Está en la página 1de 3

Autism and

Mathematical Talent
IOAN JAMES

utism is a developmental or personality disorder,

A
thought is something that is seen time and time again in the
not an illness, but autism can coexist with mental Asperger genius.
illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic-depres- Asperger syndrome is not the only form of autism with
sion. It shows itself in early childhood and is present this connection. The Irish psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald, for
throughout life; sometimes it becomes milder in old age. example, tells me that virtually all the people he diagnoses as
Nowadays it is recognised as a wide spectrum of disorders, autistic have an interest in mathematics. Their greatest wish,
with classical autism, where the individual is wrapped he says, is to bring the world under the control of pure
up in his or her own private world, at one extreme. It is reason, to create order and meaning out of the chaos
estimated that in the United Kingdom slightly under one that they experience around them, particularly in the
percent of the population, about half a million people, puzzling social domain. Such people are naturally attracted
have a disorder on the autism spectrum The corresponding to science, especially to the mathematical sciences, since
figure for other countries is not available, although it is mathematicians tend to create order where previously chaos
unlikely to be very different. Autism is present in all seemed to reign. He attributes this attraction to a feeling of
cultures and, as far as we know, has existed for untold security that they find in the rational world of mathematics,
generations. which compensates for their inability to make sense of the
Hans Asperger, a Viennese psychiatrist, found that some mysterious social world.
of his patients had a mild form of autism, with distinctive Much has been written about this, and the general public
symptoms that later became known as Asperger’s syn- are now more aware of the presence of mildly autistic
drome. He was not the first to describe the syndrome but people in everyday life. Since I first wrote about autism in
he may have been the first to recognise a connection with mathematicians in the Intelligencer [20] some years ago,
mathematical talent. As he observed (see Frith [13]): ‘‘to our more has been learnt about the disorder and more has been
own amazement, we have seen that autistic individuals, as published. In this follow-up article I begin by describing
long as they are intellectually intact, can almost always research that places the link between autism and mathe-
achieve professional success, usually in highly specialized matical talent on a firmer footing. Then I describe some
academic professions, often in very high positions, with a of the more recent case studies of Asperger geniuses in
preference for abstract content. We found a large number mathematics and associated subjects.
of people whose mathematical ability determines their Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research
professions.’’ Later he wrote, ‘‘It seems that for success in Centre in Cambridge, has tried to put the connection on a
science or art a dash of autism is essential. For success the more quantitative basis. For this purpose he devised a self-
necessary ingredient may be an ability to turn away from administered questionnaire for measuring the degree to
the everyday world, from the simple practical, an ability to which an adult with normal intelligence has the traits
rethink a subject with originality so as to create in new associated with the autistic spectrum. From the answers to
untrodden ways, with all abilities canalised into the one the questions a number is obtained, which he calls the
speciality.’’ He went on to describe autistic intelligence—a autistic-spectrum quotient, providing an estimate of where
kind of intelligence untouched by tradition and culture— a given individual is situated on the continuum from nor-
unconventional, unorthodox, strangely pure and original. mality to autism. (Anyone who wishes to take the AQ test
The ability to immerse oneself wholeheartedly in work or will easily find it by googling Simon Baron-Cohen.) When

