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Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius

Posted by Soulskill on from the ace-your-exam-in-one-easy-step dept.

mpicpp sends in the story of Jason Padgett, a man who developed extraordinary mathematical abilities as the result of brain trauma when he was attacked outside a bar. "Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Wash., who had very little interest in academics, developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury, while devastating, seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have a mathematical structure 'I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life' — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science." "He describes his vision as 'discrete picture frames with a line connecting them, but still at real speed.' If you think of vision as the brain taking pictures all the time and smoothing them into a video, it's as though Padgett sees the frames without the smoothing. "

11 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. No story here, move along by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can someone explain to me exactly what is so marvelous about what this dude can supposedly "see"?

    A google search reveals a history of his story popping up from time to time - probably whenever he can find a venue to promote himself, and whenever sites like Slashdot get duped into posting about him - but I found nothing that describes anything that he's actually able to intuit about math since this injury other than a bunch of crap about how he can 'see mathematical patterns' now. Awesome - so how about parlaying that into any statement that demonstrates any extraordinary grasp of math? Because in all my searching, I haven't found this dude to have ever said anything that anyone couldn't easily just make up.

    I also found this comical link to "End of Pi Found" on some Physics forum:

    http://lofi.forum.physorg.com/...

    Not sure if it's the same guy but it was posted by a Jason Padgett who says he is a "math/physics student in Washington state", and the Jason Padgett in the article is supposedly from Tacoma, Washington. Note that the post was from 2008 and the article that Slashdot has linked to describes Padgett as a "sophomore in college". Some math genius - still a sophomore in college 6 years later!

    Slashdot, why do you waste my time with this crap?

    I swear, Slashdot editors are worse than the patent office; they don't do even he smallest amount of verification before rubber stamping what is presented to them and pushing it out.

    1. Re:No story here, move along by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, the media calls him math genius because he calls himself a math genius. Also, he believe PI has an end.
      from the neurologist's preliminary report:

      We studied the patient JP who has exceptional abilities to draw complex geometrical images by hand and a form of acquired synesthesia for mathematical formulas and objects, which he perceives as geometrical figures. JP sees all smooth curvatures as discrete lines, similarly regardless of scale. We carried out two preliminary investigations to establish the perceptual nature of synesthetic experience and to investigate the neural basis of this phenomenon. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, image-inducing formulas produced larger fMRI responses than non-image inducing formulas in the left temporal, parietal and frontal lobes. Thus our main finding is that the activation associated with his experience of complex geometrical images emerging from mathematical formulas is restricted to the left hemisphere.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:No story here, move along by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You mean other than going from a party boy furniture salesman to a student of mathematics specializing in number theory?

      Savantism doesn't mean an ability practically nobody else has (though it can be that), it is an ability that is out of context for the person who has it.

    3. Re:No story here, move along by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't know if the guy is full of shit or not... but, I did my own google search.

      I found that:
      1. He wrote a book that was well received about his injury, though complaints were that it was overly wordy. There were several people that claimed to be mathematicians that reviewed it and said his area of specialty was fractal geometry and that he was so specialized it was uninteresting to them. He was basically obsessed with 1 aspect of geometry.
      2. He is an artist, and makes Fractal art. Not that his stuff is that incredible but I doubt a furniture salesman could pull this off. http://fineartamerica.com/prof...
      3. Here's photos of him. One includes his doctor: http://www.struckbygenius.com/...
      4. That doctors name is Darold Treffert who appears to be am expert on Savant Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

      So it appears to me that the guy actually did develop some Savant abilities. I don't know if he got them from an injury or not. But it appears that those abilities are so specialized that they may not be useful in an academic sense. If he can visualize incredibly complex geometries but can not, for example, do long division, his skill wouldn't really lead him to write a lot of papers.

    4. Re:No story here, move along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Says the 6-digit to the 3-digit user ...

  2. Tomorrows headline.. by Moheeheeko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dozens killed or severely injured trying to learn maths.

  3. Uh... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Padgett dislikes the concept of infinity, because he sees every shape as a finite construction of smaller and smaller units that approach what physicists refer to as the Planck length, thought to be the shortest measurable length.

    So, the bang on the head didn't help him improve his abstract thinking after all. How can someone be an "aspiring number theorist" and dislike the concept of infinity? That's like being an aspiring blacksmith and disliking the concept of tempering carbon steel.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Re:A "Feyn" place to end Pi by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Practically, the end of Pi is around 760-some digits, where you start to sound like Herman Cain. At that point, diameters won't be more than a Planck length off.

    If you're using it for the geometry of the physical world, then you'd be correct. Fortunately however, Pi is used for far more than measuring the physical world.

  5. Re:A "Feyn" place to end Pi by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Funny

    ridiculous, That only applies to numbers in base 10

    Just imagine a number system of base-pi, or possibly base-rad. Of course, then people would be debating how many digits "10" should be approximated to for useful work (like counting your fingers).

  6. Injury unlocked scamming part of brain by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 4, Funny

    His math is unchanged, but it *damaged* the ethical part of his brain and now he EXCELS at marketing and con-artistry and I heard he is now going to law school!

    --
    Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
  7. Re:A "Feyn" place to end Pi by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Informative

    You cannot because it's not possible. A 'base' is the number of unique symbols in the number system. You can't have partial symbols; you can have 3 symbols for base 3, and 4 symbols for base 4, but you cannot have 3.1415xxx symbols for base Pi.

    You might as well ask what it would be like to have a "base yellow" number system or a "base CmdrTaco" number system. Meaningless.

    Wrong, you can have non-integral bases, including base Pi. Your positions each represent Pi, Pi^2, Pi^3 etc