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."

Smarter or more knowlegeable?

[RealAlaskan]

... he apparently is getting smarter in his specialty areas as he gets older.

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.

Re:Pork

[Anonymous Coward]

First we'll talk about what percentage of NASA's work goes directly into defense. Then we can attack their potentially constructive research.

so, where's the beef

[ch-chuck]

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?

Re:NASA should keep the study "top secret".

[MindStalker]

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.

Well no wonder then

[wombatmobile]

.

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?

Re:Kim Peek not autistic, just a savant

[stratjakt]

No, its a warm fuzzy term that lets social workers feel better about themselves. "No, his development is just delayed" which implies that eventually they will "catch up".

It's even used for degenerative diseases where they know the condition will only worsen.

PC language is all about making the speaker feel better about themselves, it has nothing to do with the audience. Like my "african american" sample.

You could have the midnset of the grand wizard of the KKK but so long as you use terms like "african american" instead of "black", or "asian" instead of "oriental", you can happily convince yourself that you arent racist or ignorant.

Re:Geography vs. Spoon location

[budgenator]

both tasks probably are similar when you can do both and are probably very different for Kim who can't. I find I can find things easily when I put them in a physical location, but when my wife moves them and merely tells me where they are I'm unlikly to remember the new location. My guess is if his parents wrote a book "where things are" and always put things in their place, Kim would be excellent at telling you where they were kept even down to detailed directions to get them, yet would still be unable to get them himself.

Re:Geography vs. Spoon location

[Blitzenn]

Should this surprise anyone? I think not, and yet it seems to. I find that to be most distressing. We can apply rules to how one persons brain functions and how associations work differently for that person. Yet we cannot seem to bring ourselves to apply the same simply rules to our own students in school. Everyones brain does not work the same. Different people remember things based on different methods of association. What works for some, does not work for others. Yet if one student can't 'get it', we send them to the office for being 'bad'. Some people need multiple points of association to remember one thing, some need one point to rememeber many things. The later is typically an 'autistic' trait because the knowledge is locked behind a string of associations that can appear as not having anything to do with each other. Yet as in the case of Kim Peek, he has a whole different method for recalling these associations based on a completely different method of retrieval. Shame on our educators for STILL trying to force people into boxes after we have supposedly already 'learned' these lessons from people such as mozart and einstein.

Re:Why don't they...

[Anonymous Coward]

memory capacity does not equate intelligence. that is why these folks are "savants" he can recall everything he reads, but he can't really extrapolate new data from it. that's the issue.

Re:That is fucking unbelievable.

[eloki]

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.