In early November 1951, Kim Peek was born, a boy with macrocephaly and brain damage. Before he was one year old, pediatricians told his parents that his developmental delay was so severe that he would never walk or talk, and they recommended institutionalization. When he was six, another doctor suggested a lobotomy.
Despite these dire predictions, the truth is that Kim, at the age of seven, was walking and had been able to memorize the first eight volumes of an encyclopedia.
Eight years later, he had already completed his high school courses and spent most of his time memorizing books in the library of Salt Lake City, the city where he lived.
Peek suffered from agenesis of the corpus callosum and anterior cerebral commissure, leaving his cerebral hemispheres unconnected. This anatomical disorder allowed him to read more than 12,000 books—he was able to read two pages at a time—and remember them all.
His life was brought to the big screen in the film "Rain Man," which won four Oscars, one for Best Leading Actor, Dustin Hoffman, and another for Best Original Screenplay, Barry Morrow. It is said that the screenwriter gave his Oscar to Peek, who always carried it with him in his public appearances until his death.
In 2008, a group of scientists concluded that Peek may not have suffered from autism, as was previously believed, but rather from a genetic disorder called FG - first identified in 1974 - caused by an abnormality in the X chromosome.
The 'Google man'
One of the greatest mysteries of our body is those 1,300 grams of mass we call the brain. We store our experiences in it, like a trunk.
For most of us, that suitcase is cluttered, with scrapbook clippings, faded photographs, crumpled sheets of paper, out-of-tune sheet music... no matter how much we like to cling to our past, the passage of time blurs our memories.
However, there are some people who have hypertrophied neuronal plasticity that allows them to store all their memories with great clarity and accuracy. In 2000, this type of cognitive abnormality was dubbed "highly superior autobiographical memory" (HSAM) or, simply, hyperthymesia.
People with hyperthymesia have an 'egocentric' memory, as they are able to recall their autobiographical details in extraordinary detail; however, they are not able to recall impersonal information, such as the list of Gothic kings, better than other people.
Furthermore, this disorder is a poisoned gift, because the accuracy of memories is both for good and unpleasant situations.
One of the most internationally known cases is that of Brad Williams. His prodigious memory has been challenged on numerous television programs, always emerging victorious, earning him the title of 'Google Man'.
Life reduced to nine seconds
In 1985, a British conductor named Clive Wearing suffered from cerebral encephalitis as a result of a herpes virus infection. Despite the serious nature of the condition, he managed to recover and thrive, albeit with a terrible aftereffect: a lesion in the hippocampus, the region responsible for storing memories.
Since then, his memory capacity has been reduced to just nine seconds. Wearing is unable to watch a movie, read a book, or maintain a simple conversation. He can only remember his name, his wife's name, and his children's names, but he can't even remember his own name.
Furthermore, amnesia affects both the ability to remember events prior to the illness (retrograde amnesia) and the ability to remember new events (anterograde amnesia). Finally, and even more fascinating, he is able to play the piano, despite not being aware of his musical knowledge.
Finally, we're left with one of Mario Benedetti's most memorable quotes: "Five minutes are enough to dream a lifetime."
M. Jara
Pedro Gargantilla is an internist at the El Escorial Hospital (Madrid) and author of several popular books.