Scientists at the University of California Irvine (UCI), in the United States, have discovered fascinating differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people capable of remembering effortlessly – and in great detail – every moment of their lives since they were 10 years old. It’s about the lamadoshyperthymesic individuals, endowed withan autobiographical memory far superior to that of the rest of the population, and whose existence has been known since 2006. James McCaugh and his team have discovered that this ability is based on differences in nine brain structures, including that they have more robust white matter in the connections that join the frontal and middle areas of our organ thinking. The study, published in the journalNeurobiology of Learning & Memory’s, could help to better understand how human memory stores memories.
Hyperthymesics? Are not the classic experts in memorization techniques, and their brain is nothing like that of champions who memorize thousands of decimal places of the number pi ?, as Aurora LePort, co-author of the research, explains. Le Port suggests that this shows that they are the best model that exists for studying a very specific type of memory: that related to our own biography.
In fact, when someone mentions to a hyperthymesic any date in the past their response is immediate: they remember what day of the week it was 99% without hardly thinking about it. Other common traits of these people is that they tend to havepainstakingly cataloged collections of objectsFor example from postcards, magazines, stamps or even shoes.
