How tightly are one's personality and talent related to brain? (Review on BBC documentary 'The Brain Story' ep.1)

           Do you believe that one's personality could change overnight? How about the seemingly inborn talents? For example, could a person suddenly become an artist? Here, Dick Lingham is the main character of the seemingly impossible story. Since seven years ago, he started to suffer from a degenerative disorder. The disorder had been responsible for gradually destroying the frontal lobe of his brain (the brain part is in charge of intellectual activities). Before, Dick Lingham was a very amicable and warm-hearted person. Nevertheless, as he started to suffer from the disease, his personality started to change completely. He now became a person who is hot-tempered, socially awkward, and contentious. What more astonished neuropsychologists was that he suddenly started to draw like a professional artist. Before the attack of the disease, he was never interested in drawings of any form. However, as the disorder proceeded, he started to feel a strong urge in drawing. More surprisingly, only after few hours of drawing, does he realizes what he had been drawing. It made me wonder if some of the historically famous musicians and artists who are told to have been absolutely absorbed in the creating the art piece, were in fact suffering from the disorder.

Drawings by Dick Lingham

         

          The story of Dick Lingham reminds people of Savant Syndrome. Savant syndrome is now widely known among people. Usually people with Autism experience Savant syndrome and they show exceptional abilities in certain fields. For example, they would play the piano or draw pictures to a near professional level, even though they have never received any formal education in Music and Art. Or they may show remarkable abilities in calculating days in the calendar. I carefully speculate that this happens since specific brain parts are in charge of developing certain abilities, and since those people with brain disorders have certain parts of their brain degenerated, other brain parts that lies near the degenerated part starts to develop rather excessively instead. I also became curious about whether the brain parts in charge of social ability are located near to parts that control abstract, three-dimensional brain activities (such as music, art, calculation of numbers, and etc.), since many people suffering from Autism developes abilities in such fields, rather than in other fields. Would it also explain why there are so many socially awkward people among scientists? Or is this just a silly prejudice of mine that I started to develop since watching the Big Bang Theory? lol