Three Really Amazing Savants

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 had incredible memory skills. For example, he could memorise whole books. It is believed that he had committed to memory 12,000 books, including the whole Bible. He could also read two pages at once; one page with each eye. However, while Peek had amazing memory skills, he scored badly on IQ testing and he had problems with abstract language, like metaphors.

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-

Born prematurely, Leslie Lemke was diagnosed with glaucoma, cerebral palsy and brain damage and doctors also had to remove his eyes. A nurse adopted Lemke when he was six months old after his own mother put him up for adoption. For 7 years, Leslie showed no development, he did not show emotion, move, or make any sound. His mother, May, however, devised a therapy, and finally, at the age of 12, he learnt to walk.

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

Daniel Tammet was born in 1979 and he is an extremely clever autistic savant. As a young child, Daniel suffered from epilepsy. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree and he has written a memoir called, Born on a Blue Day and other books. Daniel Tammet is most notable for his ability as a mathematical genius; being capable of lightning fast astronomical calculations. And he's a gifted linguist speaking nine languages. He learned conversational Icelandic in one week.

Books To Read

Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet.