A Few Amazing Brains: Geniuses with Savant Syndrome

Ever wish you could count cards like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man? Well, he's got nothing on these remarkable real-life savants.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on February 25 2011

Kim Peek of Arlington, Texas, passed away in 2009, but he is renowned for having one of the world’s most phenomenal brains. Peek, nicknamed “Kim-Puter,” knew as much about the Revolutionary War as any history professor and had memorized all of Shakespeare’s soliloquies. His knowledge of NASA could rival John Glenn’s.

One thing he couldn’t do? Drive a car.

If Peek’s amazing abilities sound strangely familiar, they should: He was the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman’s card-counting autistic character in the movie Rain Man. Like Hoffman’s character, Peek has what’s known as “savant syndrome” – a rare condition, generally found in people with autism and other developmental disorders, in which individuals have high levels of proficiency in certain fields. Many autistic people have some level of savant syndrome, but Peek had what’s known as “prodigious savant syndrome,” marked by seemingly superhuman abilities, which would be astonishing even in a person without disabilities.

Kim Peek had an extraordinary ability to memorize everything he came across. He read thousands of books, and memorized every single word of them, along with huge amounts of sports trivia, directions, and much more. But he’s not the only spectacular savant around – from music to art to math, here are a few other amazing individuals you may not know about.

The Musical Maestro.

When Tony DeBlois plays piano, his fingers fly across the keyboard so fast that you can barely see them. DeBlois isn’t just a piano virtuoso, though – he can play 20 musical instruments, everything from English handbells to the ukelele. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston’s prestigious music school, the Berklee College of Music.

DeBlois has overcome incredible odds to get where he is today. He was born three months early, weighing only one pound, and blind. He stayed in the hospital for fifteen weeks, hooked up to tubes and monitors, his chances uncertain. Eventually, he was well enough to go home with his family, but it wasn’t long before he was diagnosed with autism and mental retardation.

At the age of two, he showed his first flash of brilliance. His mother had bought him a toy piano, and at first, he simply banged on it as most kids would. After a few weeks, though, his mother recognized a familiar song: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Her little boy had taught himself to play. And he hasn’t stopped ever since. Check out this video to see DeBlois in action.

An Astonishing Artist.

Many autistic savants also excel in the world of drawing, using their photographic memory to recreate the scenes before them in amazingly accurate detail, down to the position of the hands on a clock. One of the most famous artistic savants is Stephen Wiltshire, a mute and autistic 22-year-old man from London. Ten years ago, Wiltshire was taken on a helicopter ride over the entire city of London. When he returned home, he pulled out a pen and paper. Within three hours, he had drawn an intricate landscape of the entire city, showing every single building, street, and car that he had spotted from the air. Watch an amazing demonstration of his talents here.

The Brain Man.

Finally, allow us to introduce you to Daniel Tammett, otherwise known as the “Brain Man.” Tammett, who has a mild form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome, first came to worldwide prominence on March 14th, 2004 – otherwise known as Pi Day (3/14). To raise money for an epilepsy foundation, Tammett spent five straight hours reciting the numeric value of pi to the 22,514th decimal place, all from memory. Tammett, an epileptic, had picked up his remarkable memorization skills after a series of seizures as a child; he is one of the world’s few “acquired savants,” whose skills were sparked by some sort of brain injury or damage.

Ever since his childhood seizures, Tammett has been obsessed with numbers – his mathematics skills are prodigious. When asked to calculate 37 raised to the fourth power, he gave the correct answer within less than a minute. Tammett also has remarkable language skills, and learned the entire Icelandic language within a mere week.

These days, Tammett is sharing his skills with others, offering online tutoring courses in languages, math, and English at his website. To learn more about this ultra-intelligent young man, check out the amazing documentary about him, The Boy with the Incredible Brain, or read his memoir, Born on a Blue Day.

Originally published November 2007; updated February 2011

Filed under: Features, General Interest, Health and Wellbeing, Science,

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