Programme 3

The Savant Brain shows how remarkable talents are occasionally born of disability – not just at birth, but in mid-life, through such a trauma as a stroke. 

The episode features the autistic savant George Widener, whose remarkable feats of memory and calculation are a source of wonderment to researchers, and Tommy McHugh, a labourer who recovered from a stroke to discover he was a burgeoning artist. 

Scientists will pose the tantalizing notion that we all may have hidden talents buried within our brains that they say we may be able to access.