Some people possess an extraordinary ability to recall with great accuracy the events of any given day of their lives. This special talent typically emerges towards the end of childhood, although some individuals have reported noticing it as early as five years old. Known as hyperthymesia or over-remembering, this unique ability was first diagnosed in an American named Jill Price in 2006. Since then, nearly a hundred other individuals around the world have been identified as having Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM).
People with HSAM have the remarkable capacity to remember dates with complete reliability and recall verifiable details with 98 percent accuracy. They can retrieve events from their lives quickly and automatically. Their strong memories focus on events in their own lives, but they also possess exceptional skills when it comes to connecting names and faces. Interestingly, individuals with HSAM show no significant differences in intelligence compared to the general population.
Neuroscientists have found that individuals with HSAM show a unique pattern of brain activity, specifically in the memory network that deals with biographical events. What sets them apart even further is that the typical decline in information processing associated with normal aging does not seem to affect individuals with HSAM. As researchers continue to study and report on cases like that of Jill Price, a deeper understanding of this fascinating phenomenon is emerging.