What Is Our Real Potential?

One aspect of the human biocomputer that seems to fascinate us all is theexistence of a small number of people with abnormally competent brains, many of whom are simultaneously beset by underdeveloped brain functions. Throughout medical history, scientists have studied these unusual people, often with great curiosity but with little practical result. Often referred to as idiot savants (from the French for “wise idiot”), or sometimes just as savants, they demonstrate a combination of remarkable information processing capabilities with impaired primary faculties. One such person, Kim Peek, is a savant with a “photographic” or eidetic memory, combined with severe developmental disabilities. Born with an enlarged head, an encephalocele (a protrusion of brain tissue through a fissure in the skull), an impaired cerebellum, and no corpus callosum, he nevertheless displayed remarkable skills in memory and information processing before the age of five. Although he reportedly tests well below average on standardized IQ tests and has difficulty interpreting abstract concepts such as proverbs and metaphors, he far surpasses most “normal” humans on data-processing tasks. Affectionately known by his friends as “Kimputer,” he has reportedly read over seven thousand books—typically finishing a book in about an hour—and can quote extensively from them. He rattles off baseball scores, geographic information, highway maps, Zip codes, calendars, particulars of popular movies, books, historical events, current news events, and the details of classical music. Peek was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman. He holds down a clerical job that enables him to use his mental calculating abilities, and he also travels and speaks about disabilities as he demonstrates his own unusual abilities. As far as I have been able to determine, neuroscientists and psychologists have learned little or nothing from studying these remarkable savants that might be used to help the rest of us “normal” people to use our biocomputers more effectively. The ironic paradox of a person possessed of phenomenal mental skills that we’d all like to have, combined with severe impairments that none of us want, offers a poignant counterpoint to our concept of ordinary “intelligence.” But we can continue to hope, and to strive to understand. In Chapter 10 we’ll explore a number of practical applications of this knowledge of our biocomputer’s operation, particularly hemispheric lateralization, including the concept of thinking styles, which shape the way we perceive, react, listen, learn, decide, and communicate.