Hyperthymesia - what is it?
Hyperthymesia is a phenomenal autobiographical memory. In this state, a person can remember and easily reproduce any information related to him. And it doesn’t matter whether she has any significance in his life or not.
The word “hyperthymesia” translated from Greek means “supermemory”. It seems that remembering absolutely everything about yourself is an interesting and unusual gift. However, people suffering from hyperthymesia do not agree with this statement. They have impaired functions of sorting and forgetting information entering the brain. This means that they remember even what they sometimes want to forget forever.
Interesting! There are no more than 20 people in the world diagnosed with hyperthymesia.
Hyperthymesia is often called eidetics. This is a mistake, since eidetism is a state in which a person remembers an image, object or phenomenon in great detail. He can mentally "see" them, even while they are absent. Hyperthymesia is characterized by memorizing exclusively autobiographical data.
This phenomenon is also often confused with hypermnesia. This is the ability to remember and reproduce all the events happening around, including autobiographical data. The difference is obvious. In addition, hypermnesia is considered a temporary condition. It is provoked by a state of passion, hippomania, hyperthymia.
Hyperthymesia how to develop
People believe that this ability is unique to bats and dolphins. But there are also people who are endowed with such a gift. As a rule, such a skill is inherent in those who are blind. Echoloation is developed to varying degrees in each person. But there are many known cases where blind people can easily ride bicycles or go hiking in the mountains. In such situations, they rely not on vision, but on echolocation.
Such people are treated very skeptically and are often mistaken for mentally ill people. However, such people exist among us. They are able to see auras. This is a certain color scheme that surrounds a person. Scientists have not yet found evidence of the existence of any energy around humans. But scientists from Japan claim that the human body is capable of emitting a certain glow. To date, scientists have not been able to find conclusive evidence that people who can see auras exist.
How is it possible, for example, to see the sounds of music or hear colors? Without the use of narcotic and psychedelic drugs. Synesthesia is usually called just such a condition. In this state, a person is able to activate many senses at the same time. Data says that every two hundred inhabitants of the planet are synesthetic. There are many variations of this superpower. For example, some people, upon hearing the letter “A,” immediately see a bright green color. Or, after inhaling the scent of this or that flower, they hear this or that music.
Approximately 25% of the world's population has many more taste buds than everyone else. This ability allows them to become tasters or the best cooks in the world. But not everything is so wonderful. The fact is that such sensitivity of taste does not allow them to eat what ordinary people eat. They often cannot tolerate the taste of sweets, fatty foods and fresh vegetables.
Scientists recently discovered that the human body is endowed with a protein called cryptochrome. It is thanks to this protein that birds, and many other creatures, are able to see the earth's magnetic field. This can be compared to a GPS navigator built into their head. It is not yet clear whether humans are capable of this, but scientists are working hard to find out.
Some perceive it as a gift, while for others it is the worst punishment. It depends on which side you look at it from. Not many people can boast that they remember down to the smallest detail everything they knew and saw throughout their lives. Such people are not able to forget anything. Just imagine: you remember everything... And it’s good if these memories are pleasant and happy. But what if they are one of those that you really want to forget? Now think before you complain about your bad memory.
Sources: Absolute memory: myth or reality “Human memory is getting better. I am sure that almost each of us would like to have a good memory. Absolute memory is the brain’s ability to remember various information in any https://tatianabadya.ru/articles/absolyutnaya-pamyat-mif-ili-realnost/ A British teenager suffers from a “super memory” disease A British teenager suffers from a “super memory” disease “Can overdeveloped memory be a disease? 20-year-old British young man Orilien Hayman has super memory; he remembers everything https://www.newsps.ru/neoby-chny-e-yavleniya/britanskij-podrostok-stradaet-ot-bolezni-super-pamyati.html Hyperthymesia, or an incredible amount of memory Hyperthymesia is a rare memory disorder when a person remembers his entire life, every day he has lived since infancy in detail https://anydaylife.com/fact/post/1578 Hyperthymesia how to develop People believe that such an ability is inherent only in bats and dolphins. But there are also people who are endowed with such a gift. As a rule, such a skill is inherent in those who are blind. https://newrezume.org/news/2015-06-26-9720
Causes
It is impossible to say exactly what causes the development of hyperthymesia. Scientists have only been able to create a number of theories to explain its appearance. They are conventionally divided into biological and psychological.
According to research, people with hyperthymesia have an enlarged temporal lobe and caudate nucleus of the brain, which are responsible for semantic and episodic memory. These disorders are caused by the brain's inability to forget received information. It turns out that he can no longer divide everything that happens to a person into significant and insignificant events for him.
Is hyperthymesia a blessing or a curse? Is it so good to have a phenomenal memory?
What is it like to live with absolute memory? His phenomenal memory is both a blessing and a curse.
Would you like to remember the details of any day from your past? Do you think this isn't real? Perhaps you are right.
But for Joey DeGrandis, a man with almost perfect memory, his entire life is an endless stream of memories and vast knowledge.
DeGrandis first realized that he was different from his peers as a child, when his parents noticed his perfect memory.
However, DeGrandis never considered his unusual ability to be that big of a deal; to him, it was just a fun trick he could use to impress his friends.
