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Kim Peek, aka Rain Man Focus of NASA Study
Bob Vila's Hammer writes "Kim Peek - an autistic man who has been deemed a "mega-savant" for his astonishing knowledge of 15 grand subjects ranging from history and literature, geography and numbers, to sports, music and dates - is a part of a new NASA study to explore the changes in his brain since MRI images were originally taken in 1988. Not only was he the basis of the main character in the movie Rain Man, but he apparently is getting smarter in his specialty areas as he gets older. The study has scientists hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain will help explain his mental capabilities."
"The goal is to measure what happens in Kim's brain when he expresses things and when he thinks about them."
Personally I'd be curious to look at the difference in his brain activity when he is dealing with one of his specialities as opposed to when he is trying to find a spoon.
vampirical
Be your own savant for a little while... with magnets. Really! Maybe.
As an interesting side note, both Ken Jenning and Kim Peek are Mormon. In fact, Mormon doctrine is one of the subjects that Kim has mastered in mind-dumbing detail.
Seriously, why is this being done by NASA? This is a neat thing happening with this guy but don't we have dozens of people who've actually been in space for extended periods of time? Why aren't CAT scans of them enough?
I can't see how this has any practical relevance to the space program from the viewpoint of manned space (we have more than enough data on that front) or unmanned where this is completely unrelated.
What ever happened to NASA being the Aeronautics and Space administration. Wasn't the VSE supposed to put the kibosh on all this science fair side issue stuff? Shouldn't this be relegated to some university psych program with a government grant?
Blaze a trail to the New World
According to the following link, Kim Peek is not autistic, he's just a savant:
i mp eek.cfm
http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/k
Along the way to its completion, the original script for the movie Rain Man underwent a number of modifications. While Kim Peek served as the initial inspiration for the story, Raymond Babbitt, as portrayed so admirably by Dustin Hoffman, is a composite savant with abilities drawn from a number of different real life individuals. The main character in that movie, Raymond Babbitt, was modified to be an autistic savant. The story thus is that of a person who is autistic but also has savant skills grafted on to that basic autistic disorder. It is important to remember, therefore, that not all autistic persons are savants, and not all savants are autistic. In preparation for his role, Dustin Hoffman spent time with several other autistic savants and their families, as well as with Kim.
Fran Peek describes his son this way: "Kim is not behaviorally autistic. He has a warm, loving personality. He truly cares for people and enjoys sharing his unique skills and knowledge capacity.
It is important to distringuish that Kim Peek does not demonstrate the disassociation portrayed in the Rain Man movie.
In fact, Kim Peek (along with his dad, Fran) spends a lot of time doing "charity work" with elderly people.
Supposedly, he's quite a nice guy to talk to, if a bit mentally retarded (or whatever the proper term is these days).
More knowledgable certainly, but entirely possible to be smarter as well. With his amazing accumulation of knowledge, if he is able to reason and answer questions as quickly as he used to, then one must assume he is also getting smarter because indexing and sorting much more data in the same amount of time would represent a large increase in performance.
Man, I had a hard time typing like that, I detest discussing someone as if they were a machine, but I could think of no better way to make my point.
This is not a sig.
Yes, I've seen some references to that as well...but he's still missing the specific connection structures a normal brain has between the hemispheres. Apparently they are connected in other ways (or are simply one "piece")? One would imagine that's part of what the NASA researchers will be looking into more thoroughly.
It may be valuable, though, to have a better understanding of how the brain processes such specialized information, especially for those who are autistic. Treatments (where they exist) tend to be haphazard experiments on the patient, with very little information on why some treatments work in some cases, others work in others, and no treatments work at all in yet others.
Nor is it clear that everything in the "autistic spectrum" is biologically (rather than symptomatically) related. If they are unrelated, it would go a long way to explaining why the effects of medication are so unpredictable.
As far as I can tell, very little of the mechanics of autism has been researched. The cause is uncertain, though likely to have a genetic component. What that component is, and how significant it is, seems to be completely unknown. There may be environmental factors (MMR vaccines have been looked at with suspicion, for example), but that too is so uncertain as to be mere whistling in the dark.
The NASA research is unlikely to answer any of these questions, but may provide some clues as to how to get answers in future, and hopefully will inspire researchers to actually do the basic research needed.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Probably not. Jennings has made it as far as he has because he knows a little bit about seemingly everything, whereas Peek effectively knows everything about a narrow set of fifteen subjects. Jeopardy covers a wide set of subjects in each game (sixteen categories per show, usually one or two of which is a sort of grab bag where all the answers have an O in them or something, but cover completely unrelated topics), with relatively little repeat subjects from show to show. Somebody with a lot of knowledge about a few subjects can win one or two shows if the topics go their way, but they'll lose in the long run because the topics change dramatically.
Smarter or more knowlegeable?
