The next two posts are on Autistic Savants. I first heard of Danniel Tammet about a year ago in a special education course and have ever since been facinated by the workings of his brain.
If you recall from last class (03/03) Bart mentioned that the brain can typically remember 5 or 7 numbers, which is why phone numbers are not 10 digits long. I personally can typically remember a 7 digit phone number but the numbers themselves are usually out of order.
This discussion reminded me of Daniel Tammet a true savant. As a young child Daniel suffered from a series of seizures which are believed to have altered his brain. He does display characteristics of autism, but has been able to adapt better than most people with this condition.
Daniel has a rare gift of being able to see shapes, colors, and patterns in series of numbers. Due to this ability he can remember numbers better than anyone else in the world. He hold the world record for being able to correctly recite Pi (good ols' 3.14) to the 22,500th decimal place! This feat took 5 hours in which he sat in front of a camera and had his response checked by a series of investigators.
I would love to know how his brain is functioning differently and what his nueral nets look like!
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reminds me of Luriia's "Mind of a Mnemonist"...about a man who had a very unique perception of sounds, numbers, etc. This man also could apparently remember long strings of numbers years after hearing them...because he associated each number with an object, and placed them on a mental 'stroll'. He would then 'walk' through the path of these objects and recite them back. One time he missed a number in the middle, and this was so unusual that everyone was very suprised, and drew his attention to it. He reportedly retraced his steps and exclaimed "ah, that is why! that number was an egg and I had placed it against a white wall, so I overlooked it when I passed by!".
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