Let’s imagine a person who can memorize a page of a book in 10 seconds, who is also capable of memorizing 8,000 books and memorizing all the zip codes of a country as big as the United States. He would have prodigious mental capacities, wouldn’t he?

Well, that person exists, and along with other people we’re going to talk about in this article, he has savant syndrome (or “wise man” syndrome).

The famous savants we will see have extraordinary skills or talents , especially related to the overdevelopment of the right hemisphere: artistic abilities (music, painting, sculpture), visual, mathematical calculations, mechanical and spatial skills, etc.

Examples of famous savants

Although there are probably many famous savants that we will leave to comment, we will make a recapitulation of those that are possibly the best known worldwide . We must clarify that only one savant woman is included in this list, since on an epidemiological level women have this syndrome much less frequently.

1. Kim Peek

He is probably the most famous savant in the world. In fact, the movie Rain Man was made in his memory to publicize the case. Kim Peek possessed an immeasurable memory capacity that enabled him to perfectly remember the nearly 10,000 books he had read (it barely took him an hour to memorize them), as well as memorize all the maps of the United States in detail. In addition, he could use each eye to read a different page. Paradoxically, he was highly dependent on others, as he was not able to take care of himself and needed the help of others for the basic activities of daily life.

As a curious fact, in 2004 NASA became interested in Kim Peek’s case and wanted to study the functioning of her brain and her brain structure through the use of magnetic resonances. Finally, it was concluded that Peek very possibly suffered from a strange genetic syndrome linked to the X chromosome which is related to macrocephaly and hypotonia. In 2009, Kim Peek died of a heart attack.

2. Daniel Tammet

This Briton has become a famous savant because of his great ability to learn multiple languages with amazing ease (he learned Icelandic in just one week and speaks 11 languages, including Spanish), as well as his facility in performing really complex mathematical calculations.

Tammet has acknowledged in his memoirs (Born on a Blue day) that he has Asperger’s, epilepsy and synaesthesia. This character holds the record in Europe for the number Pi , reciting some 22,514 digits in less than five hours.

As a curiosity, Daniel Tammet has created his own language, called “Manti”, similar to Finnish.

3. Matt Savage

This 25-year-old American with Asperger’s Syndrome learned to read before he was 18 months old. He is known statewide for his musical talents , both in performance and in musical composition. Several albums have been released by him as a soloist and also as part of Matt Savage’s Trio and he has appeared on multiple well-known American television shows, such as Late Show with David Letterman.

4. Stephen Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a renowned London artist who has a great capacity to draw landscapes and urban or architectural buildings with just one look . According to Wiltshire, drawing has always been his favourite means of communication, since he had difficulties in communicating as a child (he was 3 years old and did not speak) and began to use the artistic medium to express himself.

On one occasion he drew a precise picture of the old town of London after flying over it by helicopter. His work became so famous that even the famous writer Oliver Sacks wrote a chapter about it in one of his books: An Anthropologist on Mars .

5. Tony Deblois

Tony Deblois was born blind in 1974, and started playing the piano at the early age of 2. He was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and is considered “savant” due to his incredible musical abilities . Although he claims to specialize in the genre of jazz music, he is capable of playing any type of music.

He can play more than a dozen instruments, so he has great versatility at the musical level in all its precision. In addition, has the ability to play over 8,000 songs from memory thanks to its prodigious capabilities. He currently tours internationally, both solo and with his band Goodnuf.

6. Temple Grandin

This American woman is a psychologist, zoologist, ethologist and university professor at the University of Colorado. She has publicly acknowledged that she has Asperger’s Syndrome and has shared her subjective experience of it worldwide, always fighting for the rights of people with this syndrome. As in the case of Stephen Wiltshire, Oliver Sacks dedicated a chapter of that same book to the story of Temple Grandin, being one of the first first first person accounts of someone who had Asperger’s Syndrome .

He has always been concerned about animal exploitation in the United States and the cruel killing methods used on American farms and ranches. He has worked to maximize animal welfare by devising ways to reduce the pain and cruelty of killing animals for meat, applying his prodigious skills to redesign slaughterhouses and ranches.

7. Alonzo Clemons

As a child, Alonzo Clemons suffered a brain injury that affected his normal development, but he has an extraordinary ability to create very detailed and precise animal sculptures. He is considered a great sculptor of animal figures , which can be sold for $45,000.

Clemons can reproduce an animal in a clay sculpture in less than an hour with just one look. At the same time, he also makes life-size sculptures, including versions of horses.