QUick Facts Born: November 11, 1951 Birthplace: Salt Lake City, UT Age: 53 Condition: Autistic Savant Occupation: Activist " Not behaviourally autistic.  He has warm, loving personality"

About Kim Peek

Kim Peek was born November 11th, 1951, to Jeanne and Fran Peek. His family also consists of a brother Brian and a sister Alison. Since his parents divorce in 1981, Kim has been raised by, and continues to live with, his father Fran. At birth, the doctors discovered that Kim was born with a encephalocele, which is a congenital condition characterized by a herniation of the brain through a fissure in the skull. A later MRI also showed that Kim was born without a corpus callosum (the connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres of the brain) as well as an absent anterior commisure, and damage to the cerebellum. When Kim was 6, he (and father Fran) were extended the offer by brain surgeon Peter Lindstrom to have a labotomy to make him easier to institutionalise - they refused.   (Kim and his father Fran)

His Condition

Kim Peek is what is known as an "Autistic Savant". The term is used to describe people who not only have autism, but an extraodinary abilty beyond what is normal for a human; however, not all savants are autistic and not all autistic persons are savants.First off, autism is a relatively permanent brain disorder that affects a person's cognitive development. Specifically, autism affects a person's communication, social interaction, and creative skills. A savant is a person with a rare condition that occurs in approxiamtly 10% of autistic cases. Savant syndrome, which can either be congenital or acquired, causes a person to have exceptional abilities in a wide range of skills. Although all savant patients differ in their abilities, the typical savant's skills lie in one or more of the following five categories: music, art, lightning calculating or other mathematical skills, calendar calculating and mechanical/spatial skills. To learn more about savant syndrome, click here.

Kim's Amazing Talents

At the tender age of 16 months, Kim was able to memorize every book read to him (to date he has read and memorized over 9000 books), and yet still didn't learn how to walk til the age of 4. Thanks in part to his amazing memory skills, Kim was able to complete secondary school (highschool) by the time he turned 14. Over the years, Kim's exceptional skills have developped and he is widely known for his abilities in:

- History
- Geography (roads & highways in US & Canada)
- Sports (baseball, basketballl & football-professional)
- Movies (themes, actresses, actors etc..)
- The Bible
- The calendar calculations (person's day of birth, present year birthday, as well as the year and date person will turn 65 & can retire)
- Literature
- Telephone area cotes/zipcodes

And these are just to name a few! Another unique talent of Kim's is the ability to read two pages of literature simultaneously with a 98% rentention rate. But despite his abilities to retain vast amounts of knowledge in at least 14 subjects, at the age of 53, Kim still has trouble getting dressed, brushing his teeth and  other daily activities. 

HOW HIS MEMORY WORKS

Kim Peek’s brain is structurally different from a normal brain, possibly contributing to his extreme abilities. It has been proposed by scientists that because his two cerebral hemispheres are connected that they form a single, large “data storage” area. This may explain his extreme abilities in about 15 different areas. He is also limited in a number of ways. According to his father Fran, he doesn’t do simple things well. For example, he has trouble dressing himself, figuring out a light-switch, and if you were to ask him where the silverware is kept, he might not know. His motor abilities lagged far behind those of his peers and he didn’t walk until age 4.

The Inspiration

Kim Peek's fame first occured with the release of a movie called Rain Man, in which Kim was the inspiration for Dustin Hofman's character Raymond Babbit. The screen writer for the movie, Barry Morrow, was doing research for a television movie he was creating when he first met Kim Peek. Inspired by his amazing memory abilities, Morrow developped a story about an autistic man (Dustin Hoffman), who after the death of his estranged father, meets his long-lost brother (played by Tom Cruise) who attempts to swindle him out of his inheritence. To prepare for his character, Dustin Hoffman met with Kim Peeks to learn his idiosynchrises as well as his amazing talents. In fact, Hoffman started his Oscar exception speech for best actor by thanking Kim Peek and his father. Although Kim was the initial inspiration for the movie, Dustin Hoffman's character is actually a mixture of several different autistic savants' abilities. Since the release of Rain Man over 16 years ago, Kim Peek's fame continues with appearances on such programs as 20/20 and Good Morning America.

Where Is He Now?

Before the release of the movie Rain Man, Kim Peek was a virtual unknown. Now, thanks to the movie's lasting success, Kim Peek has been able to travel the country displaying his many talents - all the while bringing more awareness and acceptance of both autism and savant syndrome. Not only is Kim working as an activist, he is also heavily involved as a subject of scientific studies. Currently, Kim is part of study done by Nasa in hopes to make a brain map to unlock such things as motion sickness, vertigo, memory and brain cell renewal.  Nasa wants to track electrical impulses of Kim's brain hoping to give insight into the synapses and how they adjust to forces such as acceleration to gravity. It is their hopes that Kim's unique condition will help them develop methods for trying to keep astronauts healthy. 

(Kim undergoing an MRI)