因禍得福 少年腦震盪後成音樂天才

A tone-deaf teenager who suffered a concussion has astonished his family by suddenly being able to play music effortlessly.

一個音癡少年經歷了一次腦震盪之後，忽然可以毫不費力的演奏各種樂器。他的家人被嚇了一跳。

Lachlan Connors, a high school junior from Denver, Colorado, now plays 13 instruments - even though he has never learned to read music

這個名爲拉克倫·康納斯的少年是科羅拉多州丹佛市的一名高中生。如今他可以演奏13種樂器——儘管他從未學過識譜。

But he didn't always have such a talent; as a younger student he loved sport, dreamed on a career playing lacrosse - and had no passion for music.

他的音樂才能並非與生俱來。這個高中生之前一直喜歡體育，並且希望以後能成爲職業長曲棍球選手——對音樂他並不熱衷。

'He really had no talent,' his mother Elsie Hamilton told CBS Denver. 'I would say, "Can't you hear what's next?" with something like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and he’d say "No".'When he was in the sixth grade, he was playing lacrosse with his local team when he fell backwards and smacked the back of his head against the ground, suffering a concussion.

“過去他確實沒有音樂方面的才能，”少年的母親對CBS丹佛電視臺記者說，“過去我會問他，‘你聽不出下一個音符是什麼嗎？’，即使是《瑪麗有隻小羊羔》或者《小星星》這樣簡單的歌曲，他也會說‘聽不出來’。”他六年級的時候，有一次和本地的長曲棍球隊打比賽摔了一跤，後腦勺着地造成了腦震盪。”

'I remember getting up and feeling really dazed,' he told CBS. 'I didn't really understand something bad had happened.'

“我記得我爬起來的時候，感覺有點暈，”他對CBS電視臺記者說，“我當時還沒有意識到自己腦部受了傷。”

The doctors told him he could return to the field, but he went on to suffer another couple of hard hits to the head, which sent him to hospital and caused him to suffer epileptic seizures.

醫生認爲他可以回到場上繼續比賽，結果他的頭部又受到了幾次嚴重撞擊，他開始發癲癇，被送往醫院救助。

As his condition worsened, he started to hallucinate and doctors told him he should not play contact sports anymore - but there was one bizarre good side effect: his new-found musical talent.

接着他的情況不斷惡化，開始產生幻覺。醫生告訴他他不能再參與接觸性運動了。詭異的是，他的這次事故產生了一種有益的副作用：他開始具備音樂才能。

He said he can now play as many as 13 instruments, including piano, guitar, mandolin, ukelele, harmonica, karimba and bagpipes - both Scottish and Irish ones. 'Music is the thing that gets me up in the morning,' he said.

他說現在他可以演奏13種樂器，其中包括曼陀鈴琴、四絃琴、口琴、拇指琴和風笛等等——蘇格蘭風笛和愛爾蘭風笛他都會吹。“每天早晨都是音樂將我喚醒的。”他說。

His doctor, Dr. Spyridon Papadopoulos, said the theory is that the concussions switched on part of Lachlan's brain that had previously been dormant.

少年的醫生，斯彼利當·帕帕多普洛斯將這種現象解釋爲，腦震盪或使康納斯的大腦中某些一直休眠的部分開始活動了。

The condition of suddenly developing a talent - musical, artistic or mathematical - is called acquired savant syndrome and is believed to occur when the right brain compensates for an injury on the left brain.

這種忽然間發展出某種才能——音樂才能、藝術才能或數學才能——的病例被稱作“後天性學者症候羣”，其產生原因是左腦遭受損傷後，右腦作出的補償機制。

Last year, another Denver man, Derek Amato, said that following a concussion he could play eight instruments even though he'd never had a lesson in his life.

去年，一個名爲德里克·阿瑪託的丹佛人遭受腦震盪之後發現自己可以演奏8種樂器，儘管他從未學過任何一種。