Inside the Mind of a Savant
doc10172006115117.pdf
Savant syndrome was first coined in 1887 by J. Langdon Down, who described it as "astounding powers of memory" that is almost always linked to a specific domain, such as music, art or mathematics. Fifty-four-year-old Kim Peek, however, has a different story. Phenomenal memory is the skill in Peek, called "Kim-puter" by friends.
Kim began memorizing books the age of eighteen months, as they were read to him. So far he has memorized 9,000 books by heart and every page he reads in eight to ten seconds. One of Kim’s major interests is classical music. He can identify hundreds of compositions, tell when and where each was composed and first performed, give the name of the composer and many biographical details, and even discuss the formal and tonal components of the music. In light of his severe developmental problems, he is far out-reaching the average savant in that for the past two years, he’s actually been learning to play the classical music he’s so fascinated by. Kim was born with an enlarged head, on the back of which was an encephalocele, or a baseball-size "blister", which spontaneously resolved. Kim also had a malformed cerebellum, which may account for Kim’s problems with coordination and mobility. Something that is still a medical mystery is the absence of a corpus callosum, the stalk of nerve tissue connecting the left and right halves of the brain. Doctors suppose that the two hemispheres, in a way, function as one "under the same roof"; however, some people lacking a corpus callosum suffer no disabilities, whereas others have savant abilities. Another possibility is that when the left hemisphere cannot function properly (due perhaps to a high level of circulating testosterone in the womb), the right hemisphere compensates by developing new skills or recruiting brain tissue normally used for other purposes.
Although he generally has a limited capacity for abstract thinking, he does comprehend most of the material he has committed to memory, whereas many savants memories things without comprehension. Kim cannot explain many commonplace proverbs, such as the time his father asked him once in a restaurant to "lower his voice", and Kim merely slid lower in his chair, thus lowering his voice box. Other times his answers seem to be quite ingenious. Like a musician, Kim thinks quickly, so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up with his intricate associations. Though Kim is still physically awkward, his manual dexterity is increasing. When seated at the piano, he may play the piece he wishes to discuss, sing the passage of interest or describe the music verbally, shifting seamlessly from one mode to another. April Greenan, Kim’s music professor and a Mozart scholar, makes these observations: "Kim’s knowledge of music is considerable. His ability to recall every detail of a composition he has heard – in many cases only once and more than 40 years ago – is astonishing. The connections he draws between and weaves through compositions, composer’s lives, historical events, movie soundtracks, and thousands of facts stored in his database reveal enormous intellectual capacity."
Kim’s prodigious memory caught the attention of writer Barry Marrow in 1984 and inspired him to write the screenplay for Rain Man. The main character of this movie, played by Dustin Hoffman, is a savant but does not tell Kim’s life story. After the success of this movie, Kim’s life began to change. Before then, he had been reclusive; and afterward, the confidence he gained from his contacts with the filmmakers inspired him and his father to share Kim’s talents with many audiences. Over the years they have shared their story with over 2.6 million people.
This article, I think, was very informative and thorough on the life of Kim Peek, but not necessarily on the disorder itself. I found myself in the end wondering what true savantism really was, and although every case is different, I felt somewhat uneducated on a common cause of this disorder. Hopefully with further technology and discoveries, doctors and medically prove a cause and effect of this disorder.ftp://ftp.tolcs.org/class/jforgrave/duns%20article
3 Comments:
I thought this article was very interesting and after the first two paragraphs I immediately thought of Rain Man. It's kinda sad to think that these people are so smart, but they can't really do much with the information they have learned; they can only memorize. If they could take all of that information and apply it, they would probably be able to make major discoveries and solve many of the world's problems. i agree with you that you really don't get to learn as much about the actual disease, but the story of Kim Peek was very interesting.
I found this article partically interesting cause he memorized 9000 books, and thats like almost impossible i think. But anyway, yea hes like really smart, but he has limited social skills, and has to communicate by singing or playing his emotions. I agree with Miss Dun that this article was imformative on his life but mentioned very little of the disease/abnorality itself
This article was very fascinating. It's amazing to see someone with a condition like this to have such completely oppositte effects. You would think that a disease would cause problems but in this case i think it's simply a miracle. I couldn't even memorize three versuses of James and this man is memorizing 9,000 books. He's truelly a medical mystery. It striked me that he was 54, i'm guessing that this disease does not limit life if he's made it that far already. I'm going to go out and rent Rain Man now. VERY Interesting
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