56 THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER Ó 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC


the questionnaire was administered to students at Cam- When combined with high intelligence, as it often is,
bridge University, interesting results were obtained. Briefly, autism is associated with outstanding creativity, particularly
scientists scored higher than nonscientists; and within the in the arts and sciences. An enormous capacity for curiosity
sciences, mathematicians, physical scientists, computer and a compulsion to understand are evident in those who
scientists, and engineers scored higher than the more have the syndrome, as is a tendency to reject received
human or life-centred sciences of medicine and biology. wisdom and the opinions of experts. They often suffer from
Full statistical details are provided in [4] and [5]. This depression, and mathematical work can have an antide-
research was taken a step further in [6], where among 378 pressant effect. Work is a form of self-expression for the
undergraduates reading mathematics at Cambridge there autistic who finds other forms of expression difficult; it
were seven who reported a formally diagnosed autism boosts their often low self esteem.
spectrum condition, whereas there was only one among The link with autism may throw fresh light on some
414 students in a control group of Cambridge undergrad- aspects of mathematical creativity. More than a hundred
uates reading medicine, law, or social science. years ago Henri Poincaré addressed a conference of psy-
In the mathematical world, the establishment of a link chologists in Paris on Mathematical Creation (translated by
between autism and mathematical talent will come as no Halsted [17]). Poincaré’s disciple Jacques Hadamard wrote
surprise, but its recognition may have significant practical a well-known monograph [16] on The Psychology of
consequences for education and for choice of occupation. Invention in the Mathematical Field, which is mainly about
At school autism is regarded as a learning disability; its mathematical creativity; a more recent discussion of this
positive side should be recognised. Children with mild may be found in Changeux and Connes [7]. Much has been
autism, who get on well in mathematics, may struggle with written about creativity in general, much of which applies
other subjects. They are likely to perform poorly at inter- to mathematical creativity, but Nettle [24] emphasizes that
views, when they apply for a job, but they may be good at this differs from creativity in the arts. In a recent survey,
the right kind of work, for example in information tech- comparing the psychology of a small sample of research
nology, where their special abilities are appreciated. mathematicians with poets and visual artists, Nettle finds
Although the disorder is a handicap in many ways, in others that the cognitive style of the mathematicians was associ-
it is a great advantage. For the majority, life is a struggle, and ated with convergent thinking and autism, whereas poetry
only a minority make a success of it. There can be no doubt and art are more associated with divergent thinking,
that gifted individuals with some degree of autism have schizophrenia, and affective disorders, such as manic-
contributed a great deal to research in mathematics. Not depression. (Divergent thinking means the ability to create
always, however; the tragic lives of Robert Amman [25] and new ideas based on a given topic; convergent thinking
William Sidis [28] show what can go wrong. means the ability to find a simple principle behind a col-
lection of information.)
In the history of mathematics it is not difficult to find
......................................................................... people who may have had Asperger syndrome, although
without the right kind of biographical information we
IOAN JAMES Retiring after 25 years as cannot say for sure whether each person had the syndrome
AUTHOR

Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, or not. It is much less common among females than among
Ioan James reinvented himself as a writer males; it is difficult to find an example of an outstanding
on nontechnical subjects. His latest book, woman mathematician who was a clear case. It is not
‘‘Driven to Innovate,’’ describes the lives of uncommon for individuals to have only a few features of
leading Jewish mathematicians and physicists the syndrome, not the full profile. Examples of well-known
born in the nineteenth century. He has also mathematicians who showed more than a trace of Asperger
written a series of books about the lives of behaviour, without necessarily meeting all the diagnostic
famous mathematicians, physicists, biolo- criteria, are Paul Erdös, Ronald Fisher, G. H. Hardy, Alan
Turing, André Weil, and Norbert Wiener. A detailed anal-
gists, and (not yet published) engineers.
ysis for Srinavasa Ramanujan has been provided by
His interest in autistic creativity has led him
Fitzgerald [10], for William Rowan Hamilton by Walker and
to write ‘‘Asperger’s Syndrome and High
Fitzgerald [27]. Some other cases are discussed by Fitzger-
Achievement’’ and ‘‘The Mind of the Math-
ald and James [12]), whereas Baron-Cohen [1] describes one
ematician’’ (co-authored with psychiatrist (who was, in fact, a Fields Medalist).
Michael Fitzgerald). Among other distinc- Sheehan and Thurber [26] have suggested that John
tions Ioan James is a fellow of the Royal Couch Adams had the disorder and that this lay behind
Society and an honorary fellow of two both his success in identifying the unknown planet Nep-
Oxford colleges. tune as the cause of anomalies in the orbit of Uranus and
also his failure to persuade the Astronomer Royal to search
Mathematical Institute for it in the orbit he had calculated. Most of those who
University of Oxford encountered the mathematical physicist Paul Dirac have a
Oxford OX1 3LB story to tell about his eccentricity. His recent biography by
England Farmelo [8] describes his aloofness, defensiveness, deter-
e-mail: imj@maths.ox.ac.uk mination, lack of social sensitivity, literal-mindedness,

