|
Washington: In an incident which
appears be a perfect plot for any reality-based fiction
work, an American college dropout after being brutally
attacked by a group of street robbers has turned a
mathematics genius.
It happened after 41-year-old Jason Padgett’s brain
was damaged in a brutal attack by muggers. He was left
concussed after being ambushed outside a karaoke club
and repeatedly kicked in the head, the Daily Mail said.
Now, wherever Padegtt looks, he sees mathematical
formulae and turns them into stunning, intricate
diagrams he can draw by hand. He is the only person in
the world known to the skill, which experts say, was
caused by his head injury.
They believe the damage to Padgett’s brain has left
him with a “remarkable gift” for figures.
To understand how Padgett’s brain works,
neuroscientist and philosophy professor Berit Brogaard
and her team flew Padgett to Finland to run a series of
tests.
His brain scanning showed damage that was forcing
his brain to overcompensate in certain areas that most
people do not have access to.
Brogaard, who is based at the Centre for
Neurodynamics at the University of Missouri-St Louis,
said the result that Padgett is now an acquired savant,
meaning brilliant in a specific area.
“Savant syndrome is the development of a particular
skill, that can be mathematical, spatial, or autistic,
that develop to an extreme degree that sort of makes a
person superhuman,” the professor added. |
