I can't remember the last time I had a memory lapse

[oldbrownhat]

But I bet this girl does.

18 year old Emily Nash has become among the youngest people in the world to have a super memory

...Emily is a straight-A student. In her last year of high school, she is decidedly composed and modest about her skill. But she now joins a small and unique tribe of about 100 people confirmed with HSAM around the world. For most of us, memories fade with time.

Ask anyone to tell you what happened on Oct. 21, 2021 and you will usually be met with a lengthy pause as they struggle to recall events of that day.

But ask Emily and the response comes within seconds, with precision. “October 21, 2021? Oh, the Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ shooting. That was a Thursday,” she quickly responded.

March 4, 2019? “Luke Perry died,” she stated, noting she never watched the actor’s show, but rather just heard about his passing. “ My mom took me home for lunch, and I remember in the car we had the radio on and they said Luke Perry passed away.” That is all it took for her to remember this detail four-and-a-half years later...​

 

[BAM-BAM]

What???????


How can a 18 year old "...remember a Birthday party from 20 years ago..." ?

I pity her future husband......a normal wife's memory is bad enough to live with!

 

[arjay]

I think Mary Lou Henner has this skill too? Rote learning would be such a breeze lol

 

[Onomea]

From the link above, possible benefits of studying this phenomenon:

...In a world where there are an estimated 10 million people a year developing memory loss linked to dementia and Alzheimers, HSAM is a “juicy phenomenon,” according to Giuliana Mazzoni, a researcher at the University of Rome.

Mazzoni is studying the phenomenon in a group of Italians with HSAM because of the intriguing lessons they may hold. Westerberg agrees, saying, “If we can figure out what's going right with memory, maybe we can help with what's going wrong...."

 

[oldbrownhat]

What???????

How can a 18 year old "...remember a Birthday party from 20 years ago..." ?

?? I didn't see that in the article. Pre-natal memory would REALLY make headlines!

"...But because Emily is among the youngest the team had assessed, they had to adjust the screening questions to adapt to the life experiences of a teen..."​

Agreed about her future husband, though


@arjay: Marilu Henner is mentioned in the article:

"...That’s when the headstone designer suggested Emily might have the same sort of unusual memory first documented in a "60 Minutes" program from 2010, featuring American actress Marilu Henner. The Broadway star and main character of the 1970s sitcom “Taxi” revealed she has a super autobiographical memory for dates and events...​

 

[soFlaNative]

Today I put a banana wrapper in the compost bin.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Today I put a banana wrapper in the compost bin.

And you REMEMBER that? Amazing! I can't remember IF I had a banana this morning.

 

[Breakaway500]

Seems pretty amazing to have a perfect memory. Hope their noghins have enough Ram to support it! Might even drive someone crazy.
I honestly don’t want to remember all of the past 66 years.More or less.
Lots of good but plenty bad.Forgetting becomes an asset as you…age. Once you start seeing the finish line no sense looking back!
I can tell you about any day of my past. And when I tell you, you won’t know if I’m lying or not. Salesmanship and delivery.
Life is all a memory, if you think about it.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Seems pretty amazing.
I honestly don’t want to remember all of the past 66 years.
Lots of good but plenty bad.Forgetting becomes an asset as you…age.

Managing such a memory is addressed in the article. Definitely a two-edged sword.

 

[BAM-BAM]

?? I didn't see that in the article. Pre-natal memory would REALLY make headlines!

"....​

15 seconds into the video!

vs. the headlines.

 

[oldbrownhat]

15 seconds into the video!

vs. the headlines.

Aha! I didn't watch the video. I suspect the scriptwriter/teleprompter screwed up. Clearly she's not THAT prescient!

 

[tripledipper]

Not to be a wet blanket, but people who are gifted with these kind of natural skills often have problems blending into society and are often plagued with bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions as adults. That said, us geriatrics have a recollection of things way back into our early childhood but often can't remember the names of our relatives and their children. The human brain can play tricks on us as we age. As long as I can remember what time cocktail hour is, I'm good.

 

[DWalt]

I once had a female employee with a phenomenal memory. She amazed me with recalling the tiniest details of events that happened many years earlier, and things like names and phone numbers. She was like a walking Rolodex (if anyone remembers what a Rolodex was). And there are those who seem to be born knowing how to play musical instruments without ever having taken a lesson.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Not to be a wet blanket, but people who are gifted with these kind of natural skills often have problems blending into society and are often plagued with bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions as adults.....

Good point. Many people with extraordinary skill sets "don't fit in". I immediately thought of the movie The Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman.

One of the dangers for her is mentioned in the article:

"...While HSAM has its benefits, there is a serious drawback. Those with superior memory remember the good, but they will also never forget the bad. They feel the pain as if it were today. Some with HSAM struggle with anxiety and depression as a result. While Emily hasn’t yet suffered much rejection or loss, she’s felt the sting of the past hurts. “It's like I just re-lived them 5 minutes ago. So it can be difficult for me to push through,” said Emily.

That’s why [her mother] Julie, a psychiatric nurse, is putting great effort into coaching her daughter on how to manage that burden...​

Has anyone seen the 2010 60 Minutes documentary on Marilu Henner?

I'm not quite in the "geriatric" set (or I'm in denial) but clearly remembering the past whle forgetting where I put my keys does occasionally happen

I don't know what Emily's birth month is, but I just thought "Beware the eidetics of March!"

 

[oldbrownhat]

...And there are those who seem to be born knowing how to play musical instruments without ever having taken a lesson.

Or those who get a concussion and wake up fluently speaking a foreign language they'd never studied.

The human mind is still a very mysterious place.

ps- I remember the Rolodex. And Telex...

 

[fiasconva]

Wasn't there a former NBA star that had a memory like that way back when? I seem to remember it was Bill Bradley and he memorized the NYC phone book just for kicks. That was a long time ago so I could easily be wrong about who it was. My memory obviously isn't as good as the young lady's.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Wasn't there a former NBA star that had a memory like that way back when? I seem to remember it was Bill Bradley and he memorized the NYC phone book just for kicks. That was a long time ago so I could easily be wrong about who it was. My memory obviously isn't as good as the young lady's.

Jerry Lucas is one former basket ball player that has and understands memory enough to be able to teach others how to remember!

Ivan

 

[LVSteve]

I'm not in the league of that young lady, but many coworkers seem to think I have a good memory. Some in my family contend that it's far too good.

I knew a guy in the UK who was said to have an eidetic memory. Came in handy when he was at college, although one of his peers said something interesting about him.

"Yeah, _____ appears really clever because he retains a lot of stuff, but he's not all that intelligent".

Sounds like a nasty burn, but the person saying this was not known for unnecessary cattiness.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Jerry Lucas is one former basket ball player that has and understands memory enough to be able to teach others how to remember!

Holy memory jog, Batman!

In HS I worked part time with the set up/tear down crew at the old Cincinnati Gardens. I got to know all these Cincinnati Royals players.

 

[pasound]

This thread jogged my memory to take my glaucoma eye drops.
As I begin to "age out", I find that some things that always existed are a little worse, other things haven't changed.