Some people are able to tell with amazing accuracy what they have done on any given day of their lives.
The special ability usually appears towards the end of childhood, but some people have noticed it as early as five years old. Super memory does not extend to early childhood, but usually to events in the latter part of childhood.
In 2006, an American got the first diagnosis of his ability Jill Price.
The researchers named the characteristic hyperthymesia, i.e. over-remembering. Since then, the abbreviation HSAM has been used, which comes from the English words highly superior autobiographical memory.
Oman hypermemory for life events has been identified in nearly a hundred other people in the world since researchers are reporting about the case of the now 58-year-old Price in the scientific journal Neurocase.
Such people are able to remember dates with complete reliability, and verifiable details are recalled with 98 percent accuracy, an Italian research team reported in a review Neuropsychology Review in the journal.
Events are recalled quickly and automatically by those with excellent memories.
You have forgotten mainly concerns events in the person’s own life, although HSAM individuals also seem to be able to connect names and faces exceptionally well.
In terms of intelligence, however, they hardly stand out from the rest of the population.
In brain images, the ability shows up as a strong overactivation of the memory network dealing with biographical events, says a neuroscientist at La Sapienza University Jessica Talbotin and peer review.
It is also extraordinary that the decline in information processing that is part of normal aging does not seem to affect HSAM individuals.