![]() Individuals with hyperthymesia can extensively recall the events of their lives, as well as public events that hold some personal significance to them. The authors wrote that they derived the word from Ancient Greek: hyper- ("excessive") and thymesis ("remembering"), but there is no such word as thymesis it may allude to the Greek enthymesis, which means "consideration", and is derived from thymos "mind". Īmerican neurobiologists Elizabeth Parker, Larry Cahill, and James McGaugh (2006) identified two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia: spending an excessive amount of time thinking about one's past, and displaying an extraordinary ability to recall specific events from one's past. One who has hyperthymesia is called a hyperthymesiac. It is extraordinarily rare, with only 62 people in the world having been diagnosed with the condition as of 2021. Hyperthymesia, also known as hyperthymestic syndrome or highly superior autobiographical memory ( HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. Psychology, psychiatry, neurology, neuropsychology Does this kind of memory truly exist, and, if so, how did I develop it?" in SA Mind 23, 6, 70 (January 2013)ĭoi:10.Hyperthymestic syndrome, highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) This article was originally published with the title "I developed what appears to be a photographic memory when I was 16 years old. Then we can debate the nature-nurture question from harder evidence. Gordon might want to have formal testing, to see just how good his memory is and in what areas. Gordon's ability took a big jump around his 16th birthday, but it's also possible he noticed it only then. Various parts of the brain mature at different times, and adolescence is a major time for such changes. ![]() Most people who have exhibited truly extraordinary memories in some domain have seemed to possess them all their lives and honed them further through practice. It is difficult to disentangle memory abilities that appear early from those cultivated through interest and training. So how does an exceptional, perhaps photographic, memory come to be? It depends on a slew of factors, including our genetics, brain development and experiences. A winner of the memory Olympics, for instance, still had to keep sticky notes on the refrigerator to remember what she had to do during the day. Sorry to disappoint further, but even an amazing memory in one domain, such as vision, is not a guarantee of great memory across the board. ![]() These memories seem to result from a combination of innate abilities, combined with zealous study and familiarity with the material, such as the Bible or fine art. But this isn't really a photographic memory it just shows us the normal difference between types of memory.Įven visual memories that seem to approach the photographic ideal are far from truly photographic. For instance, most of us remember a face much more easily than the name associated with that face. Most of us do have a kind of photographic memory, in that most people's memory for visual material is much better and more detailed than our recall of most other kinds of material. But a true photographic memory in this sense has never been proved to exist. The intuitive notion of a “photographic” memory is that it is just like a photograph: you can retrieve it from your memory at will and examine it in detail, zooming in on different parts. Does this kind of memory truly exist, and, if so, how did I develop it?īarry Gordon, a professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (and no relation), offers an explanation: I developed what appears to be a photographic memory when I was 16 years old.
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