] The Medtronic was originally developed as a tool for ] brain surgery: by stimulating or slowing down specific ] regions of the brain, it allowed doctors to monitor the ] effects of surgery in real time. But it also produced, ] they noted, strange and unexpected effects on patients' ] mental functions: one minute they would lose the ability ] to speak, another minute they would speak easily but ] would make odd linguistic errors and so on. A number of ] researchers started to look into the possibilities, but ] one in particular intrigued Snyder: that people ] undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, ] could suddenly exhibit savant intelligence -- those ] isolated pockets of geniuslike mental ability that most ] often appear in autistic people. Weird ... Savant for a Day |