Kim Peek (1951 – 2009) |
Savant syndrome is rare. Paradoxically, the syndrome involves having some genius capabilities in the presence of mental disabilities, or brain injuries.
About 50% of savants also have autism and according to Professor Darold A. Treffert, around one in ten people with autism have savant skills.
Kim Peek
Kim Peek was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, in the movie Rain Man, played by Dustin Hoffman. He had a rare genetic disorder called Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome, and was missing part of the brain which joins the two brain hemispheres together, called the corpus callosum.
From the movie Rainman |
Peek was a natural "split-brain" patient. Split-brain surgery is usually performed on epilepsy patients. This type of surgery involves severing the corpus callosum (part of the brain which connects left and right cerebral hemispheres) to relieve seizures. Communication between the two sides of the brain is inhibited because the corpus callosum facilitates and integrates communication between the brain's right and left hemispheres. The different hemispheres may then sometimes issue conflicting information. For example, one patient attempted to hit his wife with one hand, while his other hand tried to stop this violent assault (Gazzaniga and Sperry).
Leslie Lemke (1952-
One night May stayed up watching the Sunday night movie, which featured Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. At this time, Leslie was aged 16 and that night, May found him playing this same music from the movie, alone in the middle of the night, on the piano. Leslie had never learnt music, or indeed, had any piano lessons. Soon he was playing all styles of music, from ragtime to classical. Not bad for someone who had never had a music lesson in his life!
Daniel Tammet
Books To Read
Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet.