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Everyone has played a few games of Sudoku. But they’re just brain puzzlers, designed to give you something to do with your brain.
But this man’s brain didn’t respond to it the way most peoples’ do.
When he does Sudoku, he has seizures.
It wasn’t always like this. In fact, it’s even weirder.
The 25-year-old was trapped under an avalanche during a ski trip in 2008. He was buried in the snow and knocked unconscious. This friend came to the rescue and gave him CPR, thankfully.
But that wasn’t the end of his troubles.
Dr. Berend Feddersen, the author of the case report, said that the man also suffered a ruptured spleen and hip fracture, and his brain experienced hypoxia, or too little oxygen.
His brain was deprived of oxygen for 15 minutes, and afterwards, he developed muscle twitches in his mouth and legs. He also developed seizures in his left arm.
When he went to a physical therapy facility, he tried doing Sudoku, but immediately fell into arm seizures.
The explanation? He used to solve Sudoku puzzles by imagining them as three-dimensional, so he could arrange them in place.
When he was asked to complete math projects or other puzzles, it was fine. It was Sudoku.
This was because the hypoxia killed inhibiting fibers in his brain in the centro-parietal region, where 3D imagination usually comes from. Without the fibers, his brain went haywire.
When he stopped imagining Sudoku, it stopped the seizures. It seemed to be the only way to stop those tpes.
He can walk and talk now, with the help of physical therapy. He’s now been seizure free for five years, but at a price—his precious Sudoku.
