7 replies to this topic

[MaxStPolish]

Could you imagine the ramifications of a poker player having this ability? I'd imagine that some players do have some sort of heightened memory like this. Interesting stuff.http://www.usatoday....m?se=yahooreferMRIs reveal possible source of woman's super-memory By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAYA Southern California man employed in the entertainment business is the fourth person verified by scientists to have an ultra-rare memory gift: He recalls in detail most days of his life, as well as the day and date of key public events, says Larry Cahill, who co-leads a project on people with super-memory.The name of the latest "bona fide" won't be released by scientists because he's a research subject, but he is free to identify himself.Meanwhile, MRI scans on Jill Price, 43, the Los Angeles religious school administrator who in 2006 was the first person confirmed to have such an ability, reveal two abnormally large areas in her brain. That discovery could lead to breakthroughs on how memories are formed and kept, says Cahill, a neuroscientist at the University of California-Irvine. Price went public last year with the publication of her book, The Woman Who Can't Forget.LOOKING BACK: Decades of details flood woman's memoryThe two magnified areas in Price's brain are the caudate nuclei — typically used for memory when forming automatic habits — and a part of the temporal lobe that stores facts, dates and events, Cahill told USA TODAY.These two areas of the brain may be working together, in a way unknown before, to make detailed recall of every day as automatic as remembering to brush your teeth in the morning or put on a seat belt, the research team speculates.When Price first met the team eight years ago, "it seemed more of a scientific curiosity," Cahill says. "Now what we're looking at is a new chapter in the book on memories and the brain."Hundreds of potential subjects have contacted the researchers, offering to be screened, he says. "Two or three look like the real McCoy" based on phone tests.In addition to Price and the latest subject, the team also has verified the gift in Brad Williams of La Crosse, Wis., and Rick Baron of suburban Cleveland.Unlike Price, the three men are left-handed, and they're not troubled by their rare ability, Cahill says. Price feels tormented by her onslaught of memories. She sees daily life in a kind of "split-screen," with present-day events, songs, smells, even TV programs cuing her back to detailed memories that she can't squelch. Gender differences in the brain could account for the differences, Cahill believes.The larger areas in Price's brain almost certainly explain her rare gift, which was probably present at birth, says Brian Levine, a memory expert with Rotman Research Institute-Baycrest Centre at the University of Toronto.Scientists now need to find out how the two large brain areas are connected so they can work together. "This may be a key piece of the puzzle as to how memory works, and that can be used in future research to help people with memory disorders," Levine says.

[phlegm]

Could be bad in the hands of the wrong person.

[navybuttons]

phlegm, on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009, 11:59 AM, said:

Could be bad in the hands of the wrong person.

how could you be a "bad person" when you know that every memory that you have will (almost literally) haunt you for the rest of your life?

[Merby]

navybuttons, on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009, 1:10 PM, said:

how could you be a "bad person" when you know that every memory that you have will (almost literally) haunt you for the rest of your life?

Easy: you have no remorse.Most *normal* people have pangs of guilt about cheating a friend and consider something morally wrong with killing another human being (for example), nevertheless, sociopaths are essentially missing the "remorse," "regret" and "guilt" triggers in their brain. A sociopathic person with a perfect memory would certainly use their memory abilities for their own gains without regard for anyone else and would not be haunted by the memories of their actions....I can't believe I took the time to put in an honest response to this thread...

[navybuttons]

Merby, on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009, 1:39 PM, said:

sociopaths are essentially missing the "remorse," "regret" and "guilt" triggers in their brain.

i would guess that sociopaths are just able to rationalize away all of the negative consequences of his or her actions. or that they can justify any action to his or her self. i imagine that the way these memory people work is that everything in their life is linked to every other thing. so that without cause a seemingly everyday normal item (like a coffee cup or whatever) can trigger the actual feeling of a memory that is totally unlinked to the trigger. i would speculate that there's nothing that can justify hurting someone when the sight of a hair comb could cause you to feel uncontrollable guilt.

[mr_druid]

I can say with confidence that i'm not one of these people with the super memory, I don't even remember why I clicked this thread.Tom.

[vbnautilus]

navybuttons, on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009, 2:48 PM, said:

i would guess that sociopaths are just able to rationalize away all of the negative consequences of his or her actions. or that they can justify any action to his or her self. i imagine that the way these memory people work is that everything in their life is linked to every other thing. so that without cause a seemingly everyday normal item (like a coffee cup or whatever) can trigger the actual feeling of a memory that is totally unlinked to the trigger. i would speculate that there's nothing that can justify hurting someone when the sight of a hair comb could cause you to feel uncontrollable guilt.

Well that is the way memory works for sure. But also one thing most people don't recognize is that the brain has an active forgetting mechanism to get rid of old information which is no longer useful and only serves to clutter. For example, you want to be able to remember where you parked your car today, not where you parked it last week. Interestingly there is some good evidence now that the cannibinoid receptor (the receptor stimulated by cannibis) is important for this forgetting mechanism. So it's possible these people are missing a good forgetting mechanism. This article's finding of enlargement in the temporal lobe I would interpret as a consequence of the super memory rather than a cause. One of the first cases like this to be reported was written about by the great grand-daddy of neuropsychology, the Russian Alexander Luria. He wrote a really interesting and totally readable little book called The Mind of Mnemonist about his experiences with a guy like this. Luria would write a grid of twenty numbers on the board, and the guy could recite the numbers on a specific day when asked twenty years later. The book gives a really personal account of how troubling and problematic this condition was for this guy and really shows you the importance of forgetting.

[davezz5]

I could recall every bad beat in perfect detail. I want this extraordinary gift!