American savant (1951?2009)
Kim Peek
|
---|
Peek in 2007
|
Born
| Laurence Kim Peek
(
1951-11-11
)
November 11, 1951
|
---|
Died
| December 19, 2009
(2009-12-19)
(aged 58)
|
---|
Known for
| Megasavant
|
---|
Parent(s)
| Fran Peek, Leyson
|
---|
Laurence Kim Peek
(November 11, 1951 – December 19, 2009) was an American
savant
. Known as a "megasavant",
[1]
[2]
[3]
he had an
exceptional memory
, but he also experienced social difficulties, possibly resulting from a
developmental disability
related to congenital
brain
abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie
Rain Man
. Although Peek was previously diagnosed with autism, he is now thought to have had
FG syndrome
.
[4]
[5]
The Utah Film Center's Peek Award honors his legacy.
[6]
Early life
[
edit
]
Laurence Kim Peek was born in
Salt Lake City
,
Utah
,
[7]
with
macrocephaly
,
[5]
damage to the
cerebellum
, and
agenesis of the corpus callosum
,
[8]
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.
[5]
There is speculation that his neurons
made unusual connections
due to the absence of a corpus callosum, resulting in an increased memory capacity.
[9]
[10]
According to Peek's father, Fran (Francis) Peek, Kim was able to memorize things from the age of 16?20 months. Peek 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 all his life. He could speed through a book in about an hour and remember 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. Peek read by scanning the left page with his left eye, while reading the right page with his right eye. According to an article in
The Times
newspaper, he could accurately recall the contents of at least 12,000 books.
[7]
Peek lived in
Murray, Utah
, and spent a considerable amount of his time reading at the
Salt Lake City Library
and demonstrating his capabilities at schools, with great help from his father.
[11]
Peek did not walk until he was four years old, and even then in a sidelong manner.
[9]
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 yielded superior ability in the performance sub-tests and limited ability in the verbal sub-tests, leading his overall IQ of 87 not to be considered a valid measure of his cognitive ability.
[12]
In his adult life, Peek attended the
Columbus Center
and earned $40 a week doing payrolls for 86 employees at the
Salt Lake City School District
.
[13]
His father did not fully appreciate Peek's talents until 1979 when Peek correctly predicted that the plummeting
Skylab
space station would land near
Perth, Australia
.
[14]
Rain Man
[
edit
]
In 1984,
screenwriter
Barry Morrow
met Peek in
Arlington, Texas
; the result of the meeting was the 1988
Academy Award
-winning film
Rain Man
. The character of Raymond Babbitt, although inspired by Peek, was depicted as being an individual with
autism
.
Dustin Hoffman
, who portrayed Babbitt in the film, met Peek and other individuals that displayed savant mannerisms, studying their characteristics and nature in order to play the role as accurately as possible. The movie led to a number of requests for appearances, which increased Peek's self-confidence. Barry Morrow gave Peek his
Oscar
statuette to carry with him and show at these appearances; it has since been referred to as the "Most Loved Oscar Statue"
[15]
because it has been held by more people than any other. Peek 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 that day. Peek also appeared on
television
. He traveled with his father, who took care of him and performed many motor tasks that Peek found difficult.
[9]
Scientific investigation
[
edit
]
In 2004, scientists at the Center for Bioinformatics Space Life Sciences at the
NASA
Ames Research Center
examined Peek with a series of tests including
computed tomography
(CT scan) and
magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI). The intent was to create a three-dimensional view of his brain structure and to compare the images to MRI scans performed in 1988. These were the first tentative approaches in using non-invasive technology to further investigate Kim's savant abilities.
[16]
A 2008 study concluded that Peek probably had
FG syndrome
, a rare
X chromosome
-linked genetic syndrome that causes physical anomalies such as
hypotonia
(low muscle tone) and
macrocephaly
(abnormally large head).
[5]
Appearances
[
edit
]
- The Boy with the Incredible Brain
, a
BBC
documentary
- 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
. Archived from
the original
on March 1, 2006.
- World's Smartest People
on
The Learning Channel
- Kim and his father were speakers at the inaugural meeting of the
Athanasius Kircher
Society.
[17]
- 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
- Den Riktiga Rain Man
(
The Real Rain Man
), a Swedish documentary that was aired July 6, 2006 on Sweden's channel four (TV-4)
- Michael Vey 4
Death
[
edit
]
Peek died of a
heart attack
at his home on December 19, 2009, aged 58.
[11]
[15]
Tributes
[
edit
]
Barry Morrow
put his own Oscar statuette on permanent loan to Salt Lake City in memory of Kim Peek and put forward the money for the Peek Award, which "pays tribute to artists, media makers, and film subjects who are positively impacting our society's perception of people with disabilities" and is given out by the Utah Film Center.
[18]
Further reading
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"
'Rain Man' reigns in Casper"
.
Casper Star-Tribune
. March 14, 2003
. Retrieved
July 21,
2009
.
- ^
"About Kim Peek, Megasavant"
.
York Daily Record
. November 4, 1994
. Retrieved
July 21,
2009
.
- ^
"NASA studies mega-savant Peek's brain"
.
USA Today
.
Associated Press
. 2004
. Retrieved
July 21,
2009
.
- ^
Weber B (December 26, 2009).
"Kim Peek, inspiration for 'Rain Man,' dies at 58"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Opitz JM, Smith JF, Santoro L (September 2008). "The FG syndromes (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man 305450): perspective in 2008".
Adv Pediatr
.
55
(1): 123?70.
doi
:
10.1016/j.yapd.2008.07.014
.
PMID
19048730
.
- ^
Roka, Les (March 20, 2018).
"Utah Film Center's 7th Peek Award honors Dina, Sundance award-winning documentary | The Utah Review"
.
- ^
a
b
"Kim Peek: savant who was the inspiration for the film Rain Man"
.
The Times
. December 23, 2009
. Retrieved
December 23,
2009
.
- ^
"The Real Rain Man", documentary by Focus Productions, Bristol, England, UK, 2006.
- ^
a
b
c
"Savant Syndrome"
. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007
. Retrieved
November 9,
2004
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link
)
Wisconsin Medical Society.
- ^
"Kim Peek - The Real Rain Man"
.
Wisconsin Medical Society
. Archived from
the original
on September 16, 2008.
- ^
a
b
Stephenson, Kathy.
"Kim Peek, Murray man who inspired 'Rain Man', dies"
Archived
May 12, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
,
The Salt Lake Tribune
. December 22, 2009.
- ^
Darold A. Treffert; Daniel D. Christensen (December 23, 2009).
"Inside the Mind of a Savant"
.
Scientific American
. Archived from
the original
on January 29, 2014.
- ^
Sisco, Carol (February 6, 1989).
"Impressive Plea From Utah's 'Rain Man'?"
.
The Salt Lake Tribune
. p. 8
. Retrieved
August 7,
2023
.
- ^
Amster, Sara-Ellen (May 4, 1991).
"Real 'Rain Man' stuns Dover audience"
.
The News Journal
. p. 3
. Retrieved
August 7,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Weber, Bruce (December 27, 2009).
"Kim Peek, Inspiration for 'Rain Man,' Dies at 58"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
"NASA Studying 'Rain Man's' Brain"
.
Space.com
.
Associated Press
. November 8, 2004.
- ^
"Video from Kircher Society extravaganza"
. February 20, 2007.
- ^
"Peek Award: DINA - Utah Film Center"
. Archived from
the original
on February 20, 2019
. Retrieved
March 26,
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikiquote has quotations related to
Kim Peek
.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Kim Peek
.