Name↕ | Born↕ | Country↕ | Savant Skill↕ | Famous Feat↕ | Notes↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kim Peek | 1951 | United States | Eidetic memory | Memorized roughly 12,000 books; could read two pages simultaneously (one per eye) | Inspiration for the film Rain Man; not actually autistic but a mega-savant |
Stephen Wiltshire | 1974 | United Kingdom | Architectural drawing from memory | Drew a detailed 18-foot panorama of Tokyo from memory after a single helicopter ride | MBE recipient; mute until age five |
Daniel Tammet | 1979 | United Kingdom | Mathematics and languages | Recited pi to 22,514 digits; learned conversational Icelandic in one week on TV | Experiences synesthesia; author of Born on a Blue Day |
Derek Paravicini | 1979 | United Kingdom | Piano / perfect pitch | Can play any piece after hearing it once in any key requested | Blind from birth, severe learning disabilities; classical and jazz performer |
Leslie Lemke | 1952 | United States | Piano by ear | At 14, played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 flawlessly after hearing it once on TV | Blind, with cerebral palsy and severe developmental disability |
Tony DeBlois | 1974 | United States | Multi-instrumental music | Plays 20+ instruments and has memorized over 8,000 songs | Blind, autistic, Berklee College of Music graduate |
Temple Grandin | 1947 | United States | Visual thinking / animal behavior | Designed humane livestock handling systems used in roughly half of North American cattle facilities | Professor of animal science, prominent autism spokesperson |
Alonzo Clemons | 1958 | United States | Clay sculpture | Sculpts anatomically perfect animal figures in minutes after a single glance | Suffered brain injury as a toddler; IQ estimated around 40 |
Jerry Newport | 1948 | United States | Mental calculation | Rapid factoring of large numbers and date calculations | Co-founded Asperger's support group AGUA; inspiration for the film Mozart and the Whale |
Jason Padgett | 1971 | United States | Mathematical fractals (acquired) | Became a math savant after a brain injury during a mugging in 2002 | Draws complex fractals by hand; one of the few documented acquired savants |
George Finn | 1953 | United States | Calendar calculation | Can name the day of the week for any date across thousands of years | Featured in documentaries on savant syndrome |
Matt Savage | 1992 | United States | Jazz piano composition | Released his first jazz album at age 8; played with Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis as a child | Originally unable to tolerate musical sounds until age 6 |
Richard Wawro | 1952 | Scotland | Crayon drawing | Produced detailed landscapes entirely in oil crayon, exhibited worldwide | Collectors include Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher |
Flo and Kay Lyman | 1958 | United States | Calendar memory | Identical twin autistic savants who recall the weather and events of every day of their lives | Only known pair of female autistic savant twins |
Ellen Boudreaux | 1957 | United States | Music and time | Can sing thousands of songs after a single hearing and always knows the exact time without a clock | Blind, navigates by echolocation-like clicking |
Gottfried Mind | 1768 | Switzerland | Animal painting | Known as the Cat Raphael for his extraordinarily lifelike cat paintings | One of the earliest historically documented savants |
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