What is it called when you remember everything

Hyperthymesia: Definition, causes, and symptoms

Hyperthymesia is an ability that allows people to remember nearly every event of their life with great precision.

Hyperthymesia is rare, with research identifying only a small number of people with the ability. Studies on hyperthymesia are ongoing, as scientists attempt to understand how the brain processes memories.

In this article, we define hyperthymesia and explain the causes, characteristics, and diagnosis.

Share on PinterestPeople with hyperthymesia often remember exact dates relating to past personal experiences.

Hyperthymesia is also known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). According to a 2017 study, people with hyperthymesia can accurately and readily recall numerous details about events that have occurred in their life.

These details can include exact dates and intricate information about previous experiences. Current research suggests that the ability is limited to autobiographical memory. This limitation means that people can only recall information about themselves and their past personal experiences.

People can retain information as either short-term or long-term memories. People with HSAM likely process short-term memories in a similar way to most other people. However, a 2016 study suggests that these individuals have better long-term memory.

HSAM is different than having a good memory. For example, people with HSAM do not use mnemonic devices to remember long strings of information.

People with hyperthymesia can recall details relating to past experiences with extreme accuracy.

Some researchers have noted that these individuals share some characteristics with people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For example, they may demonstrate obsessive tendencies.

People with both conditions also tend to have certain structural differences in particular regions of the brain. However, despite these similarities, there is no definitive link between having HSAM and OCD.

People with HSAM are unable to forget their life experiences. Further research is necessary to assess the long-term effects of this.

As there are relatively few people with hyperthymesia, there is a lack of research examining the causes. There are some theories as to what contributes to hyperthymesia, but the exact cause remains unknown.

Some research suggests that the cause of hyperthymesia may be biological, genetic, or psychological. However, more studies are necessary to gain a better understanding of what causes hyperthymesia.

Biological

There is some evidence that hyperthymesia may have a biological cause. One study suggests that people with HSAM may have hyperactivity in certain parts of the brain, such as the amygdala.

Another study suggests that people with HSAM have increased activity within different regions of the brain, such as the superior and inferior parietal lobe.

Genetic

Another theory is that hyperthymesia may be genetic. However, current research is ongoing as to whether the ability has a genetic basis.

Psychological

Some researchers believe that hyperthymesia may have psychological causes. This theory implies that people with HSAM obsessively think about their previous experiences. Regularly thinking about these events helps strengthen the ability to recall them. As such, this may enable people with hyperthymesia to preserve their memories.

As hyperthymesia is a rare ability, there is currently no formal way of diagnosing it.

Some research suggests that people with hyperthymesia have hyperactivity in certain parts of their brain. Doctors could potentially, therefore, assess whether a person has HSAM by taking an MRI scan while they undergo a memory test.

Complex memory tests can also help confirm whether someone has hyperthymesia. These tests can include an autobiographical memory assessment, which tests a person’s ability to recall specific events and facts from their earlier life.

A person with hyperthymesia can remember nearly every event of their life in a lot of detail. On the other hand, eidetic memory is the ability to accurately recall an image after only seeing it once for a short period.

Those who have a superior eidetic memory can continue to visualize something they have recently seen with great precision. They may be able to hold the intact visualization in their mind for up to several minutes.

For most people, eidetic memories tend to fade after a few seconds. In some cases, the visualizations may change or become stored as a long-term memory.

People often confuse eidetic memory with photographic memory. People who claim to have a photographic memory state that they can remember a visualization for a long time in the same detail as when they first saw it. However, scientific research debates the existence of photographic memory.

Similarly to people with hyperthymesia, people with a good eidetic memory do not rely on memory devices, such as mnemonics.

There is little research exploring hyperthymesia and eidetic memory. The reason for this may be that they are hard phenomena to test. However, it is likely that people with hyperthymesia do not have a superior eidetic memory.

More research is necessary into both eidetic memory and hyperthymesia to understand their similarities and differences.

Hyperthymesia is the rare ability to recall nearly all past experiences in great detail.

The causes of HSAM are currently unknown, but some theories suggest that it may have biological, genetic, or psychological origins.

