Man's life was changed forever after bar attack altered his brain and gave him extremely rare ability
Ever wondered what makes a genius, and whether or not it's something you have to be born with?
Well, here is a fascinating case about how sustaining a brain injury can sometimes lead to an extraordinary talent.
On 13 September 2002, US man Jason Padgett was attacked while at a bar with friends. One of the assailants took his jacket, while another approached from behind and hit him over the back of the head.
The blow would change Padgett's life forever.
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Padgett lost consciousness during the attack, and he was later diagnosed with a concussion and bruised kidney while in hospital. Following the assault, the former futon salesman began to display symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. He also began to see the world through a somewhat pixelated, 'choppy' lens.
Padgett began to draw pictures as a way of describing what he was seeing, which led to a chance encounter at a shopping centre when he was approached by a man who noticed the geometrical nature of his drawings and encouraged him to take a maths class.
It was there that Padgett would discover he had acquired savant syndrome.
What is acquired savant syndrome?
According to Brain Injury Law, acquired savant syndrome is a condition in which a person develops extraordinary skills in subjects such as art, maths, or music after suffering from a traumatic brain injury.
The condition is similar to savant syndrome, which De Montfort university states is present in around 10 percent of people diagnosed with autism. However, not everybody with savant syndrome is autistic.
Padgett's newfound talent for mathematics led him to undergo a series of brain scans at Helsinki's Aalto University, where researchers presented him with a number of questions while monitoring his neurological activity via an MRI scanner.
The information gathered in the scans revealed fascinating insights into how Padgett's brain was working.
"They found that I had access to parts of the brain that we don’t have conscious access to and also the visual cortex was working in conjunction with the part of the brain that does mathematics, which obviously makes sense," he said (via BBC).
Padgett has since gone on to write his own book, Struck By Genius, and now has a much more positive outlook on life, despite the fact that his attackers never faced punishment for their actions.
"I’m a completely different person," he added.
"You should be walking around in absolute amazement at all times that reality even exists. I’m having this mathematical awakening and all around us is absolute magic or about as close as you can get to magic."
Brenna Cooper