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Although there are many cognitive theories explaining the behavior of the autistic savant Treffert (1988) indicates the importance of studying brain structure as well as brain function. In his article, The idiot savant: A review of the syndrome, he illustrates how the use of SPECT imaging, positron emission tomography (PET) scans, cerebral flow studies and other brain mapping techniques will enable cognitive psychologists to study brain structure in order to focus on "cerebral circuitry and lateralization" (p. 571). He also explains how "the savant's memory without consciousness, which so typifies the syndrome, can be studied in almost pure culture contrast to ordinary memory-the pathway, the encoding, and the semantic, figural, and symbolic patterns" (p. 571). In addition to other possible explanations for the behavior of autistic savants, Treffert indicates how some evidence shows left hemisphere dysfunction as a probable factor. Although it is not necessarily the case, many of the skills seen in autistic savants tend to be associated with the right hemisphere specific (e.g., spatial skills, art, music, etc.) as opposed to the left hemisphere (e.g., logic, sequence, language specialization, classification, etc) (Treffert, 1988, p.571). .
Another way to explain the behavior of autistic savants is the cognitive notion of eidetic imagery. According to Treffert in his article, A Savant Odyssey (1989), eidetic imagery is "an intense, positively colored visual image, aroused and maintained by scanning an object or stimulus, that persists for a long period of time, generally at least 40 seconds" and is mostly used in cases of "related but separate phenomenom called visual image memory." This "visual image memory" is the ability to quickly scan and store large amounts of information. Thus, perhaps Babbitt's behavior is explained as being due to "visual imagery" or a "mnemonic tapestry" of some sort (Treffert, 1989).