[00:04.35]For years,scientists have speculated
[00:06.66]that the talents possessed by
[00:08.13]so-called"idiots savants"-
[00:10.46]as depicted by Dustin Hoffman in the film
[00:12.97]Rain Man-may be accessible to us all.
[00:16.32]According to Professor Allan Snyder
[00:18.43]of the University of Sydney,
[00:20.47]it is just a question of
[00:21.88]switching off the conscious part of the brain.
[00:24.63]"I believe that each of us has non-conscious
[00:27.47]machinery to do extraodinary art,extraordinary
[00:30.93]memory,extraordinary mathematical calculations"
[00:34.43]he told The Daily Mail.Now,Dr Robyn Young of
[00:37.72]Flinders University in Adelaide has tried to
[00:40.94]prove the theory by using an electronic brain
[00:44.35]zapper to release the artistic and mathematical
[00:47.34]skills of 17 volunteers.
[00:50.41]Using a technique known as
[00:51.87]transcranial magnetic stimulation,
[00:54.82]Dr Young switched off
[00:56.01]the conscious part of the volunteers' brains,
[00:58.92]then tested their skills
[01:00.09]in calculation or drawing.
[01:02.06]The process did not turn them into geniuses,
[01:05.03]but five showed improved performance.
[01:05.03]
