Imagine yourself performing numerical calculations in your head and simultaneously thinking about another person’s feelings. It would probably distract you and slow you down. In this case I present to you a man that has assigned feelings and shapes to a range of numbers that allow him to perform rapid calculations.

Daniel Tammet (38 years) is a savant (for the definition of the term savant, resort to my blog post “The Living Google“) suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. Contrary to most savants which are not able to explain what makes them perform their abilities, Daniel is able to convey what is going on in his head. It is indeed quite intriguing.

He claims that all his life his friends have consisted only of numbers and each number from 0 to 10,000 is represented by a specific shape, colour and texture. Every number even has its own character according to Daniel. This phenomenon is referred to synesthesia, a phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway triggers automatic and involuntary experiences in a second pathway.

In his case he takes advantage of the numbers’ properties allowing him to perform huge calculations in his head such as multiplying 53 by 131. According to Daniel, both of these numbers have their own characteristics making him create a mental image of these two numbers. Subsequently he is able to form a third image which is the answer to the mathematical problem of 53 times 131. In this case, Daniel’s third mental image is the number 6,943, the correct answer to 53 times 131.

However, this ability is not only bound to calculations, but he also has no problems memorising large strings of numbers. The savant is capable of creating a story in his head with each number he sees. That allowed him to recite the infinite number Pi to 22,514 decimal places. He claims to have only looked at Pi once and will keep the strings of numbers in his head even after the recitation.

But there is more than just numbers for Daniel: Learning languages.

He was asked once to learn Icelandic, a language that was completely novel to him, in only a week. It is claimed even by natives to be a difficult language due to its complex grammar and the different sounds compared to his mother tongue English. The challenge was to attend an interview in Icelandic with the local media in Reykjavik.

As expected, he managed to understand the questions of the journalists and was even able to talk to them quite fluently (I put a video below so you can hear how his Icelandic sounds like). According to the journalists, “he understood the questions very well and his grammar was very good”. For the fact that he only had been learning the language for a week, it is indeed astonishing.

Were his abilities innate or developed later?

When we go back and take a look at his childhood, he clearly showed obvious signs of not being a normal child. In school he was bullied and he spent most time looking at the bark of the trees or counting leaves. The reasons for his behaviour might come from several epileptic seizures when he was 4 years old, which was also the first time when his different behaviour became apparent. It is however not certain whether those seizures provoked the formation of his abilities or if they were present before already.

Daniel Tammet is a very special savant in my opinion because he seemed to have compensated his weakness of not being sociable. Today he gives talks to the general public, is a book author and most importantly can manage his life without the need for assistance. Usually autistic savants are not capable to do any of these things by themselves. Another aspect that is amazing, yet not clear to me is his ability to get to the correct solution to a mathematical problem using only mental imagery. According to him, he is using automatic processes as he is calculating with these big numbers without having to use an algorithm which I find very fascinating. How did he choose the mental images for each number and how come they always lead to the correct solutions when he is applying this system? Also the combination of numerical and linguistic skill is very rare among savant making him stand out.

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Next time, I will present you with a woman suffering from very severe obsessive compulsive disorder.

Patrick

Daniel Tammet speaking Icelandic at 02:40 min



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Daniel Tammet – The Guardian

Winsconsin Medical Society – Daniel Tammet Brainman