When I was 10-years-old, I couldn’t move my right leg out of bed. Was it a TIA I knew now (transient ischemic attack)? Maybe it was, but by the time the doctor came 2 hours later (he made house calls back in the 1950s), the pain disappeared. Even the doctor didn’t suggest that it was a TIA.
Stroke.org says, “Anyone can have a TIA, but the risk increases with age. Stroke rates double every 10 years after age 55. If you’ve previously had a stroke, pay careful attention for signs of a TIA because that could signal a second stroke in your future.”
Future, huh?
I studied classical music for 7 years until I was a teenager, and I switched teachers and popular music was my thing. After 1 month, I “played by ear” with both hands. If I needed a reminder of the song and you could hum the first couple of bars, there I’d go and accurately finish the song on the piano. I went to the library (there was no Internet then in the 1970s) and picked up the lingo in books of popular music. I came up with a list, like verse, bridge, outro, stinger, riff, and fadeout.Â
From 14 on, you wouldn’t see music on that beautiful piano rack. With the rack empty, I imagined the musical score in my senior high school play (a music major helped me transcribe the brain-driven thoughts into a musical score) and played Fiddler on the Roof for my son’s 4th grade show all by ear.
I entertained at my parents’ parties with tunes like Benny Goodman and Sammy Davis, Jr and the like would play. People used to hire to me because, as always, the rack upon which the sheet music would sit was forever empty. “The girl who needs no musical sheets in front on her,” I came to be called.
Until my hemorrhagic stroke, about 2 or 3 times a year, my upper right leg in the thigh region severely hurt and randomly where I’d have to pull over if I was in the car, get out, and stomp on it to apply pressure and make the intense pain go away. Many times I stopped on Broad Street (the longest street in Philadelphia) during rush hour, in the morning or evening, stomping outside the car to stop the pain. I must have looked like a lunatic, but I didn’t care. Anything for constant pain.Â
Blood clots? I didn’t find out because I didn’t want to know. Coincidence? I didn’t want to know that either. Was I becoming an ostrich who buried his (or her) head in the sand?
Many years later, I had a full-blown, hemorrhagic stroke on the right side again. I tell all of you this because maybe I, too, aside from the ostrich, was an emerging savant?
The bond between brain injury and creativity is complex and varies significantly, depending on the type, location, and intensity of the injury. Research shows that creativity can both increase and decrease following brain injury rather the easy assumption that brain damage always reduces creative abilities.
Look at these facts. The abilities often emerge spontaneously. Only 32 documented cases of “acquired savant syndrome” (there is no acronym because it spells ASS) in America existed as of 2015. Now there’s most likely more. It’s more common in males, possibly due to prenatal testosterone affecting left hemisphere development.
Exploring savants helps researchers find out more about the limits of human cognition, how memory and perception can be completely transformed, and discover how new paths of brain rehabilitation and learning strategies could be discovered.
Stroke and TBI survivors have become painters, poets, inventors, and musicians after their injury, even if they didn’t have any interest and talent before. “Acquired savant syndrome” is highly unusual, but in some cases, people develop new creative abilities after brain damage.
Research shows divergent thinking, a notable component of creativity for a moderate-to-severe stroke or TBI, could possible be excluded following injury Traumatic brain injury and creative divergent thinking – PubMed. Also, this: Study Pinpoints Origins of Creativity in the Brain | University of Utah Health.
The brain’s ability to grow new cells and neuropathways called neuroplasticity is one reason for stroke and TBI survivors to get creative after an injury How Creativity Can Enrich Your Journey Through Brain Injury – https://www.braininjuryhopefoundation.org. Documented cases exist of how musicians and poets develop synesthesia (merged sensations like experience colors when listening to music, see shapes when smelling certain scents, or perceive tastes when looking at words) and enhanced creativity following stroke or TBI.
Some scientists speculate that when brain cells are injured and/or die, they release neurotransmitters that can rewire parts of the brain, likely opening new neural pathways. Others suggest that certain types of flawed brains might allow entrance into unprocessed sensory information usually purified by healthy brain processes.
Hmm.
