Roses in December – Hyperthymesia 1
J.M. Barrie once said “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” Can you imagine remembering ALL the roses EVERY December? Can you imagine remembering pretty much everything? That’s what it is like for people who having Piking, or Hyperthymestic Syndrome.
photo by gutter
In an article for the Wisconsin Medical Society, Dr. Darold Treffert talks about the different forms of extremely good memory. He talks about memory where people memorize facts, music, geographic details automatically. He says that they are mainly the result of savant memory, though he does qualify this in bringing up cases where the people with extraordinary memories were not savants, but mnemonists – people who retain images but can “turn off” and force themselves to forget the huge amount of data their brain collects and stores.
Then he tells us about Brad Williams, who has hyperthymestic syndrome. Brad has been interviewed by Good Morning America, who calls him “the Human Google.” His brother, Eric, has made a biography on Brad. Called “Unforgettable,” the documentary is due out soon.
Brad is one of only a handful of people considered for study under the diagnosis of hyperthymestic syndrome. The subjects are able to recall the day of the week for any given date, and are able to tell researchers all about what happened to them that day – what they were wearing, who they saw, and what public events happened that day. Of the three people studied, two are left-handed, but scientists are not sure if there is correlation there, because so few people are actually diagnosed with this syndrome.
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