Episode 3 - Accidental Genius
When accidents in the brain reveal extraordinary skills - featuring George Widener, the human calculator, and Tommy McHugh, a labourer turned into an artist by a stroke.
Their stories will lead us into the brain of savants – people with a few extraordinary, almost superhuman skills that usually come at the expense of other cognitive skills we all take for granted.
The Savant Brain shows how remarkable talents can be revealed by accident – not just at birth, but in mid-life, through a brain trauma such as a stroke.
Scientists will pose the tantalizing notion that we all may have hidden talents buried within our brains that are only waiting to be unleashed.