People known as “acquired savants” have spectacular abilities that emerge suddenly, usually after a brain injury. In these cases—as well as in the case of child prodigies—the individual “knows things they never learned” (the memorable phrase of savant syndrome expert Dr. Darold Treffert).
Some of these capacities are the counting and calendar curiosities we’ve come to associate with savants, such as indicating unerringly what day of the week a given date falls on or counting Pi to the 22,500th digit. In these cases, the savants know the rules of math without knowing that they know them, and without being taught. Other savants—and child prodigies, for that matter—do even more astounding things. Alonzo Clemons, with no training in art, nonetheless sculpts intricate, true-to-life figures of animals in motion with merely a glance at a (two-dimensional) image on television or in a book.
Consider the story of Jason Padgett, who, in his early 30s, was brutally attacked by muggers. They kicked him repeatedly in the head, causing a concussion and sending him to the hospital. But the next morning, after having been sent home, something very strange happened. While running the water in the bathroom, Jason noticed “lines emanating out perpendicularly from the flow… it was so beautiful that I just stood in my slippers and stared.” When he extended his hand out in front of him, it was like “watching a slow-motion film,” as if every movement was in stop-motion animation.
He soon became obsessed with every shape he saw, from rectangular windows to the curvature of a spoon. He also developed synesthesia, with numbers generating colorful shapes. Jason also began envisioning complex images which, when he drew them, were recognized as fractals—beautiful shapes in which every element is the same as the whole. Before the mugging, Jason had no interest in drawing, had no math training nor even a college degree. He was a self-described “goof.” Now he sells his drawings for top dollar and is committed to teaching others about the beauty of math.