Brain injury appears to “change” the nature of creative expression, sometimes in phenomenal ways, but results vary greatly between people and depend a lot on the known characteristics of the injury, especially location.Â
But these abilities often come with significant risks. Cases suggest that phenomenal creative and cognitive abilities may “hibernate” in many people, only appearing when brain injury disrupts normal neural pathways and allows these talents to vividly show. The impact depends on what part of the brain is injured:
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Frontal lobes: Often involved in planning, idea generation, and decision-making. Damage here may make it harder to organize or initiate creative work.
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Parietal and occipital lobes: These processes are usually visual and spatial information. Damage might affect visual arts, drawing, or movement-based, creativity-like dance.
- Temporal lobes: Important for language, music, and memory. Injury here can alter verbal creativity or emotional expression.
Loss in one part but gain in another:
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Verbal creativity might feel blocked due to word-finding issues.
- Your work may become more honest and real.
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Emotional, visual, or symbolic creativity might grow stronger.
You may move from one type of creativity to another:
- From choreograph dance to now express ideas through storytelling or visual art
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From write poetry to now express through painting
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Used to play music to now create rhythms by singing
Orlando Serrell: At age 10, Serrell was hit in the head by a baseball. Upon recovering, he could recall the weather, events, and location of every day since the unfortunate accident. Also, he could name the day of the week for any date.
Derek Amato: After hitting his head senselessly on the bottom of a Jacuzzi, Amato instantly played complex piano compositions despite never having learned music. He explains seeing black-and-white patterns (notes, in fact?) in his mind that leads to his playing and composing music.Â
Alonzo Clemons: Following a brain injury as a 3-year-old, Clemons started sculpting animals from memory with fascinating detail and specifics. His art has been shown in galleries across the globe.
Anthony Cicoria: A lightning encounter left Cicoria with memory problems but also an passionate hunger to compose and play classical piano and which he had never learned before the lightning, and writing original works that developed from nowhere.
Jason Padgett: Following an assault and head injury outside his local karaoke bar, Padgett went from being a common furniture salesman to the ability to visualize complex mathematical and geometric patterns. He began drawing intricate diagrams and later studied mathematics academically. As a high school dropout, Padgett is the only known person in the world able to draw complex geometric patterns called fractals.
Tommy McHugh: After suffering two strokes, McHugh became an unstoppable artist and poet, transforming from a construction worker into a popular artist. Often reflecting on his transformation, he created hundreds of artworks and poems.
Patrick Fagerberg:Â A former lawyer, Fagerberg suffered a TBI at a concert in 2011. After the accident, he began painting vivid artworks with no prior art education. His style is emotionally-charged abstract and later used a new type of art display akin to, one art critic remarked, “living the realm of the sublime.” Although abstract, it’s been said that his paintings seem to represent cosmical events.
Ken Walters: Walters was a construction worker who suffered a head injury in a fall. After his recovery, he discovered an ability to perform complex mental math and calendar calculations. He could instantly tell the day of the week for any date and solve math problems far beyond his previous skill level.
Tony Cicoria:Â A lightning strike left Cicoria with memory issues but also a sudden obsession with classical piano. He began composing original pieces and performing, despite having no formal training. His story was documented by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist.
Diana de Avila:Â In 2017, Diana was recovering from optic neuritis and vertigo when she began a sudden and visual episode while relaxing in her swimmimg pool. This experience brought an overwhelming need to create art, despite having no formal training or former interest. Within hours, she painted her first piece, titled Blobs and Boomerangs . Often waking in the middle of the night to paint, she began producing five to six artworks a day. Her style included sacred geometry and dreamlike creatures, all guided by intuition rather than technique. https://www.artlifting.com/collections/diana-de-avila/
All of these savant stories suggest that the brain may contain hidden abilities, fascinating skills that are usually not achieved but can be unleashed through trauma or neurological interruptions. Many savants show increased activity in the right hemisphere, which happens with creativity, musical and artistic talent, and/or spatial reasoning.
So traditional IQ tests may not capture the full spectrum of human possibilities. These findings don’t just show the mysteries of the savant syndrome, but they also suggest the untried creative supplies within all of us.
If you’ve had a brain injury, try this: Paint extraordinary pictures! Write fantastic poems! Invent something that nobody has seen! Create remarkable music! Why? You may be a savant! Or if nobody knows and you’re not discovered as a savant, that’s alright, too. Just do it for yourself. The praise from others would be worth it!
