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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."
But he also is severely limited in other ways, like not being able to find the silverware drawer at home or dressing himself.
What's his
Trolling is a art,
While definitely a "savant", Kim Peek is not behaviorally autistic; Rain Man's character was modified to be an autistic savant. (Autism, like many disorders, is merely a set of diagnostic criteria, and Kim may share some in common with classic autism. However, some critical benchmarks for autism are not shared, making Kim not strictly "autistic".)
The above article and the brief wikipedia story are very interesting reads. For example, did you know that Kim was born with "an enlarged head and missing corpus callosum, the connecting tissue between the brain hemispheres, damage to the cerebellum and no anterior commissure"?
Can we make a beowulf cluster of him?
Maybe NASA is too lazy to count stars in Hubble images for density studies, and hope this dude can do it in one shot.
Table-ized A.I.
Maybe he could give Ken a run for his money. Also, I'd love to see some "rain man" style banter with Alex as an alternative to the usual tepid small talk.
I welcome our new autistic all-knowing overlords.
"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
Smarter or more knowlegeable? If he maintains his fascination in those areas, why would we imagine that he wouldn't gain knowlege?
Smarter would mean something like ``better able to reason with a given set of information.''
Since the article is on CNN, I suppose that we shouldn't expect any sort of detail or sense, and not much fact, either.
See what I've been reading.
Be your own savant for a little while... with magnets. Really! Maybe.
Dumper than average?
Dump chimp?
You fail English? That's unpossible!
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.
So... where is this guy? I want to take him to the casinos. Two for good, one for bad. :)
Definately a waste of money. Big waste. yeah.
= Grow a brain...
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).
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.
"I think it would be extremely naive of us, Mr. President, to imagine that these new developments are going to cause any change in Chinese savant-expansionist policy. I mean, we must be... increasingly on the alert to prevent them from taking over other savant technology, in order to create savants more prodigiously than we do, thus, knocking us out with superior savants!
Mr. President, we must not allow... a mega-savant gap!"
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ok, what does the mri show about his brain that's different than Mr. Normal Person? Are there different neuron interconnections, higher density, what? Any clue as to how his memory works?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I know I shouldn't respond to this troll. But I personally know many chinese, and can tell you they are not morally bankrupt.
Upon questioning them about Tibet, it is obviously apparant that their government has severily altered the truth. Basically the offical line is that the Tibetians (spelling?) are poor and need Chinas help. Tibet is basically viewed as a welfare state by the rest of China. Many Chinese only want Tibet to be part of their country because they feel compasion and want to help them.
Sadly I could not convense the chinese I talked to that Tibet was anything different, as they assumed that different views were lies by the Western Media. Oh well. Now the Chinese Government being morally corrupt, I could definatly agree. But, I would not be so quick to assume that the civilians are such.
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.
--
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
That's dates as in "When was Christopher Columbus born" not "Take me in your strong arms and make passionate love to me"?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
After all he is an excellent driver!
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." -- Ambrose Bierce
.
Kim was born with "an enlarged head and missing corpus callosum, the connecting tissue between the brain hemispheres, damage to the cerebellum and no anterior commissure"?
No wonder he can't find the silverware drawer at home. That requires coordination of the parietal lobe via the corpus callosum.
No wonder he can't dress himself, that requires a cerebellum for detailed motor movements.
Now what can he do, this modern day human with a massive conjoined cortical apparatus?
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)
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 ?
Kim Peek Versus Ken Jennings on Jepordy.... Wow that would be an episode to remember. Put that on prime time.
Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
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)
I remember watching a documentary or two about autism and something that was repeatedly found was that as an autistic individual tried to remedy their problems with autism (usually getting better with age) their savant like knowledge began to deteriorate. I have always thought that there is almost a finite amount of brain capacity any one individual is able to have. Meaning, while a savant is able to have incredible knowledge of some things, their brain is so devoted to that knowledge that things, like knowing where the silverwear drawer is, get sacrificed. Specifically, I think that the autistic savant's brain begins to lose the amount of speicfic knowledge in their savant areas as they are adapting to a more social lifestyle and expanding the functionality of their brain. (Others have pointed out that Kim doesn't lack the social skills to be considered classically autistic. However I feel that this explaination may still be able to apply to some degree.)
What I'm curious about, it while he may be a walking encyclopedia of fact, how good is he at reasoning?
