So let's hear twinkle, twinkle, little star.
As amazing as it sounds, I probably can't play that.
And I can explain why as we start chatting about it, because.
This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
A savant is defined as someone who does not have normal intelligence but possesses unusual mental abilities.
My name is Derek Amato.
I am 49 years old.
I currently live in Virginia.
But Derek is an unusual case.
He's said to have something called a quiet savant syndrome.
It's left him with this incredible ability to compose and play piano.
We'll talk about what that means, but let's back up a minute.
I grew up a typical kid.
I was an extremely aggressive athlete.
So that was kind of my thing.
I was a baseball, football, basketball player.
You were a jock?
I was a jock, yeah.
I had musical interest from very early on.