Kim Peak learned to read at the age of 16 months, at the age of 18 he read and memorized the complete works of Shakespeare, and by the end of his life he kept in his memory the contents of 12 books he had read. He is the prototype of the hero of the film “Rain Man” with Dustin Hoffman, the most famous person with savant syndrome, a condition in which mental abnormalities are combined with outstanding abilities.
What do we know about savants
Translated from French, savant means “scientist”, “skilled”. The author of the term is considered to be John Langdon Down, who first described Down syndrome in the middle of the XNUMXth century, but references to similar cases are found in the works of psychiatrist Benjamin Rush a century earlier.
Savants are people with mental disorders and the so-called “island of genius”: phenomenal abilities for arithmetic or music, fine arts, cartography, calendar calculations.
As a rule, such people are hardly able to serve themselves, but at the same time, some of them can recite several pages of a book once read by heart or say what day of the week October 1, 1967 fell on. Or, looking at the city from above, draw a detailed map of its streets from memory.
In most cases, savantism has a genetic nature, but there are cases of manifestation of the syndrome after traumatic brain injuries, infectious and inflammatory processes in the brain, or in violation of the development of the fetus in the womb. It is more commonly seen in men. One possible explanation is that more testosterone suppresses the development of the left hemisphere in favor of the right.
People with an “island of genius” are usually diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, mental and / or physical developmental disabilities, pathological changes in the brain, and a low level of development of general intelligence.
rain people
Due to the peculiarities of his memory, Kim Peak was called a “kimputer”, and this despite the fact that he had an IQ below the norm, he learned to walk only at the age of four, and he did not learn how to fasten buttons at all.
Kim Peak was born with a brain herniation, damage to the cerebellum (explaining motor problems), and no corpus callosum, which connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain. There is a version that it was precisely because of the lack of a “bridge” between the hemispheres that the brain neurons created new connections, which led to an increase in memory capacity.
With even more severe vices, the musician Leslie Lemke was born. Due to the severe form of cerebral palsy, he learned to stand only at the age of 12, walk – at 15, but this did not prevent him from learning to play the piano on his own at the age of 16 and reproduce any melody he heard.
Another famous savant, British artist Stephen Wiltshire, spoke only at the age of five, and was the first to say the word “paper”. Steven is famous for his exceptional ability to draw cityscapes from memory with a ballpoint pen.
An example of a savant who gained exceptional abilities as a result of an injury is Orlando Serrel. At the age of ten, he suffered a head injury while playing baseball, and since then he remembers in great detail every day he lived.
Usually such people are endowed with one outstanding ability, much less often – two. Three is an almost exceptional case. Such a case is Ellen Bordeaux, a female savant, which in itself is atypical.
Firstly, she is endowed with a musical gift: her brain is a kind of record library of all existing melodies. Secondly, being completely blind, she is able to perfectly navigate in space. Finally, Ellen has a “built-in internal clock” that allows her to tell the time down to the minute.
The abilities of savants in a sense can be compared with the superpower that comic book heroes are endowed with. Daniel Tammet, by the way, received the nickname Brainman, “man-brain.” He is a synesthete: every number is tangible for him, he has a shape and color. Fame came to him in 2004 when he broke the European record by reproducing the number Pi with 22 decimal places.
Daniel was diagnosed with autism as a child, but outstanding abilities began to appear when the boy suffered a severe attack of epilepsy. Outwardly, the young man is not much different from those around him, but communication is difficult for him.
However, unlike most other savants, Daniel is able to talk about how he sees the world and what it’s like to live at the intersection of genius and madness.