Brain Trauma

Rex Lewis-Clack, a 20-year-old musician, sat at the grand piano and deftly struck keys with the dexterity of Duke Ellington himself. Rex has the blonde good looks of a heartthrob, but can create a haunting melody that flows from his fingertips like a master. After he finished a masterfully executed piece of Chopin's Fantaise Improptu, he rocks back and forth and flails his hands. Research within the last 10 years started a controversy with talking about how these extraordinary abilities could reflect how some people with autism have a different skill set than your average person.

Laurent Mottron, a psychiatrist from the University of Montreal, said that people who have autism will often become natural specialists. They pay close attention

A brain injury could have the ability to release the brain from the tyrannies of the left hemisphere. As a result, their abilities are no longer held in check, which is when people see their abilities blossom.

Researchers have used brain imaging to glimpse the mechanisms that could lead to the emergence of these remarkable abilities. For example, when average individuals with ordinary intelligence experienced a brain injury, they sometimes developed new skills fast. They have learned they have a talent for music, a talent for languages or exceptional abilities with art or mathematics.

Bruce Miller, a San Francisco neuroscientist, noticed the same phenomena in elderly patients who had dementia. Once the disease started to progress, a lot of people had this extreme urge for creating, and when you look at their paintings, you can see how they improved fast. Could this explain savant abilities? We still do not understand enough about the brain, but this could be one theory for these abilities.

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