Medical Unlock the Superbrain: Discover a Sixth Sense for Numbers

[Ivan Seeking]

I couldn't spot a write up on this but it is worth the watch. This person, called a superbrain, seems to have a sixth sense about numbers.
http://media.science.discovery.com/convergence/brainman/videogallery/videogallery.html?click=sci_leftnav

 

[honestrosewater]

Yeah, I saw this a while ago - perhaps on regular Discovery. He gets various visual images of the numbers. I don't remember them talking much about any consequences of their work with him. What could come of it?

 

[hitssquad]

savantism vs g

This person

Daniel Tammet.

called a superbrain

He is called a savant. The word superbrain might seem to imply that an individual in question has a strongly expressed , not that he has brain damage.

mylifeasafischer.com/archives.php?month=2&year=2005

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If I understood things correctly, they indicated that he doesn't meet the specific requirements to be called a savant. This is due to his enhanced social and communication skills.

 

[zoobyshoe]

He appears to be a savant, but not necessarily an autistic-savant.

Daniel Tammet - The Incredible Brain
Address:http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/danieltammet.html

His story corroborates a study I once found of four or five individuals whose I.Q. was noted to have improved after their seizures started.

Is he autistic? No one has come up with a good explanation of the cause of autism, what exactly is wrong with an autistic person's brain, so I think it is an umbrella diagnosis and that several distinct root problems with similar symptoms are encompassed. A seizure disorder is a very common concommitant of autism.

Neither seizures nor brain damage make people more intelligent. The explanation for the improved I.Q. lies in the fact that people with deficits often adopt a policy of taking extra care to overcompensate for the deficits. Tammet has the added mnemonic device of synesthesia to aid his memory.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Neither seizures nor brain damage make people more intelligent. The explanation for the improved I.Q. lies in the fact that people with deficits often adopt a policy of taking extra care to overcompensate for the deficits. Tammet has the added mnemonic device of synesthesia to aid his memory.

How does one add synesthesia? Is this your theory or something that we know for a fact?

 

[zoobyshoe]

How does one add synesthesia?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Who said anyone added synesthesia?

 

[Mk]

Who said anyone added synesthesia?

Now I'm confused!

Tammet has the added mnemonic device of synesthesia to aid his memory.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Now I'm confused!

"Synaesthetists have a natural advantage when it comes to memory because the brain is more likely to record something in the long term when it ties in with the senses. An event or an object is more memorable when it has sounds, pictures, texture and particularly smell associated with it."
That is from this link about Tammet:
Remembrance of numbers past
Address:http://plus.maths.org/issue31/features/eastaway/index-gifd.html
He has synaesthesia. Therefore, he has the added benefits of it, that is: added to his other powers of concentration. No one artificially added it, though.

 

[siddharth]

On a related note, when I was in class 11, I had a friend who could do amazingly fast mental arithemitic. When, we asked him what 2^92 was, he almost instantly wrote down 28 digits on a piece of paper. When we tried checking with the calculator, the mantissa part matched exactly. If I had not seen that, I would have never believed that it was possible!
hitssquad and zoobyshoe, the links were great!
From the article
"When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think"
Wow!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have no idea what you're talking about. Who said anyone added synesthesia?

I didn't see synethesia mentioned by anyone but you. It isn't a sensory experience such as tasting shapes, etc, as is found with synesthesia.

Edit: Never mind, I hadn't seen the other link yet.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I didn't see synethesia mentioned by anyone but you.

I don't know what that has to do with anything. It is clearly mentioned in the link I posted when I brought it up:

While considering the question, it was observed that, he appeared to be drawing shapes on the table with his finger. When asked about this, he explained that he could see the numbers as shapes and colours in his mind. This breakdown or confusion of the senses is known as synethsesia.

It isn't a sensory experience such as tasting shapes, etc, as is found with synesthesia.

From the second link I posted:

To him, (pi) is not an abstract set of digits, but instead it appears almost as a story or a film projecting in front of him. Tammet has a rare but well-documented syndrome called synaesthesia, in which the stimulation of one of the senses triggers a reaction in other senses too. Synaesthesia manifests itself in different ways, but in some people it means they get multiple sensory reactions when exposed to numbers.

Edit: Never mind, I hadn't seen the other link yet.

Actually I suspect your original error is that you reversed the order of the words "the" and "added" in your mind when you read this sentence: "Tammet has the added mnemonic device of..." and mistook me to be claiming he somehow artificially added this ability himself.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Actually I suspect your original error is that you reversed the order of the words "the" and "added" in your mind when you read this sentence: "Tammet has the added mnemonic device of..." and mistook me to be claiming he somehow artificially added this ability himself.

The first link that you posted said nothing about it. That was the source of confusion.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The first link that you posted said nothing about it. That was the source of confusion.

The first link I posted clearly said synesthesia. I just quoted the exact words to you in my previous post.
Here it is, once again:

While considering the question, it was observed that, he appeared to be drawing shapes on the table with his finger. When asked about this, he explained that he could see the numbers as shapes and colours in his mind. This breakdown or confusion of the senses is known as synethsesia.

Here, once again, is the link:http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/danieltammet.html