Kim Peek
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Kim Peek (b. 1951) is a U.S. savant and inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit in the movie Rain Man. He has an eidetic memory.
Kim Peek was born November 11 1951 with an enlarged head and missing corpus callosum, the connecting tissue between the brain hemispheres, damage to the cerebellum and no anterior commissure.
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Peek has worked at a day workshop for adults with disabilities since 1969. Peek has memorized an astonishing amount of information from 15 grand subjects ranging from history and literature, geography and numbers, to sports, music and dates. He can recall some 9600 books from memory.
Peek can also do calculations in his head; in his day job he has prepared information from worksheets for paychecks.
In 1984, director Barry Morrow met Peek in Arlington, Texas; the result of the meeting was the 1988 movie Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman met Peek, as well as other autistic savants, to get better authenticity for the character. The movie also caused a number of requests for appearances that have increased Peek's self-confidence. Peek has also appeared on television. He travels with his father.
In 2004, NASA scientists submitted him to a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. They were attempting to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure. They wanted to compare the images to MRI scans done in 1988.
External links
- Kim Peek-The Real Rain Man (http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/kimpeek.cfm) - Wisconsin Medical Society
- NASA Studying 'Rain Man's' Brain (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/nasa_peek_041108.html) - space.com
- 2004 news article (http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/10047461.htm) from one of the stops on their national tour
References
- Portions of the text are the work of the Wisconsin Medical Society and Darold A. Treffert, M.D.[1] (http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/kimpeek.cfm)
Further Reading
- Fran Peek - The Real Rain Man (1997) ISBN 0965116301de:Kim Peek