Kim Peek

Kim Peek
Born	Laurence Kim Peek (1951-11-11)November 11, 1951 Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Died	December 19, 2009(2009-12-19) (aged 58) Murray, Utah, US
Nationality	American
Known for	Megasavant
Parent(s)	Fran Peek Jeanne W. Buchi

Laurence Kim Peek (November 11, 1951 –December 19, 2009) was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie Rain Man. He was not autistic and likely had FG syndrome.

Biography

He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah with macrocephaly, damage to the cerebellum, and, perhaps most important, agenesis of the corpus callosum, a condition in which the bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is missing; in Peek's case, secondary connectors such as the anterior commissure were also missing. There is speculation that his neurons made unusual connections due to the absence of a corpus callosum, which results in an increased memory capacity. According to Peek's father, Fran, Peek was able to memorize things from the age of 16-20 months. He read books, memorized them, and then placed them upside down on the shelf to show that he had finished reading them, a practice he maintained. He read a book in about an hour, and remembered almost everything he had read, memorizing vast amounts of information in subjects ranging from history and literature, geography, and numbers to sports, music, and dates. His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at a time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page. It is believed he could recall the content of at least 12,000 books from memory. Peek lived in Murray, Utah and was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mobility

Peek did not walk until the age of four and walked in a sidelong manner. He could not button up his shirt and had difficulty with other ordinary motor skills, presumably due to his damaged cerebellum, which normally coordinates motor activities. In psychological testing, Peek scored below average (87) on general IQ tests.

Increasing ability

Fran and Kim Peek, courtesy Darold Treffert, MD, and Wisconsin Medical Society.

Unlike many savants, Peek had shown increasing social skills, perhaps due to the attention that had come with being perceived as the "real Rain Man". His father says that his sense of humor had been emerging since 2004 or so. Also, he had developed well beyond the stage of being a mere repository of vast amounts of information; his skills at associating information he remembers were at least one of the signs of creativity. He displayed difficulty with abstractions such as interpreting the meanings of proverbs or metaphorical terms of speech.

Although never a musical prodigy, Peek's musical abilities as an adult were receiving more notice when he started to study the piano. He apparently remembered music he heard decades ago and could play it on the piano, to the extent permitted by his limited physical dexterity. He was able to give running spoken commentary on the music as he played, for example, comparing a piece of music to other music he had heard. In listening to recordings he could distinguish which instruments play which part and was adept at guessing the composers of new music by comparing the music to the many thousands of music samples in his memory.

In 1984, script writer Barry Morrow met Peek in Template:City-state; the result of the meeting was the 1988 movie Rain Man. The character of Raymond Babbitt, although inspired by Peek, was portrayed as having autism. Dustin Hoffman, who played Babbitt, met Peek and other savants to get an understanding of their nature and to play the role with accuracy (see method acting). The movie caused a number of requests for appearances, which increased Peek's self-confidence. Barry Morrow gave Kim his Oscar statuette to carry with him and show at these appearances. It has been referred to as the "Most Loved Oscar Statue" since it's been held by more people than any other Oscar statue. Kim also enjoyed approaching strangers and showing them his talent for calendar calculations by telling them on which day of the week they were born and what news items were on the front page of major newspapers. Peek had also appeared on television. He traveled with his father, who took care of him and performed many motor tasks that Peek found difficult.

Death

Peek died of a heart attack on December 19, 2009. He is survived by his father, Fran Peek; his mother, Jeanne Willey Peek Buchi; a brother, Brian; and a sister, Alison.

Scientific investigation

In 2004, NASA scientists examined Peek with a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The intent was to create a three-dimensional view of his brain structure and to compare the images to MRI scans done in 1988. These were the first tentative approaches in using non-invasive technology to further investigate Kim's savant abilities.

A 2008 study concluded that Peek probably had FG syndrome, a rare genetic syndrome linked to the X chromosome which causes physical anomalies such as hypotonia (low muscle tone) and macrocephaly (abnormally large head).

Appearances

• Brainman, a Discovery Channel documentary
• Inside the Rain Man, a Discovery Channel documentary
• Everything You Need To Know - The Brain, a Discovery Channel documentary
• Human Computer, a Discovery Channel documentary
• Medical Incredible, a Discovery Health Channel documentary
• The Real Rain Man, a Discovery Health Channel documentary premiered on November 26, 2006
• Ripley's Believe It or Not!
• CNN interview by Richard Quest
• Focus Productions. "The Real Rain Man". Extraordinary People. Season 2006-07. RTL Group. Five. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |began=, |episodelink=, |city=, |serieslink=, |ended=, and |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
• World's Smartest People on The Learning Channel
• Kim and his father were speakers at the inaugural meeting of the Athanasius Kircher Society.
• Speaker at the Oxford Union
• 60 Minutes
• Accidental Genius, a National Geographic Channel documentary
• Superhuman, "Genius" episode, a Science Channel special premiered on November 7, 2008
• Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain, a documentary produced in 2006 by colourFIELD tell-a-vision, a German company

Further reading

• Treffert, Darold A. & Christensen, Daniel D. "Inside the Mind of a Savant". Scientific American. December 2005. (requires subscription).
• "NASA Studying 'Rain Man's' Brain". Space.com. Associated Press. November 8, 2004.
• Peek, Fran (1996). The Real Rain Man: Kim Peek. Salt Lake: Harkness. ISBN 0-9651163-0-1.
• Portions of the text are the work of the Wisconsin Medical Society and Darold A. Treffert, M.D.[1]

External links

• Kim Peek-The Real Rain Man - Wisconsin Medical Society
• Video of the Athanasius Kircher Society Presentation
• Kim Peek's obituary at Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2009