features but fail to account for the full phe-nomenology, especially domain specificity, convergent computational methods acrossindependent savants, and instant emergence.This paper proposes an interpretation grounded in the Field–Node–Cockpit (FNC) frame-work. We adopt a minimal, naturalistic characterization of the Field as the set ofrelational, mathematical, or information-theoretic structures that necessarily obtaingiven physical law. These structures are ontologically prior to specific instantiations,substrate-independent, and accessible by differently configured biological or artificialsystems. The Node (brain) is treated as a tuning mechanism that selectively couples tosubsets of Field structures. The Cockpit denotes the subjective rendering of accessedpatterns.This interpretation is fully compatible with established neuroscience findings—left hemisphere lesions, right hemisphere enhancement, TMS-induced savant-like2performance—while offering additional explanatory power. Savant abilities corre-spond to differential Node tuning that reduces typical consensus-reality filtering andenables direct access to stable Field structures (e.g., harmonic ratios, geometricalinvariants, temporal regularities). Instant emergence becomes expected becausethese structures pre-exist; convergent methods arise because multiple individualsaccess the same structure rather than generating idiosyncratic computations.We present genetic evidence from the first savant-specific whole exome sequencingdataset (Montreal Neurological Institute, n=15), demonstrating testable predictionsabout connectivity genes, neurotransmitter balance, and synaptic architecture. Theframework reframes savant syndrome and neurodiversity as variations in information-access architecture rather than deficits, with implications for consciousness science,education, and artificial systems.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Green