ABSTRACT
The case study of a prodigious autistic draftsperson, Nadia, by Selfe (1977) has been discussed at length in the literature, and has attracted a good deal of attention in the media. Although her handicap has been attributed to a neurological dysfunction, nothing is known about its nature and localisation. Interestingly, her neuropsychological profile presents the reverse pattern of a typical dissociation between a well-circumscribed cognitive deficit coupled with normal overall functioning. Instead, her exceptional performance in a very restricted area is coupled with an abnormal level of overall functioning. Since autism is a relatively new topic in neuropsychology, no major attempts have been made in this discipline to account for Nadia’s remarkable developmental discrepancy in skill attainment. The goal of this chapter is to review explanatory theories and relevant findings published since Selfe’s report, and to discuss and put forward a neuropsychological model for Nadia’s performance resulting from our own work on drawing and perception in autism.