There is currently no way to diagnose hyperthymesia formally. Possible ways to assess this may be through MRI scans and complex memory tests.

Hyperthymesia differs from eidetic memory in that it focuses on a person’s ability to recall their autobiographical experiences rather than to hold visualizations in their mind.

Further research is necessary to examine the differences and similarities between hyperthymesia and eidetic memory.

Hyperthymesia: Definition, causes, and symptoms

Hyperthymesia is an ability that allows people to remember nearly every event of their life with great precision.

In this article, we define hyperthymesia and explain the causes, characteristics, and diagnosis.

Share on PinterestPeople with hyperthymesia often remember exact dates relating to past personal experiences.

HSAM is different than having a good memory. For example, people with HSAM do not use mnemonic devices to remember long strings of information.

People with hyperthymesia can recall details relating to past experiences with extreme accuracy.

Some researchers have noted that these individuals share some characteristics with people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For example, they may demonstrate obsessive tendencies.

People with HSAM are unable to forget their life experiences. Further research is necessary to assess the long-term effects of this.

Some research suggests that the cause of hyperthymesia may be biological, genetic, or psychological. However, more studies are necessary to gain a better understanding of what causes hyperthymesia.

Biological

There is some evidence that hyperthymesia may have a biological cause. One study suggests that people with HSAM may have hyperactivity in certain parts of the brain, such as the amygdala.

Another study suggests that people with HSAM have increased activity within different regions of the brain, such as the superior and inferior parietal lobe.

Genetic

Another theory is that hyperthymesia may be genetic. However, current research is ongoing as to whether the ability has a genetic basis.

Psychological

As hyperthymesia is a rare ability, there is currently no formal way of diagnosing it.

For most people, eidetic memories tend to fade after a few seconds. In some cases, the visualizations may change or become stored as a long-term memory.

Similarly to people with hyperthymesia, people with a good eidetic memory do not rely on memory devices, such as mnemonics.

More research is necessary into both eidetic memory and hyperthymesia to understand their similarities and differences.

Hyperthymesia is the rare ability to recall nearly all past experiences in great detail.

The causes of HSAM are currently unknown, but some theories suggest that it may have biological, genetic, or psychological origins.

There is currently no way to diagnose hyperthymesia formally. Possible ways to assess this may be through MRI scans and complex memory tests.

Hyperthymesia differs from eidetic memory in that it focuses on a person’s ability to recall their autobiographical experiences rather than to hold visualizations in their mind.

Further research is necessary to examine the differences and similarities between hyperthymesia and eidetic memory.

The Woman Who Can't Forget

Sarah Keating
BBC Future

November 12, 2017

Image copyright Edouard Taufenbach

Some people are able to remember any event in their life. Is it good, and how do they live?

"I remember being wrapped in a pink cotton blanket when I was only one week old," says Rebecca Sharrock.

"And I always knew when my mother was holding me. I don't know how, but I felt it instinctively, she was my favorite person."

Given that most people begin to remember themselves around the age of four, it is easy to assume that Sharrock's story is just her nostalgic fantasies, but not her real memory.

However, the memory of a 27-year-old resident of Brisbane (Australia) is arranged differently than most of us: doctors diagnosed her with a rare diagnosis - hyperthymesic syndrome (Eng. HSAM, Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory ), exceptional autobiographical memory.

With hyperthymesia, a person is able to remember and reproduce an extremely high amount of information about his own life.

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People with hyperthymesia are able to instantly and effortlessly remember what exactly they did, what they were wearing, where they were in any segment of their lives. They can recall in detail both the news of public life and personal events - with the accuracy of a video recorder.

As a child, Sharrock thought that all people could do this. And she continued to think so until one day her parents called her and asked her to turn on the TV: there was a program about people with hyperthymesic syndrome.

"It was January 23, 2011," she recalls. "When the participants of that program told in detail what they remember, the reporters did not get tired of repeating: it's amazing, unbelievable..."

"And I asked my parents: "Why do they think it's amazing? Isn't that normal?" And they explained that no, it's not normal, and they think I have the same syndrome."

