Developmental Cognitive Deficits: A Historical Overview of Early Cases

In this chapter, I will present an overview of early case descriptions of specific isolated cognitive deficits in children for which no clear brain impairment could be demonstrated and which were therefore considered to be congenital or developmental in nature. Three kinds of syndromes will be discussed. First, more general deficits like the attention and hyperactivity disorder and congenital aphasia will be presented. The second category relates to the more specific cognitive deficits, like developmental prosopagnosia, that have been reported, especially from the early 1980s onwards. In particular, early reports of specific congenital deficits in the areas of attention, language, perception, and memory will be presented. And finally, I will briefly discuss early case descriptions of individuals with autism and savant syndrome. Instead of suffering from a specific cognitive deficit, the latter show a special talent.