Depends how you define "smart". If you equate it with "intelligence" as studied by psychometricians, then it is common to distinguish two forms.
If he maintains his fascination in those areas, why would we imagine that he wouldn't gain knowlege?
"Crystallized" intelligence is roughly speaking the amount of knowledge you have. You're right, this should increase with age, or more generally with experience.
Smarter would mean something like ``better able to reason with a given set of information.''
"Fluid" intelligence is roughly speaking the flexibility of thinking, and is measured by having people solve novel problems that don't depend (much) on prior knowledge, culture background, etc. The canonical example is Ravens Progressive Matrices test.
It's fluid intelligence that you're thinking of, and that I think of too, when the word "intelligence" or "smarts" is used. Fluid intelligence is correlated with things like working memory capacity: how much information you can store and process at the same time -- roughly your "cognitive throughput".
In general, crystallized intelligence increases (or can increase) with age/experience. However, fluid intelligence (and related constructs such as working memory capacity) actually declines in the elderly.
The two forms of intelligence are likely subserved by different cortical networks in the brain -- and this is probably relevant given that the article mentions the use of MRI -- but this is the subject of another post!
Interesting that he can describe driving directions and specific geography but can't apply the same skills to locating the silverware - they seem like very similar tasks.
I find it increasingly distrubing that the level of racist remarks on /. has increased of late.
/. does have a history of really mind-numbing trolls, but this is just overt racism, and in no way acceptable.
I realize that not everyone has the capacity for expressing their xenophobic tendencies in hopes to confront and thereby conquering them. But there are some who feel this is funny/mind-fsck'n, and is 'ok' for them.
--
That is often said, but it just isn't true anymore. The massively deficient and elevated levels of metals in the bodies of autistics is well documented. An autistic has an array of known biochemistry and physiological symptoms. About 99% of cases of autism appear to be caused by heavy metal poisoning insulting the development or function of the brain (there is a perfect overlap between the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning and autism -- because they are the same thing). Some parents are now managing to fully de-autistify their children by chelating mercury and lead. There can be other causes, but they're rare.
Oh, the MMR vaccine does not cause autism. It might've had a minor negative effect in some individuals that were already going to become autistic though. Apart from some very rare reactions, it seems very doubtful that vaccines cause autism. Although it does seem to me that the heavy metal and other chemical preservatives used in many vaccines may have encouraged the development of autism in vulnerable individuals.
I don't believe there's anything to suggest that an increase in the amount of knowledge a person holds has any correlation to how long it takes him to index and sort that information. I think you've ascribed a machine limitation to a human, which might not be the case.
Hmm, now that I think about that, perhaps this man's brain holds the key to the NP-complete question.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
The most interesting part of the session was the question and answer portion at the end. For about 30 - 45 minutes Kim fielded various "trivia" questions from the audience. They ranged from obscure baseball facts from 50 years ago, to a student standing up, stating his name and hometown and asking for his address and phone number. No-one succeeded in stumping Peek.
Peek's visit was certainly one of two most interesting speakers to visit my college while I was there. (the other would be Desmond Tutu)
I heard stories (from my highschool science teacher) about people who've had the connecting tissue between brain hemispheres separated surgically. Apparently the left side of the body and the right side of the body act independently from each other. The right arm would try to do something and the left arm would stop it, etc.
Why don't they put in in a room with ALL the available data on HIS condition (autism), let him make autism his latest subject to be a "mega-savant" about; then ASK HIM ABOUT HIS OWN CONDITION ?
If autism were caused by lead poisoning, it would affect males and females equally, it doesn't. Males have it 6 x more frequently than females. The prevailing theory is that testosterone, which is neurotoxic, affects the left side of the developing fetuses brain, (the left side developes more slowly). There is more to than this such as migrating purkinje cells etc. that I can't go into right now.
Failing that, check autism.about.com for links to sites detailing therapies involving heavy metal detox. Autism Today also has some stuff on the subject.
I see nothing from the "major" medical and psychiatric sites, though. Most of the stuff seems to be from "alternative" medical sites. Now, that doesn't make it incorrect - medical sites are notoriously slow at picking up new ideas. (The recommended practices for preventing the spread of SARS were largely the recommended practices from Florence Nightingale's medical text!)
On the flip-side, it does mean that it's not necessarily clinically proven. For example, Oregon has some severely contaminated rivers, especially mercury contamination, but it's not known as a hot-spot for autism the way California is.
I'd like to see some peer-reviewed research on this. (Particularly if there's anything that could mean I can quit the damn meds for Aspergers. That stuff's not cheap!) But I'm not risking what's left of my brain on unproven guesswork.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Try this:r ypoison .htm
http://tlredwood.home.mindspring.com/mercu
Part of the reason why California is a hot spot for autism is because of the large number of scientists and I.T. workers that have moved there. These fields are full of autistics, so they're far more likely to have children that are autistic than the general population, because of their genetic characteristics which make them susceptible.
