What if we all could demonstrate amazing abilities such as: near total recall of memories, the ability to count a large number of items simply by glancing at them (numerosity), incredible musical talent, etc. Allan Snyder the director of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney thinks we can!

Certain individuals, often called savants display these cognitive feats while often suffering from a neural disorder like Autism. Snyder believes that these abilities arise as Autism (or other phenomenon) grants the individual ‘privileged access’ to data that would normally be overridden in the brain. With magnetic pulses, Snyder has even been able to temporarily ‘unlock’ savant-like abilities in average people!

Snyder has published numerous papers on cognitive processing and brain performance. His paper in The Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (biological sciences) summarizes his work (and related work from others). To grossly paraphrase his findings: the right hemisphere of the brain seems to accumulate detailed quantified data from the sensory organs unconsciously. This data is effectively overwritten or forgotten as the left brain packages information and imposes labels and organization upon it. When the left-right communication is disturbed or somehow faulty, the detailed data can sometimes be accessed by the conscious mind.

Occasionally though, people’s brains function differently. Snyder thinks they are granted ‘privileged access’ to the unpackaged data and gain “Rain Man” type talents. This can cause problems, such as all the negative symptoms associated with Autism, but it opens the possibility that this data is potentially available to everyone. Our conscious mind seems to work in a very top-down sort of way, with hierarchical thinking giving rise to the problem solving skills that make our species a success. But what if we could temporarily disturb that arrangement by shutting down one part of the brain to regain what that structure has cost us: exact recall of detailed data and calculations.

What other conditions (positive or negative) might we induce simply by temporarily shutting down different centers of the brain? We might learn languages faster, or have insights into our most difficult problems, or even just think of jokes more easily. There’s so much to explore here. One day we may have electromagnetic implants that restrict different parts of our brain to grant us conscious control over the rest. It’s all very theoretical at this point. Yet we may find that the core of the advanced computer of the future has already been built and has been resting in our skulls all this time.

Source: Singularity Hub, Aaron Saenz, August 4th, 2010; Smarter.org, Center for the Mind, Snyder et al Royal Society 2009 ;