How a Baseball Injury Made A Genius (Savant Syndrome)

Savant syndrome is a strange condition that gives people unique abilities. Although savant syndrome is very rare reported cases gain genius-like abilities in narrow domains. But how can we explain savant syndrome? And could we induce savant syndrome in normal people?

Savant syndrome is characterized by unique skills in art, music, mechanics, calendar calculation or maths. Savant syndrome can be acquired through injuries or frontotemporal dementia or be developed in people with autism spectrum disorder. In acquired savant syndrome and autism spectrum disorder, unique connections in the brain led to the condition. In savant syndrome, we often find that the left hemisphere is damaged and the right brain hemisphere has to compensate for this. Based on this observation, we can partially induce savant syndrome like abilities through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Many questions concerning savant syndrome remain but this condition is truly amazing.

0:00-1:10 Intro
1:10-1:56 What is Savant Syndrome?
1:56-4:02 Acquiring Savant Syndrome
4:02-5:46 Savant Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder
5:46-8:39 Can we Induce Savant Syndrome?

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Title: Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod (CCA 4.0 )
Title: Danse Morialta by Kevin MacLeod (CCA 4.0 )
Title: Outside Visitors, The Illstrumentalist
Title: Blue boi by Lakey Inspired, promoted by NCM, (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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Outro: Brain Trust (Free)

About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

[allergictobs]

No wonder we feel the need to smash our heads to walls out of frustration when we can't seem to understand or study something.

[thesoundpurist]

Had the same accident but I became even dummier than I was before.

[quasar]

I got punched in the head once and woke up and became smarter too. The next time I ducked

Holy crap! I’ve never gotten over 30 likes on a comment let alone current 2.4k thanks!! Haha that punch to the head really did me some good

[niyaalott]

Bro really got some sense knocked into his head. 😂

[jujubarbour]

My son is 11 now and is on the autism spectrum, he knew his numbers 1 through 50 and could count to 25 in Spanish and knew his letters before he was 2 but he had the most trouble with simple things. Now at his age he’s in the top 3 percent of his middle school in math and is part of an academically intellectually gifted program for math, can solve a scrambled Rubin cube and put a mario Lego square together in 6 hours but can’t tie his shoe. It really amazing how the brain functions

[SantanaBanana]

It's amazing how something like dementia can actually lead to greater abilities in other areas

[robinfa]

If both an autistic and neurotypical person hit their head in the same place, I wonder if the autistic person is more likely to develop savant syndrome or not. I also wonder how this works for other neurodivergences.

[fanta]

This video is very well made... I could definitely see this channel blowing up. Good Luck Man!

[mayaliya]

Mike Tyson made quite few men to be savants.

[Yasuk]

My mom works with adults with developmental disabilities (autism, down syndrome, etc.) and the prevalence of savants is astounding. When you lose one gift you really do fain another tenfold

[Ant_Dawgg]

One day we will figure out how to accurately execute these things in our brains and fully unlock them

[benji-menji]

I think Savant only really happens if you connect the dots in the right way. There is no guarantee that bloking or changing neural paths will make you smarter but it will likely change you regardless. I think we can learn a lot on how to make our neural paths more efficient through these changes. I'm on the spectrum and I ended up being good at the unimportant things.

[newsuperalbin]

Something I think that needs to be made clear is that savant syndrome does NOT make you smarter. U just earn a new ability, but it can also very likely come with side affects such as having hard time socialising and multiple physical disabilities. A guy in Got Talent read a whole book in a few minutes on stage, reading two pages at the same time and then he told the entire book word by word. It’s cool and all but he also couldn’t walk and he felt very lonely due to his lack of socialising skills. So in conclusion, having savant syndrome is actually not just cool. It can be very bad too.

[tommyfartly]

It took me a while to harness what had happened and turned it into an ability instead of a disability, 8 years ago I was blindsided in my right temple with a hammer fist. Nerve damage to my nose upper lip right Temple, sigmatic fracture with a broken eye socket hairline fracture to my jaw and six broken teeth on one side. My right eyeball was popping out of its socket and they monitored me for almost 12 hours. I'm literally way more articulate and analytical than I was before along with mushrooms has helped reconnect my synapses and strengthen those connections in my brain. I learn about neurology biology and physics for fun and half the time don't remember it just so I have to watch it again, I forget or remember at will now, nobody I know does that or cares. I remember things like a computer sometimes besides numbers cuz I hate numbers; give me enough time to study one subject and I'll tell you everything about it to a T. The only thing I hate is how angry I get now because of it. These things happen and it is a miracle.

[DailyBookInsights]

Why did the baseball player become a genius after getting hit in the head?

Because it knocked some sense into him!

[shngsam]

the other side of brain compensate and form new connections,
reminds me of the case of a girl have surgery to remove half of her damaged brain because a disease
but after recovery she live a completely normal life and even graduated university
apparently the other half of the brain compensate the missing part

[OLDCHEMIST]

Paradoxical that brain damage can lead to excellence in certain fields! I remember reading about an average man who had an accident involving a blow to his head who afterwards became mathematically gifted.

[anthonymelohorstmann]

Well, it also comes with downsides, there was a man who was capable of drawing entire cities from memory, but he couldnt tie his shoelaces and couldnt wear suits with buttons

[mdiasz]

When a baseball hits a hard surface, the baseball bends and “goes along” due to the elasticity properties of it, same would work with certain sneakers ( the bending property), a man was assaulted outside of a bar and he got kicked in the head and acquired Savants, I wonder if this “elastic” impact that goes along with the “original” trauma is the one responsible for the damage and “repair order” of the neurons allowing them to cause savants instead of just amnesia, I know it’s a long shot but iam pretty sure everyone who has read about acquired savant would think about.

[jaybingham]

I can remember an episode of distinct, powerful awareness of self-awareness as a toddler. Possibly even pre toddler. I was crawling on the living room or dining room floor and happened upon a tasty looking electrical cord (I believe it was to a lamp). Adults were just around corner in kitchen. And then I hit pay dirt. And that shock ignited my inner self. Lots of inner dialog, super heightened awareness, with powerful sensibilities of me being an agent (a self) in a cause and effect world. And being in awe of the mental change…totally aware that the shock decidedly established a distinct before and after. I would later in childhood experience two more such jumps. Didn’t result in any savantism. But maybe it shocked me out of a path that had me slated to be a complete stone cold idiot. Or yes…funny guy…shocked me up to that level. 🤫