Brain Man

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Jan. 28, 2007. It was updated on Sep. 5, 2007.

Almost 25 years ago, 60 Minutes introduced viewers to George Finn, whose talent was immortalized in the movie "Rain Man." George has a condition known as savant syndrome, a mysterious disorder of the brain where someone has a spectacular skill, even genius, in a mind that is otherwise extremely limited.

Morley Safer met another savant, Daniel Tammet, who is called "Brain Man" in Britain. But unlike most savants, he has no obvious mental disability, and most important to scientists, he can describe his own thought process. He may very well be a scientific Rosetta stone, a key to understanding the brain.

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Back in 1983, George Finn, blessed or obsessed with calendar calculation, could give you the day if you gave him the date.

"What day of the week was August 13th, 1911?" Safer quizzed Finn.

"A Sunday," Finn replied.

"What day of the week was May 20th, 1921?" Safer asked.

"Friday," Finn answered.

George Finn is a savant. In more politically incorrect times he would have been called an "idiot savant" - a mentally handicapped or autistic person whose brain somehow possesses an island of brilliance.

Asked if he knew how he does it, Finn told Safer, "I don't know, but it's just that, that's fantastic I can do that."

If this all seems familiar, there's a reason: five years after the 60 Minutes broadcast, Dustin Hoffman immortalized savants like George in the movie "Rain Man."

Which brings us to that other savant we mentioned: Daniel Tammet. He is an Englishman, who is a 27-year-old math and memory wizard.

"I was born November 8th, 1931," Safer remarks.

"Uh-huh. That's a prime number. 1931. And you were born on a Sunday. And this year, your birthday will be on a Wednesday. And you'll be 75," Tammet tells Safer.

It is estimated there are only 50 true savants living in the world today, and yet none are like Daniel. He is articulate, self-sufficient, blessed with all of the spectacular ability of a savant, but with very little of the disability. Take his math skill, for example.

Asked to multiply 31 by 31 by 31 by 31, Tammet quickly - and accurately - responded with "923,521."

And it's not just calculating. His gift of memory is stunning. Briefly show him a long numerical sequence and he'll recite it right back to you. And he can do it backwards, to boot.

That feat is just a warm-up for Daniel Tammet. He first made headlines at Oxford, when he publicly recited the endless sequence of numbers embodied by the Greek letter "Pi." Pi, the numbers we use to calculate the dimensions of a circle, are usually rounded off to 3.14. But its numbers actually go on to infinity.

Daniel studied the sequence - a thousand numbers to a page.

"And I would sit and I would gorge on them. And I would just absorb hundreds and hundreds at a time," he tells Safer.

It took him several weeks to prepare and then Daniel headed to Oxford, where with number crunchers checking every digit, he opened the floodgates of his extraordinary memory.

Tammet says he was able to recite, in a proper order, 22,514 numbers. It took him over five hours and he did it without a single mistake.

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[jayced190]

I am a Male Nurse caring for George Finn. One of his dreams is to meet Dustin Hoffman, if anyone have any ideas on how we could go about this, please let me know. All ideas will be greatly appreciated.

[kksg1996]

Would like to connect with wrighbower at 1:20 PM: Jan 29,2007. My granddaughter also has asperber's and she is 10 years old and looking for a penpal. It would be good for her to connect with someone who understand and someone that she can understand.
Please respond:Marilyn Pettigrew..Manchester NH
[e-mail]

[anotherjg]

Thank you for sharing a view of such intellect with 60-minutes viewers!! I am so excited to see such demonstration of intellect - most fascinated by the image of pi and would like to see the image of the golden section. Most wonderful to consider such beauty! Would Daniel show us?
Julie Grabel
Huntington Beach, CA

[anotherjg]

Thank you for sharing a view of such intellect with 60-minutes viewers!! I am so excited to see such demonstration of intellect - most fascinated by the image of pi and would like to see the image of the golden section. Most wonderful to consider such beauty! Would Daniel show us?
Julie Grabel
Huntington Beach, CA

[nsmom]

I thought last night's episode was great, but I thought the story on "Brain Man" was absolutely fascinating. What an insight to the human brain.

ABE25425's comment that Daniel didn't like the number 333 is incorrect. It was 289 he didn't like, and really liked 333.

[abe25425-2009]

Believe it was a mistake when Safer referred to 333 as chubby as response to Daniel saying it not so beautiful of a number to him. The discussion point was about how Daniel sees numbers as images, we saw how he sees Pi a couple times. When he was saying 333 was not beautiful he meant I believe how his translated image of the number apppears, but that image is not some coloring in of "333," rather it is an entirely different image that his mind translates. Safer's comment about 333 appearing chubby seemed to reveal he was missing Daniel's point.

[billzor]

Daniel's website is: www.optimnem.co.uk. he maintains a blog, offers tutoring, and you can order an autographed copy of his book. He is a remarkable, nice, soft spoken man. A true gentleman, in every sense. A hero for me.

[bswood1]

As my husband and I watched this segment, we were amazed at the similarities with our 6 year old son. He has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome as well. He can tell you the day of the week a particular date will or did fall on, which totally amazes others. He memorizes many things and is often obsessed with doing this. He is also quite sensitive to sounds and has difficulty with social interaction with peers. We would love to learn more and would like information on dealing with his various daily issues. Thanks for the wonderful story, it really hit home for us.

[desertmaid-2009]

My 7 yr old son has high funtioning autism. In a group of kids his own age, you cannot single him out. However, he has incredible math and memory skills. He also does the age/birthday calculations and calendar memoization. He is in 2nd grade, but is bored in his math class. He just told me recently, "My computer types it into my brain and then BAM! It tells me the answer. Then I tell my teacher." People who don't know about his condition don't notice anthing unique about him, until he starts telling them how old they will be in the year 2035! He amazes me every day.

[carole-line]

Thank you for that wonderful story. I will definately go out and buy the book, being the mom of an autistic child I appreciate all the "insight" I can get. For Daniel... 3.1416 is all I have to say. Cheers and thank you again.