![]() ![]() ![]() The UC Irvine researchers also plan to conduct functional MRI scans on people in the HSAM study to see if their brains work differently while they are retrieving information. This proves that it’s not just present in mature adults, and it’s not something that is learned and rehearsed over time.” “We also have a number of younger people-one as young as 8-with the ability. “We now have a set of twins in the study, one who has this ability and one who doesn’t,” says McGaugh. But there have been a lot of gains, as well. Nearly two decades after identifying the first case of HSAM, there’s still a lot researchers don’t know about the condition. “My mind is always moving and filled with so many other things, and maybe that contributes, ironically, to a poorer short-term memory.” “I’m not great with names, or with mundane details like whether I brushed my teeth today or where I put my keys,” says DeGrandis. The ability is not the same as a so-called photographic memory, which allows people to vividly recall details from a scene they’ve only observed for a short time nor is it the same as a talent held by competitive “memory athletes” who use mnemonic devices to remember long strings of data, for example. People with HSAM are also no better than normal when it comes to remembering things like faces or phone numbers. “Memory is a distracting process, and what we pull from our brains isn’t always entirely accurate.” “Their memories are much more detailed than ours, and last for a longer period of time, but they’re still not video recordings,” says McGaugh. It’s not known yet whether these traits are the result of their superior memory, or if both are caused by another underlying factor.Īnd while people with superior memories have an uncanny talent for linking dates and events, they do occasionally make mistakes. “Some were germ-avoidant, and some had hobbies that involved intense, focused and sustained efforts,” he added. “Some subjects, like Price, focused on orderliness,” McGaugh wrote in Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, which was updated this year to include a chapter on HSAM. Research also suggests that people with HSAM tend to have obsessive traits. “But I do tend to dwell on things longer than the average person, and when something painful does happen, like a break-up or the loss of a family member, I don’t forget those feelings.” “I consider myself lucky in that I’ve had a pretty good life, so I have a lot of happy, warm and fuzzy memories I can think back on,” he says. ![]() In getting to know other HSAM study participants, he’s learned this is a common theme. (In his everyday life, he works in marketing-in a job that has nothing to do with his special ability, he says.) He has enjoyed meeting others with HSAM and has been struck by the things they have in common.ĭeGrandis says he’s struggled from depression and anxiety, which he believes may be linked to his inability to let certain things go. ![]() DeGrandis, being one of those people, now participates in ongoing studies by McGaugh and other memory researchers. ![]()
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