I think intelligence or skill comes from a combination of mental energy, focusing, internal values, and internal reward factors and motivations. The OP basical

I think intelligence or skill comes from a combination of mental energy, focusing, internal values, and internal reward factors and motivations. The OP basically became slower because his brain had less energy to work with. Especially internal reward factors. If something is so internally rewarding, it can amplify all the other factors of intelligence 50 fold (energy, ease of focus, adjustment of values, etc). What other unusual attributes of intelligence did von neumann for example have? Some people describe him as being able to catch up to the current scientific state of the art to a PhD level in many fields in a year or two if he suddenly rose from the dead like a vampire today because he was that intelligent.