Do you believe a person can score IQ of 60 and yet can show amazing musical aptitude?
A NeuroImage study shows structural abnormalities in one brain area of people with Williams syndrome to explain musical abilities … which at times … appear at savant levels. Ursula Bellugi, director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Salk Institute for 
Biological Studies … said …
"Understanding the connections between missing genes, the resulting changes in brain structure and function, and ultimately behavior may help us to reveal how the brain works."
Williams syndrome comes about when the same set of about 20 genes is deleted from one copy of chromosome seven … and it allows experts to observe how the brain develops under atypical conditions.
Williams syndrome compels people to an unusual interest in strangers… where names and faces are remembered with ease. It’s characterized by strong empathy and fluent especially expressive language.
People with Williams syndrome tend to be confounded by the visual world around them …show poor visual-spatial skills … and have a far better verbal than writing ability. While some other differences such as size differences occur in brains with Williams … key changes are seen in the connectivity of certain brain regions seems more likely to contribute to the specific strengths and weaknesses in Williams syndrome.
Increasingly researchers report the valued information … received from people who were born with Williams syndrome … and who help us all to understand and appreciate the extravagance of the human brain. Do you know anybody who shows exceptional skills in music and very low skills in other areas?
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