Photo copyright, Edouard Taufenbach

Photo caption,

"At the beginning of each month, I select the best memories from that month for all previous years"

Rebecca's family contacted the scientists mentioned in the TV show, and the girl was studied in 2013 was diagnosed with hyperthymesia.

This syndrome was discovered in the early 2000s, and so far only 60 people with hyperthymesia have been registered in the world.

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Why is it that some people are born with exceptional autobiographical memory?

Research into the syndrome is ongoing - this is a new phenomenon and few people are known to have hyperthymesia.

But some scientists suggest that such people have larger than usual temporal lobes (which are responsible for long-term memory) and the caudate nucleus of the brain (which plays a role in the process of remembering, and is also associated with obsessive compulsive disorder).

In hyperthymesia, memories are "recorded" in the brain with incredible clarity. And although scientists are extremely interested in this, it causes a lot of inconvenience to people with this syndrome.

Some of them say that their memories are very well organized, but Sharrock (who is also autistic) says that her brain is just cluttered, and constantly reliving certain moments of the past leads to headaches and insomnia.

Image copyright Edouard Taufenbach

Photo caption,

"And I asked my parents: why do they call it amazing? Isn't it normal?"

Sharrock suffers from anxiety and depression, and her supernatural memory turns her into an "emotional time machine".

"If I remember an episode from my childhood - let's say what happened to me at the age of three - then I continue to emotionally relive that situation again and again as if I were three years old, despite the fact that I am already an adult", she says.

This discrepancy is confusing and disturbing.

Despite all this, Rebecca Sharrock learned to use positive memories to combat negative ones: "At the beginning of each month, I select the best memories from that month from previous years." This helps to cope with those obsessive episodes from the past that upset her.

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People with hyperthymesia can recall the news of the social life of a given day, but, as a rule, one way or another related to their personal feelings and interests (this apparently helps to fix them in memory).

Among other things, hyperthymesia gives us an unprecedented opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of an infant, a child.

Sharrock tells what attracted her attention in infancy and how she learned to walk.

"I lay in my bed and turned my head, staring at the world around me. For example, at the floor fan - I was simply fascinated by it. And only when I was one and a half years old did it dawn on me: why don't I get up and explore for yourself, what is it?

Image copyright Edouard Taufenbach

Photo caption

"I can control my dreams so I rarely have nightmares"

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Another aspect of this syndrome is that it affects how people sleep. According to Sharrock, now that she is an adult, she is able to control her dreams. Because of this, she almost never has nightmares - as soon as she feels that something bad is coming, she simply changes the course of events in a dream.

But this was not always the case. When Sharrock began to dream at about 18 months of age, she did not distinguish between reality and dreams.

"That's why at night I often cried and called for my mother," she explains. "But I couldn't explain why."

So maybe people with hyperthymesia syndrome have good lucid dreaming abilities.

Rebecca Sharrock is currently involved in two research projects - with the University of Queensland (Australia) and the University of California at Irvine (USA). She hopes that the results of these studies will, among other things, help those who suffer from Alzheimer's.

Despite vivid and vivid memories of almost every day of her life, there is one event that Sharrock does not remember: how she was born.

Photo copyright Edouard Taufenbach

Photo caption

"I remember all my birthdays except for one"

"It's the only birthday I don't remember," she says. mother's womb, or how I came out of there, are completely missing. But I would not like to remember it.

Even though her mind sometimes feels like a sticky record, Rebecca Sharrock wouldn't want to change anything.

"My autism doesn't like change. I want things to stay that way because that's how it's always been for me. I just want to find different ways to live with it."

"I'm used to this Rebecca, I know her well, and let me stay like this",

Read the original of this article in English at BBC Future .

An interview with Rebecca Sharrock (also in English) can be heard on the BBC Radio 4 website.

The illustrations for the article are the works of the French artist Eduard Taufenbach .

Remembering everything: the good and the bad of people who don't forget anything

David Robson
BBC Future

10 February 2016

help you understand the events.”

Image Credit, iStock

There are people (they are few) who can remember almost every day of their lives in great detail. As a result of many years of research, neurologists, and with them the columnist BBC Future figured out how they do it.

