savant n.

      a person who is less intelligent than others but who has particular unusual abilities that other people do not have

megasavant n.

     a super savant

     These terms may be illustrated with the case of Kim Peek who has a photographic memory. Kim Peek knows more than 7,600 books by heart as well as every area code, highway, zip code and television station in the U.S. Peek can identify most classical compositions and knows the date the music was published or first performed as well as the composer's birthplace and dates of birth and death. He is also developmentally disabled and depends on his fahter for many of his basic daily needs such as cleaning his teeth and shaving. His extraordianry abilities provided the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt, whom Dustin Hoffman played in the 1988 movie Rain Man.