Blows to the head may unleash latent talent

Discussion Researcher profiles man’s savant syndrome on ABC’s ‘Nightline’ of Jason Padgett's fine art. Berit Brogaard discusses the case further in A Case of Acquired Savant Syndrome and Synesthesia Following a Brutal Assault. There are hints that most people may have unexpressed talents possibly suppressed by more dominant parts of the brain. It seems that in these discussions, mathematics is thought of either as number skills or as visual imagination or sometimes facility with formulae and/or computations. As mathematics is practiced today, these form some of the skills which some mathematicians have but not always. You often hear mathemticians saying that "it is too algebraic for me" or "it is too geomeric for me" or "I hate computations". It seems to me that analytical skills and a temperament for free flights of imagination without being restricted by too much reality is common to many mathematicians rather than any particular skill. Usually many have preference for geometry or algbra or analysis or abstract thought or a combination of these and sometimes even a dislike for some of these aspects. In any case even if there is some resemblance to mathematical pictures, Jason Padgett's work seems to be like print art to me and his comments quoted in this redditt discussion do not make much sense to me. But the ictures in Jason Padgett's fine art are very nice.