What do you mean meds for aspergers? If you mean antidepressants, try taking omega 3 supplements. Mercury toxicity trashes the body's ability to convert short to long chain omega 3. Look for fish oil omega 3 (already long chain) and make sure it's refined or from deep sea salmon, or else it'll be full of methylmercury. Chelated selenium is good for autistics too.
If you're autistic, you're almost sure to be allergic to gluten+wheat and milk. The allergic reactions to these cause nutritional deficiencies that help lead to depression.
It's lost on some people, but morality isn't a universal constant (like c) but is influenced by point of view.
The Chinese Government has constantly tolerated and even promoted the mass violation of most product protection laws. As a mainland Chinese why they are burning copies of MS Windows instead of buying it, and they'll look at you as if you've lost your mind. Only when the Government decides that it's no longer in their interest to promote this activity will the moral values of China shift.
But it's not just limited to China. Many Christians should remember that many of the Biblical characters were poligimists (Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, anyone?) and had less than perfect lives (Noah exposing himself in a drunken stupor). But today's moral values don't permit any of this behavior.
Blaming someone about their lack of your moral values makes little sense, especially across culture divides as great as those in the U.S.A. and China.
How much an individual is able to recover from autism depends on how they are autistic. If they're autistic because of brain damage during early development, then that is going to be mostly irreversable. If they're autistic because of an ongoing physical problem, then they may be able to reverse their autistism to a degree, like what I did.
If you're autistic, you're almost sure to be allergic to gluten+wheat and milk.
There are no studies showing this to be the case. All evidence about the effectiveness of gfcf diet are entirely anectodal. I'm sceptical because food alergies are often blamed for unexplained medical conditions. I think people like to attribute things to diet because its something they have some control over.
Thats interesting...I have a scarily good long term memory (I'm talking entire conversations from years ago, huge amounts of facts as well as pointless trivia, etc.), but I can't for the life of me do anything that involves moving my limbs too independantly, (i.e. even to begin to play instruments like guitars and drums). Maybe I just have slightly better connection between my hemispheres which increases memory ability at a detriment to motor skills.
Then again, there's a fairly good chance everything is coincidence. Still though, an interesting thing to muse over.
Boo.
I guess the bottom line is that scientists are only now getting round to doing an fMRI (the continuous form of an MRI) on someone who is somewhere in the autistic spectrum, for the purpose of identifying autistic-related phenomina in the brain.
Ok, fMRI hasn't been around that long, but autism is hardly the rarest of neurological complaints. Nor is fMRI the only diagnostic tool. I'd have expected an assortment of tracers and conventional MRIs to have been used, because that is such a standard procedure. Then there are CAT scans and your average, domesticated EEG.
By now, there aught to be some good ideas as to what areas of the brain are abnormally active or suppressed, along with some rudimentary guides on verifying a diagnosis with one or more of the above tools. To the very best of my knowledge, no such guides exist and an understanding of the mechanics of autism is extremely limited.
It should be easy enough to check the heavy metal/autism link, for example. Stockport, England was a heavy center for the manufacture of felt hats in the 1800s and early 1900s. Softening felt used extensive quantities of mercury, and many hatters suffered brain injuries as a result.
(It is interesting to note that Lewis Carrol, of "Alice in Wonderland" fame grew up in Daresbury, which is a village not far from Stockport, although a link between the "Mad Hatter" and the hatters of Stockport is disputed by some Lewis Carrol scholars.)
Mercury, today, is often released into the environment as a result of gold mining techniques. Areas actively mined are often heavily contaminated and the locals often show symptoms of acute mercury poisoning.
So, there aught to be two good tests here. If Stockport in the late 1800s, early 1900s was notorious for people with autistic-like symptoms, AND if those same symptoms are now widespread in areas of Africa and the Amazon that are mined for gold, I think a link would have been pretty much established.
Although there has been quite a bit of research into the effects of mercury on the Stockport population, I've not seen any suggestion of links to autism. However, that might be that nobody looked for such links.
Grrr! I wish there was more information, and more research. The lack of good quality information is (to me) unacceptable in an age where the technology for obtaining information is certainly available.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Couldn't we get him to study the election figures, by county for the last 10 elections and see if he noticed patterns indicating corruption (for instance, if electronic voting has helped any one canidate more than others relative to exit polls)?
He should be able to visualize patterns better than any computer because the program has to be pre-programmed to look for a pattern related to a specific cause, he should see it as easily as we would a peak in a graph.
If only we could get this guy to study neurology or something like it to such detail - maybe he could tell us what makes him so smart?
My wife and I watched a documentary on this condition several years ago. It's been used occassionaly (as an inside joke) to explain away uncalled for lude behavior...usually on my part ;)
^^vv<><>BA