# Brain Trauma resulting in genius? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759 "2022-05-01T15:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/1 "2022-05-01T15:16:57Z")
Is it possible that an adult could suffer a brain trauma go into a coma and wake up a genius. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/2 "2022-05-01T15:34:48Z")
[Spontaneous savantism resulting from traumatic brain injury happens occasionally](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180116-the-mystery-of-why-some-people-become-sudden-geniuses). Nobody really know how or why. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/3 "2022-05-01T15:37:54Z")
One example; [Derek Amato](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Amato) became a “musical savant” after a brain injury. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/4 "2022-05-01T18:29:21Z")
I’ve had patients concuss themselves in order to gain these ‘super powers’. Please. Just. Don’t. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/5 "2022-05-01T18:30:54Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > ’ If you are interested I will tell you a story closely related to this. Some people use fava beans exactly for this purpose. Supposedly there is some portion of the population that carries a gene where if the individual eats fava beans it will explode their brain in just the right place and turn them into super geniuses. Supposedly this has been going around since early biblical times. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/6 "2022-05-01T18:34:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I’ve had patients concuss themselves in order to gain these ‘super powers’. They’re probably better off exposing themselves to radiation to gain super strength or building a flying suit out of toliet paper rolls and depleted AA batteries. Of course, then they have to come up with a clever supervillain name and a schtick, which is probably more trouble than it is worth. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/7 "2022-05-01T21:06:07Z")
If someone wasn’t a genius before the brain trauma how exactly did they acquire the knowledge to become a genius? Were they secretly a genius but didn’t know it? Are we all secretly geniuses and just need to unlock our inner genius somehow? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/8 "2022-05-01T21:28:18Z")
I’ll stick to good ol’ fashioned trephination, thankyou very much. (just kidding. I need a trepanation like I need a hole in the head.) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/9 "2022-05-01T21:45:54Z")
How do fava beans “explode” in the brain? I’m picturing a ‘brain fart’. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/10 "2022-05-01T21:58:55Z")
I can’t tell if that claim was a dryly subtle joke or the dumbest urban legend I’ve ever seen but obviously is not factual. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/11 "2022-05-01T23:04:26Z")
I don’t think there is any additional knowledge involved, it’s about unlocking skills. Any of us could have skills and abilities we can’t consciously reach, but even if we find a way to reach a such hidden talents they may not be working at genius level. There is certainly evidence that brain trauma can take away skills and abilities you previously possessed. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/12 "2022-05-01T23:05:44Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Supposedly there is some portion of the population that carries a gene where if the individual eats fava beans it will explode their brain in just the right place and turn them into super geniuses. > [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > How do fava beans “explode” in the brain? I’m picturing a ‘brain fart’. It’s ambiguously phrased, but I think it’s the gene that explodes. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/13 "2022-05-01T23:36:45Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > ambiguously phrased, but I think it’s the gene that explodes. I really don’t have any idea how it’s supposed to work ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/14 "2022-05-01T23:57:10Z")
I think the above posts have nailed the main responses, but I also want to add a specific point about “genius”: that it’s about what you can do that others can’t do. e.g. We might consider a 7-year old child playing _Flight of the Bumblebee_ on a violin genius, when, from a “God’s eye view”, learning the language of the country that they were born in took more cognitive power and is the more significant feat. We just don’t value the latter, as almost everyone seems equipped to do that. Bearing this in mind, imagine that you had a trauma that meant you found it difficult to look at photographs and classify the objects in that scene, or compare it to other photographs, because you can only see the separate structures. Well, if that flaw in your perception had the side effect that you could now sketch scenes very accurately, you may well be considered a genius. And no-one would care about the stuff you _couldn’t_ do. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/15 "2022-05-02T03:03:11Z")
Not trauma, but I know of someone who “became a genius” when he got brain cancer. Average middle-school kid, suddenly performing wildly above everyone around him to the point he was taking university courses at fourteen. Unfortunately, as his sudden genius was the first apparent symptom, the cancer was not diagnosed until too late. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/16 "2022-05-02T03:56:57Z")
Fava bean was mentioned in that movie silence of the lambs. I think that was how Hannibal lecter became the way he was ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/17 "2022-05-02T04:08:16Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I think that was how Hannibal lecter became the way he was Setting aside that thriller novels are not a good source of information about neuroscience, this isn’t correct. The novel [_Hannibal_](https://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Thomas-Harris/dp/0440224675/) “explains” why the eponymous serial killer came to be. The only mention Hannibal Lector ever makes to fava beans is that he consumed the liver of a census taker with “fava beans and a nice Chianti” in the film adaptation of _The Silence of the Lambs_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/18 "2022-05-02T04:26:15Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > If someone wasn’t a genius before the brain trauma how exactly did they acquire the knowledge to become a genius? Were they secretly a genius but didn’t know it? Are we all secretly geniuses and just need to unlock our inner genius somehow? The brain works in mysterious ways, many of which we’re just beginning to guess at. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/19 "2022-05-02T05:01:16Z")
I just looked it up and people with a glucose 6 deficiency can get some kind of anemia from Fava beans that could lead to all kinds of problems including brain bleeds and clots. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759/20 "2022-05-02T05:38:01Z")
_Sigh._ Stranger [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-trauma-resulting-in-genius/963759.md?page=2)