] 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