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Head injury causes savant syndrome

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Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#11

Post by sp332 »

oxalo wrote: post #4

> "He said his transformation also brought a second ability: he can now draw the complex triangle-based geometric designs called fractals. That lets him translate high-level mathematical concepts like Pi and the theory of relativity into easy-to-understand illustrative drawings." What?

Here's a slightly longer version from a couple of years ago. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/04/27/real-beautiful... They say that his brain is over-compensating for the damage in some areas, which has side-effects like being really good at drawing fractals.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#12

Post by bra-ket »

eurleif wrote: post #10
yaddayadda wrote: post #6

I have met one woman like this and had the opportunity to work closely with another. In both of their cases they were in car accidents. I didn't know either of them before their accidents, but I have multiple friends that had known each of them for years or decades prior. In both cases they were described as pretty average before their accidents. Since their accidents they have both become extremely prolific readers…

Sounds like something some people would sign up for. If you compared the injuries between multiple people with similar effects, I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to reproduce it?

I see startup potential here, "Head Knock LLC"

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#14

Post by pkaye »

eurleif wrote: post #10
yaddayadda wrote: post #6

I have met one woman like this and had the opportunity to work closely with another. In both of their cases they were in car accidents. I didn't know either of them before their accidents, but I have multiple friends that had known each of them for years or decades prior. In both cases they were described as pretty average before their accidents. Since their accidents they have both become extremely prolific readers…

Sounds like something some people would sign up for. If you compared the injuries between multiple people with similar effects, I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to reproduce it?

School of hard knocks

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#15

Post by ealdent »

eurleif wrote: post #3
grimmdude wrote: post #2

Seems like he's just trying to sell a book.

If something remarkable happened to you, wouldn't you write a book about it? Do you have any reason in particular to doubt his honesty?

I suppose the implied ulterior motive would be greed. Though I have no reason to doubt him aside from general skepticism.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#17

Post by yaddayadda »

eurleif wrote: post #10
yaddayadda wrote: post #6

I have met one woman like this and had the opportunity to work closely with another. In both of their cases they were in car accidents. I didn't know either of them before their accidents, but I have multiple friends that had known each of them for years or decades prior. In both cases they were described as pretty average before their accidents. Since their accidents they have both become extremely prolific readers…

Sounds like something some people would sign up for. If you compared the injuries between multiple people with similar effects, I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to reproduce it?

I absolutely envy my former colleague's gains and would gladly have my noggin knocked if I was guaranteed to have similar results!

Unfortunately, because they both led ordinary lives, there were no scans of their brains prior to the accident (yes, I asked). And, there certainly weren't any brain related devices recording their accidents. So, I'm not aware of any easy way to identify the injuries with enough precision.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#18

Post by yaddayadda »

oxalo wrote: post #4

> "He said his transformation also brought a second ability: he can now draw the complex triangle-based geometric designs called fractals. That lets him translate high-level mathematical concepts like Pi and the theory of relativity into easy-to-understand illustrative drawings." What?

Here's his gallery at Fine Art America - http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jason-padgett.html (aren't search engines an amazing thing! )

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#19

Post by krick »

yaddayadda wrote: post #18
oxalo wrote: post #4

> "He said his transformation also brought a second ability: he can now draw the complex triangle-based geometric designs called fractals. That lets him translate high-level mathematical concepts like Pi and the theory of relativity into easy-to-understand illustrative drawings." What?

Here's his gallery at Fine Art America - http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jason-padgett.html (aren't search engines an amazing thing! )

It doesn't cancel that "what" at all. First off, this is nothing to do with fractals. Second, these "drawings" are nothing to talk about, as their nature is pretty primitive. That means it sure requires a steady hand (if drawn manually), but the pattern itself is really simple (foremost because they are very much regular). Have you ever head of spirograph? "Drawings" made by it are far more complicated than this one and can be done in a couple of seconds by any kid. Inventing such patterns is really simple and can be done by anyone (me, you, I hope) and doesn't require any talent or even any significant math knowledge.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#20

Post by DanBC »

oxalo wrote: post #4

> "He said his transformation also brought a second ability: he can now draw the complex triangle-based geometric designs called fractals. That lets him translate high-level mathematical concepts like Pi and the theory of relativity into easy-to-understand illustrative drawings." What?

"Fractal" here just means "mathy arty images".

Yes, it's disappointing that a word with a meaning has been kludged into some other context.

It's kind of worrying that the general population's math knowledge is so weak that we can just dump mathy words into a sentence.

> "It's basically like being forced to see in calculus," Padgett [...]"

But it seems he really is mathematician.

> Now, Padgett is a number theorist

So maybe he has special insight from his life before brain injury of how to speak to non-math people?

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