For most of us, memory is a sort of scrapbook full of fuzzy and faded snapshots of our lives.

And no matter how hard we try to keep the past in our memory, even its brightest moments are washed away with time.

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But ask Nima Weizeh what he did on each of the days that make up the last 15 years, and he will tell you with protocol accuracy what the weather was like, what he was wearing and with what side of the carriage he was sitting on the train when he was going to work.

"My memory is like a collection of VHS cassettes that record frame by frame every day of my life from waking up to going to bed," he explains.

Memory-calendar

Weizeh can even give the exact date when these tapes began to be recorded - December 15, 2000, when he met his first girlfriend at his best friend's 16th birthday party.

He used to have a good memory, but it seems that the emotional trembling caused by his first youthful love shifted some kind of lever in his memory: since then he began to "record" his entire life in detail. "After that, I could tell everything about my every day."

Needless to say, people like Weizeh are of incredible interest to neuroscientists who hope to understand how the brain records the course of our lives.

Hasty explanations, such as that it might be related to autism, turned out to be groundless.

Recently, however, several publications have appeared that have opened a window through which one can look into the extraordinary consciousness of such people.

These studies even give some reason to believe that we are all able to relive our past with amazing clarity.

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Jill Price kept a diary in an attempt to clear her intrusive memories and was rewarded by allowing scientists to verify her claims

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Highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) was first described in detail in 2006 by a young woman named Jill Price.

Emailing neuroscientist and memory researcher Jim McGaugh of the University of California, Irvine, she once claimed she could remember every day of her life since she was 12 years old. She asked if he could explain this case?

McGaugh was intrigued and invited Price to his lab, where he began testing her.

He named some date and asked her to tell about the events of that day. True to her word, she was almost never wrong.

By a lucky coincidence, Price kept a diary throughout this time, which gave researchers the opportunity to compare her memories with her own notes.

And again she was right in most cases.

After several years of such non-systematic research, they decided to subject it to a new spontaneous test: "Give the dates of all your visits to our laboratory." In the same instant, she listed all their meetings.

"None of us was able to remember the entire list," said McGaugh and his colleagues.

They compared her report with their own notes and found that she was absolutely accurate.

Soon, magazines and documentary filmmakers seized on her ability to "remember everything", and due to the subsequent media attention, several dozen other carriers of this phenomenon (including Veiseh) "came out of the shadows" and turned to a team of scientists at California State University in Irvine.

During one of Veiseh's visits to the lab, his memory was so accurate that he had to correct a test that required him to name the exact date that Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The most intriguing thing is that the memory of such people is concentrated in the highest degree on themselves.

Although they can remember the events of their own life in great detail, they are not much different from the average citizen if you need to remember impersonal information, such as random word sets.

They are not always able to remember, say, what they just drank.

"Sometimes I can't remember what happened five minutes ago, but I do remember details going back to January 22, 2008," said Bill, who asked not to be identified by his real name to avoid unwanted attention.

Although their memory is very extensive, they are subject to some of the mistakes that we all make.

In 2013, Lawrence Patihis, now at the University of Southern Mississippi, and colleagues found that people with HSAM may experience "false memories."

For example, they can be encouraged to remember world events that never actually happened.

Egg or chicken

It is clear that no perfect memory exists in nature. The minds of these people use the same imperfect tools that we all rely on.

The question is, how do they do it?

Image copyright, Getty

Image caption,

HSAM is like a set of specialized knowledge and skills, like in music or sports. But the specialization of the holders of such a memory is their own life.

Observations of how such a memory evolves over time provide some clues.

Craig Stark of the University of California at Irvine recently conducted a series of experiments in which he asked HSAM wearers about the events of their lives a week, a month and a year later.

Struck wanted to see how their memories change as they move away from one point or another.

He thought, for example, that people with exceptional autobiographical memory initially remember more details as soon as an event occurs.

Differences appear a few months later: while in the memory of some people they fade and fade, for HSAM owners the details of the event remain just as fresh.

