Having now seen the excellent documentary on the autistic savant, Daniel Tammet, and noting the subject's popularity, I've done a little Googling to get some more information for you...
This is the BBC News report of Daniel Tammet's attempt at the British and European record for reciting pi. He is able to remember 22,511 decimal places of pi without using any special memory techniques.
'The Savant Syndrome' provides more background information on autistic savants. The article is by Dr. Darold Treffert who is widely published on this subject and was a consultant to the movie Rain Man. More on other autistic savants at Wikipedia.
New York Times review of the documentary.
Science Channel 'Brainman' site [contains extra video not in programme]
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