Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius

In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the incident also turned Padgett into a mathematical genius who sees the world through the lens of geometry.

Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Wash., who had very little interest in academics, developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury, while devastating, seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have a mathematical structure.


"I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life" — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science. "It's just really beautiful."

http://news.discovery.com/human/life/brain-injury-turns-man-into-math-genius-140506.htm

Simply amazing, so many people who suffer brain injuries end up giving so much insight into how the brain really works.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma-speaking-fluent-German.html

Ben_Reilly wrote:Simply amazing, so many people who suffer brain injuries end up giving so much insight into how the brain really works.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma-speaking-fluent-German.html

It does baffle me that in fact we have not really evolved to utilize all of our brain power and why it is only some  people born with or have such accidents that create such Geniuses. Something that really has always puzzled me and why the vast majority are unable able to tune into many areas of the brain.
Is it something in the future scientists will be able to switch on areas of the brain (or off as the case may be) to create further intelligence?

Reincarnation. Obvious.

Tesstacious wrote:Reincarnation.  Obvious.

I do not think that explains any of it in regards to the workings of active parts of the brain

Didge wrote:In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the incident also turned Padgett into a mathematical genius who sees the world through the lens of geometry.

Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Wash., who had very little interest in academics, developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury, while devastating, seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have a mathematical structure.


"I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life" — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science. "It's just really beautiful."

http://news.discovery.com/human/life/brain-injury-turns-man-into-math-genius-140506.htm

Oh, for a hammer!

There was that thing where people were drilling holes into their head. I wonder if it's the same sort of trauma