"It must be about how they hold information - unlike everyone else," says Struck.

To the scientists' dismay, brain scans did not reveal any significant anatomical differences to explain how this happens.

"That doesn't mean they have an extra lobe or 'third' hemisphere of the brain," Stark continues.

Indeed, they could also have found some characteristic features, such as additional neural connections between the frontal lobes of the brain involved in the process of analytical thinking, and the hippocampus, a paired seahorse-shaped structure located in the temporal regions, which is considered to be "printed memory machine.

However, it is likely that this ability is the result of their skills, not the cause.

After all, in the end, constant practice in improving any skills, whether in music, sports or foreign languages, can lead to the formation of more efficient neural networks in the brain.

"It's like a chicken or egg fight," Stark explains.

The clue seems to lie in some more general thought patterns and habits.

Patihis recently tested 20 people with exceptional autobiographical memory phenomena and found that they scored particularly high in two categories, fantasy propensity and absorption.

The tendency to fantasize is considered a manifestation of imagination and daydreaming, while the ability to absorb allows the human consciousness to immerse itself in this or that activity and absorb sensations and experiences with full attention.

"I am very sensitive to sounds, smells and visual details," explains Nicole Donoghue, who has participated in many of these experiences. "I certainly perceive many things more acutely than the average person."

Unknown triggers

Absorption helps them build a strong foundation for memories, Patihis says, and the fantasy propensity means they return to those memories again and again in the weeks and months that follow.

Each time the original memory imprint is played again, it only gets stronger.

In a sense, you too have experienced this for yourself after significant events in your life, such as your wedding day, for example.

image copyrightGetty

Image caption,

An exceptional memory makes it difficult to escape from painful memories of the past

The difference between HSAM holders and all others is that, due to their psychological characteristics, they do this day after day throughout their lives.

However, not everyone who is inclined to indulge in fantasies can develop an exceptional autobiographical memory.

According to Patihis, something must make them think about their past, say movies or airplanes.

"Perhaps some childhood experience led them to become obsessed with calendars and what happened to them," Patihis says.

The objects of observation found it difficult to name any specific trigger (ie, an automatic behavioral response to external stimuli).

Veiseh, however, knows that his exceptional autobiographical memory first manifested itself after meeting his first love, but he still cannot explain why this particular girl "turned on" his unusual ability.

Armed with scientific data, can we learn to think and remember like Veiseh, Donoghue, or Bill?

The idea intrigued Stark. Some of his colleagues are hoping to launch a mobile app that could encourage people to actively and rigorously rehearse the traits seen in HSAM wearers to see if this will improve the quality of later memories.

Evidence already shows that this approach can be effective.

One recent study shows that simply replaying an event for a few seconds immediately after it happened allows for better recall of details a week later. (Read the article "How to improve memory in 40 seconds").

When applied to real life, Stark compares this to physical exercise: the idea of super memory may be good in theory, but difficult to achieve in practice.

"Look, many of us may have trained athletic bodies. There are enough incentives, and yet few of us begin to seriously train."

When I spoke to people with exceptional autobiographical memory, they definitely agreed that this was not a 100% good thing.

The advantage of this property is that it allows you to relive what has changed and enriched you in the past. Veisekh, for example, turned out to be a kind of erudite.

In his youth, he traveled the world extensively, participating in international taekwondo competitions and visiting local art galleries in his spare time.

Perhaps, precisely because the love of art is in his blood, "reproductions" of the paintings he saw were deposited in the depths of his autobiographical memory. 9Image credit: iStock . – This is an extensive program of self-education in the field of art history”.

Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of art history, he later became a professional artist with the pseudonym Enigma of Newyork.

Likewise, his memory contributed to his PhD research work in design and technology, as it allowed him to accumulate a solid body of knowledge.

Now a history teacher, Donoghue agrees that her exceptional memory helped her at certain stages of her education: "I can remember exactly what I learned in school on a given day. I can imagine what the teacher said, or what it looked like in the book".

However, not all HSAM holders have experienced such benefits.

Jill Price hated school, and this seems to prevent her from gaining access to the knowledge of the subjects she studied.

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