Kim Peek – the Real Rainman Essay Example

to discover that Kim had learned to read by the age of two. While this was not a formal neuropsychological assessment, it was plain that Kim had difficulty following directions. Psychologist Dr. Rita Jeremy Psychologist Dr. Rita Jeremy gives him a standardised intelligence test to see where he stands in relation to the norm.

She discovers that Kim has trouble with tasks that require new thinking and for which he can't call upon facts from his memory. His results are wildly erratic but Dr. Jeremy is philosophical and decides that a standardised test cannot apply as Kim is most definitely not standard. The following day, Neuroradiologist Dr.

Pratik Mukherjee will use Diffusion Tensor Imaging, a ground-breaking way of mapping how the brain functions, to look inside Kim's head. This reveals that the two halves of his brain are not joined in the normal manner, a condition known as agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.The fibres that should have made this connection are travelling in different, peculiar directions. Has the way Kim's brain rewired itself to compensate for the missing Corpus Callosum account for his incredible memory? Next, Professor V. S. Ramachandran wants to test a long-standing theory that savants are not capable of conceptual thinking.

Professor Ramachandran and his students run a number of word association tests which appear to prove that Kim simply accepts words at face value without processing them in any way.He takes metaphors literally. All of which seems to back up the theory. Kim Peek may be the greatest savant we have ever known, he is certainly the best known and more than entitled to be referred to as a mega-savant.

He can

recall thousands of zip codes, phone codes, dates and countless facts and figures. He has a truly awesome memory. Is he autistic? Probably, but like Daniel Tammett, not in the conventional sense. He was originally diagnosed with autism but this was later changed.