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exhibited average or above average intelligence and exceptional musical skills, with no apparent deficits in other cognitive functions. Furthermore, our subjects did not exhibit either of the two poles of aberrant social behavior, such as the extreme sociability of Williams syndrome patients or the withdrawal of autistic savants. Also, savants are more compulsive in pursuing their special abilities than are normal musicians. Thus, savants demonstrate patterns of psychosocial functions that are different from those of the musicians we studied, making a comparison difficult. Nevertheless, a thought-provoking hypothesis implicit in Sacks's comment would be that special talents may be a result of the asymmetrical development of specialized "neuromodules." This hypothesis, which is compatible with our study and with the work of others (2), is intriguing and testable, at least in the case of perfect pitch. G. Schlaug Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Hospital, Dana 779, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA L. Jancke Y. Huang H. Steinmetz Department of Neurology and Institute of General Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University, 40001 Duisseldorf, Germany