The sign of identification will become a genius

Geniuses are people with supernatural memory abilities, creativity and excellent intelligence. However, not all of them are innate talents, many people sometimes come to the 'near far away land' to suddenly discover their special abilities. Experts say that serious head injuries are the only explanation in this case.

In the last days of last summer, an art exhibition in the Southport (England) coast area attracted a large number of visitors. Among all the exhibits, the highlight is Tommy McHugh's paintings, a 'former' builder from Liverpool.

At that time, Tommy was in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Wirral due to acute pneumonia. A few weeks later, he left at the age of 62. Many people reminded Tommy not only because he was the author of expensive works but also because of the story of a myth about his special ability. Almost 11 years ago, after a stroke that almost led to death, he suddenly found himself capable of being inferior to the great painters in the world.

Psychologists consider Tommy McHugh's case to be a good example of a 'sudden learning syndrome' , a phenomenon that is quite rare when the brain is damaged, somehow making hidden talent appear. . Only about 30 such cases are confirmed worldwide.

When he was a boy, Orlando Serrell, 44, from Virginia was hit by a baseball ball in his head while playing, and then he was shown to be able to do extremely complicated calculations and remember correctly weather information on any day of the year. Or the case of Dr. Tony Cicoria, an orthopedic surgeon in New York state, was struck by lightning in 1994 while talking to his mother from an outdoor public phone booth. For weeks, he was always obsessed with classical piano music and a few years later, although he did not know anything about music at all, the audience still mentioned him as a pianist and composer. talent.

After a head injury, Orlando's memory ability
Serrell has exceeded the limits of normal human memory.

For years, scientists have always tried to find an explanation for all these strange things.

Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist in Wisconsin, who has been studying it for 40 years, said: 'When a serious injury occurs in a part of the brain, other parts will interfere to compensate, balance the brain. and unleashing potential that was not previously known '.

Going back to Tommy McHugh's example, he grew up in an educational environment with no place for art and culture. As one of the 12 working-class, uneducated families, he soon used drugs and was sent to prison and eventually became a mason. No one thought that this person could later paint, sculpt and write poetry, although before that, the 'involvement' in the only art that McHugh did was tattooing.

All changed in 2001, Tommy suffered a serious stroke leading to brain hemorrhage. Returning home, he did not know who he was, and did not even recognize his face in the mirror, watching his wife as a stranger, but it was especially special that Tommy could say the types of sentences that had very complex rhymes.

The following days, Tommy had to grop in a world completely alien to him, emptiness was replaced by creativity. He started drawing constantly. On walls, doors and ceilings full of vivid, confusing images.'I can see the beauty of the world. The man who once reigned in me, whom I didn't know, was gone forever , "Tommy said.

Dr. Mark Lythgoe, a neuroscientist at University College London, who studied the McHugh case, said: 'Brain damage that Tommy faces may be the cause of releasing inhibition of the chain reaction in brain, breaking parts that restrain artistic ability and liberate creativity '.

Until 2003, neuroscience professor Bruce Miller (University of California, San Francisco) discovered that many patients have a brain disorder, a form of dementia called forehead dementia - temporal (FTD), unexpectedly developed artistic talents when meeting favorable conditions. Anne Adams, a famous Canadian biologist, is a case he once cared about. FTD made Anne Adams lose her ability to speak but helped her gain special skills in the field of art creation such as sculpture."The lost language circuit will increase activity in other areas of the brain ," Miller told Brain magazine four years ago.

In addition, many scientists also find that 'sudden learned syndrome' mainly occurs in men. According to them, the reason may be because high levels of testosterone in male-born fetuses are easy to damage the left hemisphere.

If there really is a Leonardo or Mozart hiding in all of us, it raises a big question: where does that talent come from? How does a person who is completely 'blind' about music like Cicoria suddenly compose perfect sonatas and concerto?

The only possible explanation is based on genetics. For example McHugh Tommy case, surely someone in the family is as capable as he is. This theory extends the current assumptions about DNA sequences. But even if that proves to be very difficult to apply to the amazing story of Orlando Serrell.

'Some people fall into a state of loss of consciousness, coma and when they wake up, they feel like they turn into other people,' he said. 'I'm not like that. I was playing in the park and was thrown hard at the front of the baseball by someone but did not faint. I just fell down and felt a headache, immediately stood up to continue the game, the changes only appeared about a month later. '

Serrell can remember exactly the weather conditions as well as where he was and what he did on any day since the accident. Experts claim this is beyond the capacity of human memory. Thus, although the answer has not been found yet, it certainly cannot be inherited. And until the correct answer is obtained, this will still be the subject of heated debate among scientists.