Trampled into Brilliance

Try to imagine the benefits of having someone beat you so severely you end up with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Having difficulty imagining the benefits?

Bear with me on that.

The human brain is equal parts mysterious and miraculous.  We still don’t fully understand how everything works.  Sure, we know that the average human brain is roughly the size of two fists held together and weighs about three pounds.  We know that the brain has distinct compartments called lobes.  We understand that the brain functions by means of electrical impulses and the splashing about of chemicals in soft places.  But how do mathematical numbers actually knit together inside us?  How does anyone recall, electrically, how to tie their own shoes?  How does our brain safety store memories from thirty years previous?

A bit over ten years ago, a fellow named Jason Padgett was jumped and severely beaten when he exited a nightclub in Tacoma, Washington.  Doctors treated Jason for his injuries and sent him on his way.  Back then, Jason was a regular guy, mind you, maybe even a bit on the lackadaisical and unremarkable side.  But a curious thing occurred as Jason recovered: he became a world-class genius as result of his brain trauma.  Impossibly complex math and physics problems began to display and solve themselves deep inside his brain.  He saw patterns and geometric shapes where none existed previously.  When he picked up a pencil, Jason discovered a remarkable ability to skillfully sketch the patterns and more.

The beating turned Jason Padgett into what is commonly termed a savant.  His math skills are unparalleled.  The trauma also gifted Jason with synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which the brain associates more than one cognitive pathway to certain inputs.  Synesthetes, such as Jason, may associate specific colors or perhaps geometric shapes with numbers.  They may perceive the calendar or linear historical events as three-dimensional.  They are blessed with added ways in which to perceive events.

They are gifted.

Researchers suspect that Jason—perhaps all of us—are naturally equipped with super-brain capabilities, but the normal human wiring schematic by-passes a few important connections.  Jason merely took a lucky beating that rattled something into place.  Researchers hope that that the extraordinary story of Jason Padgett, and study of how his brain works, will lead to advances in our collective understanding of how we remember to take out the garbage one day and then invent a new musical instrument using discarded fishing line and copper cookware the next day.

Jason Padgett co-authored a book titled Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel.  The book only recently hit the marketplace.

--Mitchell Hegman