This is quite extraordinary…

Full article here: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-amazing-world-of-savants-20130705-2pfiz.html

The amazing world of savants

When a baseball smashed into the side of Orlando Serrell’s head as he made a frantic dash to first base, the then 10-year-old fell to the ground and stayed there, for several minutes.

Once he slipped out of his daze, he climbed to his feet and, with a splitting headache, continued to play the game. He did not tell his parents about the accident, so did not receive medical treatment, despite a headache that would persist for months.
Serrell had become what the scientific and medical worlds refer to as an acquired savant: someone who is perfectly ordinary until an injury to the brain, after which they possess a remarkable ability.

Serrell, from the US, was an ordinary child before he received that blow to the head on a Virginia baseball field in 1979. But one year later, when the headaches had cleared, it dawned on Serrell that he had been left with an uncanny side effect, one that has stayed with him. He could perform complex calendrical calculations in his head with dizzying speed and complete accuracy. The number of days between two dates, the number of times January 6 has fallen on a Saturday - Serrell could answer questions such as these in his head, and in an instant.

Since the accident, he remembers things in minute detail - the outfit a friend wore on a certain day years ago, the number plate of each car that has crossed his path, his every meal.

Serrell had become what the scientific and medical worlds refer to as an acquired savant: someone who is perfectly ordinary until an injury to the brain, after which they possess a remarkable ability, such as a photographic memory, a talent for a musical instrument despite no prior training, a sudden propensity for complex mathematical equations, the ability to sculpt or draw scale replicas of objects they’ve only glimpsed. Brain damage, usually to the left hemisphere, unlocks something in their brains as the right hemisphere compensates for the injury. The result is, very rarely, great skill, unfathomable to the ordinary person.

dayemmm niice

quite interesting, but I hope no one goes around getting there head hit to become an acquired savant…

similar thing happened to me when i was playing softball in high school, only i got cloudy vision in one eye rather than a super power. :(

this is actually mental (intentional pun), the human brain is absolutely amazing!

I think I must have been hit on the opposite side… 

It’s Dr Karl from Triple J!

I seen this guy in a documentary. It also had the guy with autism who draws cities from memory. Do you think he would get worn out from all the calculations?

so cool!

And I can’t remember where I put my car keys half the time!!!!!