I know more about intelligence and working memory than autism in general and autistic savants in particular.
However, there is one absolutely fascinating case -- Temple Grandin. She is autistic, but incredibly high functioning. She has a Ph.D and is a leader in animal ethonology. This sounds like a bullshit field, but here's the payoff: she's the world's leading designer of livestock handling equipment. Meating processing plants are pretty inhumane places. She designs the part where the livestock are unloaded from trains and trucks, penned up, and then ushered to the place where the killing happens. Her designs somehow put the animals at ease. I know, I know, it sounds weird. She somehow has high empathy for the beasts, which is especially impressive given that autistics often have profound problems negotiating even trivial social situations.
I don't know about Kim Peek, but I would classify Grandin as a designer of the highest caliber. I encourage you to spend some time learning about her. Just Google for "Temple Grandin Autism" and you'll be on your way.
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.
Or corrupt prophets trying to put words in the mouth of God, or Lot's daughters getting him stone drunk and sleeping with him, or Moses murdering the Egyptian man, or David abusing his position as King to get a woman to sleep with him when her husband was away (and then getting her husband killed when he was in danger of being found out).
I'm not sure it's the best comparison to make the point you're making, though. The thing to realize is that an awful lot of these things weren't even acceptable in the culture of the day, either. Someone being mentioned in the Bible doesn't automatically constitute an endorsement of their behavior; very often these Old Testament things are in part cautionary tales, going on to show that the same people invariably suffered the consequences of their actions. Even when occasionally the original author of a section does appear to have approved, the consequences are still plain for later readers to see.
Even the polygamy of some Old Testament figures (which was quite acceptable in the culture of their own times) were shown to have adverse consequences for them, their wives, and their descendants. Abraham's experiment in polygamy established two rival claims to the middle east by descendants of his two children; Ishmael (ancestor of the Arab people) and Isaac (ancestor of the Jewish people). With Jacob, in turn, his wives and family suffered as he invariably played favorites and bitter rivalries developed. With that and other examples it's little wonder the Jewish tradition gradually realized polygamy might be a bad idea. The culture permitted David a lot more leeway as King in that regard, but reading the whole store you're left with the sense that perhaps it shouldn't have.
As for Noah.. I guess that mostly just comes down to a rather embarassing family memory and a lesson in responsible drinking. Just imagine coming home from a night out with your brothers to find your centenarian father passed out drunk and naked in the middle of the tent. Or don't. Not the best mental image. :P Probably everybody laid off the alcohol for a while after that one.
These were the stories of the people and situations from which "today's moral values," to the extent that they have "Judeo-Christian" roots, ultimately emerged. "Today's moral values" in that sense are probably closer to "lessons learned".
I think it is an attempt to suggest a notion of morality that doesn't depend on a single culture's ideals. These folks did screw up, whether or not their actions were culturally acceptable to their contemporaries. They hurt themselves, and they hurt other people. But there is another point also; the God described is one that was still willing to deal with them, if they were willing repent and deal with Him. More than caution, it does try to offer some hope, too.
DNA just wants to be free...
The 53-year-old Peek is called a "mega-savant" because he is a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates.
Wow! Slashdotters, this guy could probably help us out with the girls!
I'm surprised nobody has said this yet. We just have this guy count all the votes!
-chris
San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
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?
MindStalker says that he has told many Chinese folks what the real situation in Tibet is. Despite knowing the facts, the Chinese still support Beijing's policy of occupation and suppression in Tibet.
OK, let's swap the situation around. A Chinese person tells you that the real reason the USA gives aid to Mexico is because they do military research there and keep many underground missile bases in the Mexican desert. Naturally, because you're being told this by a foreigner, who reads their own media about your country, you believe them wholeheartedly. Right?
I apologise for the example, if you are not an American. But I think it's ridiculous to insist that someone in another country believe what others say is happening in their country, as if it's morally bankrupt not to do so. Not saying they can't or shouldn't believe what someone told them about Tibet, but you simply have to put yourself in that position, as I have suggested above - would you believe everything a foreigner told you about your government? I bet you'd do exactly what the Chinese person has done - nothing.
"But he also is severely limited in other ways, like not being able to find the silverware drawer at home or dressing himself."
So, apparently he has exceptional abilities ONLY in things which are interesting.
And everything else, someone else has to do it for him.
How conveeeeeeeenient...
Slickest scam I've ever seen.