Posted on 05/10/2008 11:27:17 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin
The woman who can remember everything Last updated: 10:15 AM BST 09/05/2008
A woman who has baffled doctors with her ability to remember every detail of every day has broken her anonymity to speak of her condition.
Jill Price, 42, can remember every part of her life since she was 14 but considers her ability a curse as she cannot switch off.
She described her life as like a split-screen television, with one side showing what she is doing in the present, and the other showing the memories which she cannot hold back.
Every detail about every day since 1980 - what time she got up, who she met, what she did, even what she ate - is locked in her brain and can be released to come flooding back by common triggers like songs, smells or place names.
Mrs Price, a widow who is a school administrator, sometimes struggles to sleep because the vivid memories crowd her mind and stop her relaxing.
Her condition is so rare that scientists had to coin a term for her condition - hyperthymestic syndrome from the Greek thymesis, for remembering, and hyper, meaning well above normal.
For years she remained anonymous, referred to only by initials in scientific journals while experts at the University of California-Irvine tested her ability.
Mrs Price said her memory started working overtime after her family moved to Los Angeles when she was eight and from the time she was 14, in 1980, she can remember absolutely everything.
Neuroscientists say a trauma such as moving the family home can trigger major, lingering changes in the brain, especially in children who cling to memories of how their life had been. Mrs Price said: "Some memories are good and give me a warm, safe feeling.
"But I also recall every bad decision, insult and excruciating embarrassment. Over the years it has eaten me up. It has kind of paralysed me."
Mrs Price was so worried by her condition that in 2000 she asked neuroscientist Professor James McGaugh, a world expert on memory, what was wrong. She wrote to him: "My memory is too strong. It's like a running movie that never stops.
"Most have called it a gift. But I call it a burden. I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy!"
Professor McGaugh spoke to her and was astonished.
He said: "You could give her a date picked at random from years ago and within seconds she'd tell you what day of the week it was, and not only what she did but other key events of the day."
From the age of 10 until she was 34, Mrs Price kept a daily diary, which allowed scientists to check events as she remembered them now against what she wrote down at the time.
Mrs Price, who has written a book called The Woman Who Can't Forget, blames her vivid memories for many years of depression.
Professor McGaugh has since discovered five other adults with similar powers and 50 more "possibles".
He said MRI scans indicated their brains were a slightly different shape to normal.
Two other patterns have emerged. Mrs Price and three of the other five are left-handed and they all compulsively collect things like TV guides, old films and theatre programmes.
Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1940420/The-woman-who-can-remember-everything.html
The woman who can remember everything? At first I thought they were talking about my wife!
It takes time for them to determine that.
Meanwhile you win.
The movie TOTAL RECALL has no begining. The whole thing is the implant.
My first thought, too, the wife from Hell. Of course, my wife remembers everything, even stuff that never happened.
My wife misremembers everything, always in her favor.
Did you know there are....57(!) nations in the Organization of Islamic countries!
What was on his mind, I wonder......
lol...
Good thing she never worked for the Clintons.
Did Vince Foster have the same problem?
Why are you misspelling his name? It’s John Kerry.
Oh ya, He was in Viet Nam wasn’t he?
But can she remember the capitals of all 57 states?
Hey, me too. It's called being neurotic.
Perhaps she’s really from Tralfamador
It for sure wasn't about me and my menory.
This woman’s story is entirely believeable.
When I was about 34 or 35, I somehow acquired the ability to remember everything I read, I can even tell you page and paragraph number and if there are illustrations on a page. It is strange though; when I read something, it isn’t available for recall for about a week to ten days, then it’s like looking stuff up in a book in the library. Here’s the really weird part. My oldest daughter, now 36, has the same ability. She started noticing it about 2 years ago, about the same age that I was when I acquired it. It doesn’t work for experiences or non-written stuff though, I still have a hard time with peoples names and stuff I’m told verbally, and I couldn’t tell you what I ate for lunch 2 days ago, but if I write it down and read it, it stores like a photo.
Oh, yeah! I get it now! And, I DO remember that. Ha!
No, I didn’t miss that. I just forgot. :-) Now, Jon Carry makes sense. Ha!
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