Hyperthymesia or Hyperthymestic syndrome
Here’s another one of those fascinating and interesting neurological peculiarities, along with Asperger syndrome, synaesthesia and Tourette’s. Just call me a neurocase.
Forgetfulness is key to a healthy mind
by Jessica Marshall.
New Scientist. February 16th 2008.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19726431.600-forgetfulness-is-key-to-a-healthy-mind.html
The man with an uncanny memory
by Doug Erickson.
Wisconsin State Journal. February 26th 2008.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=266817
Hyperthymesia. (accessed 2008). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperthymesia&oldid=193495907
Unforgettable: the documentary.
http://www.unforgettabledoc.com/
A case of unusual autobiographical remembering
by Elizabeth S. Parker, Larry Cahill and James L. McGaugh.
Neurocase. Volume 12 Issue 1 February 2006. p. 35 – 49.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/13554790500473680
The woman who can't forget: the extraordinary story of living with the most remarkable memory known to science - a memoir
by Jill Price (with Bart Davis)
Free Press, May 2008.
and this is an excellent book about human memory in general, but does not mention hyperthymestic syndrome:
How the mind forgets and remembers: the seven sins of memory
by Daniel L. Schacter
Souvenir Press, 2001.
I'm quite surprised that even in the few things that I have read about this condition, I've seen no mention of Solomon Shereshevskii, who was "S" in the book The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a Vast Memory by A. R. Luria, and I've also seen no mention of Franco Magnani, who is the subject of the chapter The Landscape of His Dreams in the book An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks.
Here are Lili Marlene's higly speculative predictions about this condition:
1. At first it will be regarded as an incredibly rare phenomenon, but in a few years time, if researched in large studies that sample random selections of the population, will be found to be merely uncommon.
2. A good core definition of the condition exists, but individual cases will be found to be heterogenous, with other neurological or psychiatric conditions interacting with Hyperthymestic syndrome, so the boundaries of the definition of this condition will remain unclear.
3. The term Hyperthymestic syndrome will lose popularity in favour of Hyperthymesia, as it will be found that there isn't the clustering of a large number of separate symptoms that can't be otherwise explained, that is the usual thing with medical syndromes.
4. The assertion in popular literature that subjects who have Hyperthymestic syndrome are not autistic will be challenged.
5. Hyperthymestic syndrome will be found to be associated with the relatively indiscriminate or obsessive collecting behaviour that is found in some people diagnosed with OCD, Obessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), Asperger syndrome or even paranoia. Some famous people who possibly had this collecting habit were Andy Warhol, William Shockley, Screaming Lord Sutch and Stanley Kubrick, an interesting collection of personalities for sure. Shockley appears to have had the obsessive interest in autobiographical details that is a characteristic of Hyperthymestic syndrome, but as he is now dead, I doubt that any new evidence for or against Shockley having the condition could be found.
4 comments:
I came across this old post of yours while searching for information on hyperthymestic memory. I'm being treated for a neurological disorder called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, and it turns out I may have hyperthymestic memory, but the research and literature on it is very limited. I suspect the reason you aren't seeing "S" mentioned is because of the mnemonic devices, whereas hyperthymestic memory is (apparently) simply the brain's way of recording information... done naturally, automatically, and with no focus on being able to recall it later. I agree with most of your predictions, though I think "challenge" is the operative word in number four... I doubt it will be proven... and I disagree with number five. That disagreement could come from the fact that I know very little about Asperger syndrome, so I can't judge how correct that point may turn out to be. Also, there's the fact that I'm comparing the information I read on this to how my own memory works, and it's not proven yet that my memory is hyperthymestic. I do know for myself memory isn't related to obsessive information collecting, paranoia, etc. It is simply that my own experiences are nearly permanently recorded, with no effort, in extreme detail in my mind. And my memory is not as extremely detailed as the case of AJ. It would be the difference between telling you I was watching the news when a certain person called on a certain night (whether the conversation was of great significance in my life or not), and being able to tell you everything that was reported on the news that same night. While watching the news is one of my experiences, the things reported were not experienced by me, so my memory doesn't record them.
I wish you the best of good luck regarding your hypertension. I hope it can be effectively treated. If you don't already know about the international "evidence-based medicine" movement, maybe it would be a good idea to find out about the basics, but as I know myself, if one has a rare medical condition, good evidence about effective and safe treatments may not be available.
The relationship between memory and synaesthesia (which "S" had in spades!) is a complex and at present mostly unexplored area, but I believe it is generally accepted that superior memory and synaesthesia tend to go together. I believe synaesthesia ITSELF is a natural mnemonic device. I and my kids all have permanently colour-coded letters of the alphabet. I believe this makes the letters in some way more memorable and visually interesting. There are many other quite different types of synaesthesia that probably aid different types of memory in different ways. I believe that people who have hyperthymestic memory might have some type of synaesthesia that acts as a natural memory aid in their autobiographical memory talents, or may have some kind of cognitive-neurological difference that aids the memory, such as being a "visual-spatial thinker" or having the "attention to details" that is typical of autistic people. If you don't attend to details in the first place, then you can't encode details in the memory and remember the details later. I suspect that non-autistic normal people don't really sense or "register" the fine details in the first place.
I mentioned obsessiveness in my post because obsessing over one's past does seem to play a role in some of the cases of hyperthymesia, but I don't think it is clear whether that is a cause of the syndrome or an effect of the memory syndrome. I mentioned paranoia because Shockley's biographer tried to explain Shockley's extreme autobiographical collecting habit, which apparently was inherited, as "paranoia". I don't believe this is a sensible explanation. I believe Shockley had Asperger syndrome (AS). An AS expert Prof. S. Baron-Cohen wrote about Shockley in the book "The Essential Difference".
I have two questions. Do you believe or find that that autobiographical memory is a separate type of memory to memory of facts?
Do you have any form of synaesthesia? If you don't know what synaesthesia is, I recommend the Wikipedia articles about synaesthesia/synesthesia. They were written by experts.
I have this hyperthymesia, sometimes I want to be hypnotised and all the memories forgotten. My mind wiped clean. Then I think I want to remember all the good things that has ever happened to me, and I love the ability to belt out any song anyone says, that's fun. I can remember from when I was very young like 2 and 3 years old. I am 34 and would like to talk with others with this ability. NO I don't want to compare memories. Personnaly I do not think it is a syndrome, I think it is a gift and all gifts have there good and bad.
If you have an infallible memory for song lyrics then maybe you should go on that TV show where people have to sing song lyrics correctly to win prizes.
I don't know of any forum for people with hyperthymesia or exceptional memory, or any forum about the subject. If I come across such a thing I'll add it's details to this post. Can anyone help with information?
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