A man who took a beating in 2002 became a math genius after recovering from severe head injury.
Years ago, Tacoma, Wash., furniture salesman Jason Padgett was beaten by two men outside a karaoke bar. The incident left him with a severe concussion and a bleeding kidney, plus post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety. However, it also made him a mathematical genius.
Padgett wasn't inclined toward academics prior to the incident. He was a self-professed jock and was into parties, and even admitted to cheating at school. After his injury, he noticed that he gained the ability to see mathematical objects in his mind and understand physics concepts automatically. He said he can now translate his geometric visions into drawings as well and sees everything pixilated. He looks at things as "discrete picture frames with a line connecting them but still at real speed."
Padgett has acquired savant syndrome, a rare condition that causes a person to discover special abilities after a critical injury or disease. Some people start exhibiting artistic or musical prowess, while others, like Padgett, find that they have heightened math talents.
Research indicates that savant skills may be present in all human brains, but lie dormant in them. To awaken them, there are parts of the human brain that need to be triggered. In Padgett's case, it might have been the trauma and the head injury that could have activated his mathematical abilities.
"Acquired savant syndrome is rare," Berit Brogaard, a philosophy professor at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. said to LiveScience. Brogaard and her colleagues examined Padgett's brain. To date, there are only 25 recorded cases of the syndrome.
The scientists have yet to determine whether the skills will remain permanent in Padgett's brain. However, increased activity in parts of the brain due to the use of the skills may result in structural changes that mean that Padgett's mathematical abilities might last for life.
