![]() If we cannot explain it, we cannot claim full understanding of how the brain functions. ![]() People like him are not easily found, and savantism offers a unique window into the mind. ![]() In the meantime, we believe it is worthwhile to document the remarkable things that Peek can do. Newer imaging techniques that plot the brain's functions-rather than just its structure- should provide more insight, though. These findings cannot yet be linked directly to any of his skills that quest is just beginning. Imaging studies of Peek's brain thus far show considerable structural abnormality. Recently, when an interviewer offered that he had been born on March 31, 1956, Peek noted, in less than a second, that it was a Saturday on Easter weekend. An explanation of how Peek does what he does would provide better insight into why certain skills, including the ordinarily obscure skill of calendar calculating (always associated with massive memory), occur with such regularity among savants. Against these disabilities, his talents-which would be extraordinary in any person-shine all the brighter. He walks with a sidelong gait, cannot button his clothes, cannot manage the chores of daily life and has great difficulties with abstraction. It is an amazing feat in light of his severe developmental problems-characteristics shared, in varying extents, by all savants. Whereas before he could merely talk about music, for the past two years he has been learning to play it. Most intriguing of all, he appears to be developing a new skill in middle life. He can identify hundreds of classical 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. He learns the maps in the front of phone books and can provide MapQuest-like travel directions within any major U.S. He knows all the area codes and zip codes in the U.S., together with the television stations serving those locales. Peek's memory extends to at least 15 interests-among them, world and American history, sports, movies, geography, space programs, actors and actresses, the Bible, church history, literature, Shakespeare and classical music. He reads a page in eight to 10 seconds and places the memorized book upside down on the shelf to signify that it is now on his mental "hard drive." He has learned 9,000 books by heart so far. Peek began memorizing books at the age of 18 months, as they were read to him. He can, indeed, pull a fact from his mental library as fast as a search engine can mine the Internet. But phenomenal memory is itself the skill in a 54-year-old man named Kim Peek. ![]() Since then, in almost all cases, savant memory has been linked to a specific domain, such as music, art or mathematics. Langdon Down first described savant syndrome in 1887, coining its name and noting its association with astounding powers of memory, he cited a patient who could recite Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire verbatim. ![]()
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