6 Eadweard Muybridge, a bookseller, suffered a head injury in a violent runaway stagecoach crash in 1860. After the injury, he had bad headaches and double vision. Suddenly, photography became his new passion. He is known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion.

Born in the United Kingdom, Eadweard Muybridge moved to America at the age of 20. He worked as a bookseller. He planned a return trip to England in 1860. While returning, he suffered a serious head injury in a violent, runaway, stagecoach crash in Texas.

After the accident, he had a bad headache, double vision, deafness, loss of taste, loss of smell, and confusion. Later, it was claimed that his hair turned from brown to gray in three days.

His personality also changed after the accident. His friends mentioned that earlier, he was a smart and happy businessman, but after his injury, he became an eccentric artist. Eadweard became careless about his appearance. He refused any payment from his clients if they were even slightly critical of his work.

After the accident, he developed a sudden interest in photography. He converted a horse carriage into a portable darkroom. Eventually, Eadweard became successful in photography, focusing principally on landscape and architectural subjects.

At the University of Pennsylvania, he produced over 100,000 images of animals and humans in motion, capturing the separate movements that are almost impossible for the human eye to discern. (1, 2)

7 Derek Amato dove into a shallow swimming pool and hit his head in 2006. He had concussions and 35% hearing loss. His musical abilities increased tremendously after the head injury.

Derek Amato dove into a shallow swimming pool and hit his head in 2006. He suffered a concussion and a 35% hearing loss. In an interview, he shared his own experience, “My eyes were black and my whole body ached like I’d been beaten up.

My vision seemed blurry, too. I could see blobs moving in my peripheral vision and had a strange sense of agitation. My fingers wouldn’t stop moving, and even when I concentrated, I found it difficult to stop them.”

He stayed with his mother for a few days. Then he visited his friend Ricky, a musician. Derek saw a piano at the place and played it non-stop for hours. While he had played guitar before, he had never touched a piano in his life.

He saw black and white blobs in his mind that flowed from left to right in a pattern. His fingers just replicated that pattern on the piano. He still can’t read the music but he can definitely play it well.

According to Derek, “I just follow what the blocks tell me to do. I do my best to take those notes and put them into play. It’s the best thing that happened to me. My whole being has changed, and I think it’s been an incredible experience.” (1, 2)

8 Orlando Serrell, a 10-year-old boy, was hit by a baseball on the left side of the head in 1979. He had a headache. Later, he recovered. Just after this incident, he developed an uncanny ability to perform complex, calendrical calculations.

Orlando Serells was struck by a baseball on the left side of his head on 15 January 1979. He was merely a 10-year-old at that time. Even after getting hit, he got up and continued playing baseball.

He did not tell his parents about this and therefore, never got the injury treated. However, for a few months, he suffered from a headache. Soon Orlando noticed that he could now easily complete complex calendrical calculations. He could recall the weather and every other detail for any date since the accident.

The University of Columbia invited him to perform functional MRI testing on his brain on 17 June 2002. NBC News televised a documentary on him on the Discovery Channel in 2003. (source)

9 Tommy McHugh suffered brain strokes on both sides of his head when he was 51 years old. He was never artistic before. However, after the incident, he felt a sudden urge to write poetry. He also began to paint and draw obsessively for up to 19 hours a day.

Tommy McHugh, a builder, suffered from a brain hemorrhage in 2000. At that time, he was 51-year-old. Both frontal as well as temporal lobes of his brain were severely affected by the brain stroke. After the stroke, he had an identity crisis. He felt a sudden urge to write poetry and put down everything that he was experiencing.

Tommy was never artistic before, but suddenly, his head was full of rhymes, images, and pictures. He became obsessed with painting and drawing as well and often painted up to 19 hours a day. He found it almost impossible to stop the images that he would see in his mind.

In an interview, he shared his experience, “I’ll paint three or six or nine pictures at a time. I see those numbers in my head all the time. Canvases became too costly, so I started painting the ceilings and the wallpaper and the floor. I can’t stop painting and sculpting.

Give me a mountain and I’ll turn it into a profile. If you give me a bare tree I’ll change it, so when spring comes, all the leaves will create the face, the mouth, and the lips without hurting the tree.”

Tommy exhibited his works and sold his paintings. He expressed his gratitude towards the extraordinary abilities he now possessed. He died due to cancer in 2012. (1, 2)

10 Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning in 1994. Coincidently, a nurse, standing next to him, resuscitated him. Before the accident, he had no interest in music. However, after the recovery, he had an uncontrollable desire to listen to piano music. Eventually, he became an accomplished musician.

Tony Cicoria was an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine. He was struck by lightning in 1994. At that time, he was just a foot away from a telephone booth when the lightning was struck.

Tony recalled having an out-of-body experience as he saw his own body on the ground surrounded by a bluish-white light. A woman was waiting outside the telephone booth to make a call. Coincidently, she was an intensive-care unit nurse. She resuscitated him immediately.

A few weeks later, he visited a neurologist and complained about his sluggish memory. The doctor conducted some tests but found nothing wrong. Two days later, he had a strong yearning to play the piano. Tony felt as if his head was constantly filled with music.

He bought a piano and started playing. Interestingly, he had no particular interest in music before the accident. Tony continued to compose music and improve his musical abilities.

He publicly debuted as a pianist at Goodrich Theatre in New York on 29 January 2008. He was profiled in neurologist Oliver Sacks’ book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. (1, 2)