Ó 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 32, Number 1, 2010 57


obsessions, physical ineptitude, rigid pattern of activities, [8] Farmelo, Graham, The Strangest Man: the Hidden Life of Paul
shyness, verbal economy, and much else. Some features of Dirac Quantum Genius. Faber and Feabre, London, 2009.
his complex personality can be attributed to his strange [9] Fitzgerald, M., Is the cognitive style of persons with Asperger’s
upbringing but most of it goes with some form of autism. syndrome also a mathematical style? J. of Autism and Develop-
Some people are critical of linking the syndrome with mental Disorders, 30 (2000), 175–176.
persons of genius. There is often strong resistance from the [10] Fitzgerald, M., Asperger’s disorder and mathematicians of
general public to any suggestion that a famous person might genius. J. of Autism and Developmental Disorders 32 (2002),
have had Asperger’s, but this is generally because of the 59–60.
popular misunderstanding of the nature of the disorder. [11] Fitzgerald, M., Autism and Creativity. Brunner Routledge, Hove,
People who are otherwise well informed find it difficult to 2004.
believe what some of those with this disorder may be [12] Fitzgerald, M. and James I.M., The Mind of the Mathematician.
capable of achieving. Attempts at diagnoses of individuals Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD, 2007.
no longer alive often result in controversy when experts
[13] Frith, Uta (ed.), Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Cambridge
differ and amateurs also become involved. Unless one is
University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
absolutely sure, it is advisable to be careful, for example, to
[14] Frith, Uta, Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Basil Blackwell,
say that someone displayed autistic traits rather than that
Oxford, 2003.
person was autistic, even when the case is a strong one,
[15] Grandin, Temple, Thinking in Pictures. Vintage Books, New York,
since otherwise the diagnosis is liable to be questioned.
1996.
Some of the standard books on the subject, notably Frith
[14], discuss the problems of historical diagnosis. On the one [16] Hadamard, J., The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical
hand, to know that there have been outstanding Asperger Field. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1945.
mathematicians impresses the rest of us and enhances the [17] Halsted, G.B., The Foundations of Science. Science Press,
self-esteem of gifted people with the syndrome. On the Philadelphia, PA, 1946.
other hand, those who are not so gifted may feel depressed [18] Hermelin, Beate, Bright Splinters of the Mind. Jessica Kingsley,
that they cannot aspire to mathematical fame. London and Philadelphia, 2001.
[19] James, Ioan, Singular scientists. J. Royal Society of Medicine 96
REFERENCES (2003), 36–39.
[1] Baron-Cohen, S., The Essential Difference: men, women and the [20] James, Ioan, Autism in Mathematicians. Mathematical Intelli-
extreme male brain. Allen Lane, London, 2003. gencer 25, No. 4 (2003), 62–65.
[2] Baron-Cohen, S. et al., Does autism occur more often in families [21] James, Ioan, On Mathematics, Music and Autism. In Bridges
of physicists, engineers and mathematicians? Autism 2 (1998), London (Reza Sarhangi and John Sharp, eds.), Tarquin Publica-
296–301. tions, London, 2006.
[3] Baron-Cohen, S. et al., A mathematician, a physicist, and a [22] Ledgin, Norm, Diagnosing Jefferson: Evidence of a Condition
computer scientist with Asperger syndrome: performance on folk that Guided his Beliefs, Behaviour and Personal Associations.
psychology and folk physics test. Neurocase 5 (1999), 475–483. Future Horizons, Arlington TX, 2000.
[4] Baron-Cohen, S. et al., The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): [23] Ledgin Norm, Asperger’s and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope
evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, through Famous Role Models: Future Horizons, Arlington TX,
males and females, scientists and mathematicians. J. of Autism 2002.
and Developmental Disorders 31 (2001), 5–17. [24] Nettle, Daniel, Schizotypy and mental health amongst poets,
[5] Baron-Cohen, S. et al., The systemizing quotient: an investigation visual artists, and mathematicians. Journal of Research in
of adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, and Personality 40 (2006), 876–890.
normal sex differences. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal [25] Senechal, M. The Mysterious Mr Ammann. The Mathematical
Society, Series B (special issue on autism mind and brain) 358 Intelligencer , 26(4) (2004), 10–21.
(2003), 361–740. [26] Sheehan, W. and Thurber, S., John Couch Adams’s Asperger
[6] Baron-Cohen, S. et al., Mathematical talent is linked to autism. syndrome and the British non-discovery of Neptune. Notes Rec.
Human Nature 18 (2007), 125–131. R. Soc. 61 (2007), 285–299.
[7] Changeux, J-P. and Connes, A., Conversations on Mind, Matter [27] Walker, Antoinette, and Fitzgerald, Michael, Unstoppable Bril-
and Mathematics. Princeton University Press, Princeton N.J. liance. Liberties Press, Dublin, 2006.
1995. [28] Wallace, A., The Prodigy. E.P. Dutton, New York, 1986.

58 THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

También podría gustarte