DO ANIMALS think like autistic savants? Intriguing as that question is, it now seems as if they don’t, despite the “savant-like” behaviour many show.
The question was raised in a book by animal scientist Temple Grandin, of Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Animals in Translation became a best-seller, and Grandin’s views gained widespread attention. Grandin herself is autistic, and it is her experience of processing memories using images rather than words that forms the basis of her theory. “If you want to understand animals, you have to get away from language,” she says.
