Jason Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Washington was gruesomely attacked by two men outside a Karaoke bar way back 2002, leaving him with severe concussion and an injured kidney. After the incident, he later suffered post traumatic disorder. He recalled being hit in the head several times. But the incident turned Padgett, who had little interest in academics, into a mathematical genius.
Padgett sees the world through a geometry lens. He draws complex geometric shapes in real life. He saw shapes when shown mathematical equations, a condition known as synesthesia where two senses get mixed up - you see a particular color when you sense a particular smell, and so on
The brain injury opened a dormant part of his brain that made him acquired his unusual abilities.
"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."
A physician ran into Padgett while he was drawing shapes in a mall, he got impressed by his new abilities and tried calling him to join college. Later, when news of Padgett's savant skills spread like wide-fire, neuroscientists took a keen interest on Padgett. They wanted to find out how he got his unusual abilities. They scanned his brain with Functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI and, found out Padgett's new abilities may lie dormant in all human brains.
Here's Livesscience report.
Berit Brogaard, a philosophy professor now at the University of Miami and her colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study Padgett's brain, according to Live Science. The scans showed that the left parietal cortex lit up the most, while areas involved with visual memory, sensory processing and planning also showed activity, according to Live Science.
Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)the scientists zapped specific areas with a magnetic pulse which either activates or inhibits the area. When the parietal cortex was thus zapped, the synesthesia faded. According to Live Science, Brogaard has earlier shown that when brain cells die, they release chemicals to increase activity in surrounding areas. This may have happened in Padgett's case.
It appears that abilities like Padgett's may be dormant in every brain and they got released after the injury. However, Padgett has suffered other consequences too - the PTSD, an obsessive-compulsive disorder and high social anxiety, Live Science reports.