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#1 2004-11-08 10:39:29

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: "Rain Man's Brain" Kim Peek

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … n_man]NASA studying autistic savant's brain (remember the 1988 film?)

Not only are Peek's brain and his abilities unique, noted Richard D. Boyle, director of the California center performing the scans, but that he seems to be getting smarter in his specialty areas as he ages is unexpected.

scientists are studying autistic savant Kim Peek, hoping that technology used to study --->the effects of space travel on the brain<--- will help explain his mental capabilities...undergo a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, the results of which will be melded to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure.

*That is so fascinating.  I worked once with a man -- then probably in his late 50s -- who was an autistic savant.  He knew where EVERY medical chart was in the Medical Records Department (we transcribers sometimes had to pull a chart to verify dictated information, especially as discrepancies went)...he knew when a chart had been checked out, to whom, when it was due for return.  He knew precisely in what stack of records a particular chart was.  He went around whispering to himself all day long and could only make eye contact and communicate when spoken directly to.  Then he'd raise his voice to normal conversational level and tell you where such-and-such was, or lead you to it.  Then it was back to his own private world of facts and numbers.  He was amazing.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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