That all changed in 2010 when DeGrandis, who was 26 at the time, watched a TV segment about people with exceptional autobiographical memories.
DeGrandis noticed many similarities between himself and the people shown in the story, then he decided to find out more about his abilities by contacting a specialist who was studying in this area - University of California professor James McGaugh.
McGaugh diagnosed the first case of hyperthymesia (super memory) when a woman named Jill Price contacted him about “memory problems.”
McGaugh appeared on a television program where he spoke about his research in this area.
After his television appearance, McGaugh received more than 600 emails and phone calls from people who believed they, too, had a super memory.
One of these people was DeGrandis.
Despite the fairly large number of people who contacted McGaugh, he and his team discovered exceptional abilities in only 60 of them.
Superior memory can have both advantages and disadvantages.
Having a super memory means not only having supernatural abilities and remembering the smallest details, but also that everything bad that happens in your life cannot be forgotten, and it is impossible to get rid of painful feelings.
“I consider myself lucky because I have a pretty good life, so I have a lot of happy and pleasant memories that I want to go back to,” DeGrandis says.
“But, indeed, I tend to pay more attention to what is happening in my life than a person with normal memory does, and when something unpleasant happens, for example, a breakup or the death of relatives, I cannot forget those sad feelings.” .
A person with exceptional autobiographical memory may forget someone's name or not remember where they put their keys, since this is not the same as having a photographic memory.
"Their memories are much more detailed than ours, and they are stored for a longer period of time, but nevertheless, such people are not living recorders," explains McGaugh.
“Memory is a complex mental process, and the memories we retrieve from our brains are not always completely accurate.”
The first diagnosis, known as “exceptional autobiographical memory,” was made 20 years ago, but researchers still have a long way to go to fully understand the phenomenon.
A deeper understanding of this could even lead to advances in the fight against diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Despite some inconveniences, DeGrandis is still grateful for his unusual gift.
“It can be frustrating sometimes, but it's nice to have easy access to happy memories,” he says.
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22.01.2018
Symptoms
The main symptom of hyperthymesia is an exacerbation of two types of memory: emotional and mechanical. The brain remembers some insignificant and completely unnecessary data, but at the same time it thinks worse. A person often does not understand the meaning of the information received and is delirious. He may also experience hallucinations that are related to what he remembered or learned.
Super taste.
Approximately 25% of the entire world population has many more taste buds than everyone else. This ability allows them to become tasters or the best cooks in the world. But not everything is so wonderful. The fact is that such sensitivity of taste does not allow them to eat what ordinary people eat. They often cannot tolerate the taste of sweets, fatty foods and fresh vegetables.
Diagnostics
Neuroscientists study phenomena such as hyperthymesia. Together with them, radiologists and electrophysiologists participate in making a diagnosis. They conduct a thorough study of the functioning of the brain, testing its ability to remember, sort and reproduce information from different time periods.
Most often, three types of diagnostic measures are carried out.
Motor functional tests
They help evaluate the functioning of nerve cells in the brain while a person is active, such as talking or moving. There are several such tests: for knowledge of languages, for pattern recognition, for movements, etc.
Radiographic scanning
Helps rule out the presence of structural abnormalities in certain parts of the brain. Conducted using MRI or CT.
Electrophysiological studies
They represent the study of the rhythmic activity of the cerebral region. An example of such a diagnosis is electroencephalography.
It is worth noting that research of this type is the fastest and most informative. In a split second, they make it possible to find out whether there are disturbances in the functioning of the cerebral cortex and its other parts.
Definition of hyperthymesia: symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment
Per. from English N.D. Firsova
Hyperthymesia is a condition where a person has a deep, extremely detailed autobiographical memory. A person with such a mental trait remembers a huge number of events in his life. This can be described as a super memory state.
The name "hyperthymesia" comes from the Greek words "hyper timesis", meaning excessive memorization, super-memory.
What is hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia is an unusual mental or unique neurological condition in which a person remembers a huge number of life experiences that happened in the past. These people remember even the most insignificant events of their lives, things that an ordinary person does not remember. Compared to people who have normal memory, their memory is very deep.
Definition of hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia can be defined as a hyperthymestic syndrome in which a person has an unusual level of autobiographical memory. He has the ability to remember a huge number of life events and personal experiences that happened in the past.
Symptoms of hyperthymesia
People with hyperthymesia are similar to normal people with the difference that they can remember even the smallest events that happened to them. Some basic signs and symptoms by which we can distinguish such people are deep semantic memory, exceptional episodic memory, ability to recall small events, exceptional memorization ability, high reasoning ability, etc.
The traditional way of identifying or assessing these symptoms in a person is simply by asking questions about minor events that have occurred in his or her life. But clinically it is necessary to conduct motor functional tests to make sure that it is hyperthymesia.
Causes of hyperthymesia
There is currently insufficient clinical data to elucidate the exact mechanism that causes hyperthymesia. However, studies and laboratory data show that a person with hyperthymesia has an enlarged temporal lobe and caudate nucleus of the brain. The temporal lobe is an important part of the brain containing components that regulate semantic and episodic memory.
There are many doctrines about hyperthymesia that try to explain how people gain this ability, but most theories agree that such remarkable memory occurs naturally in people.
Treatment of hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia is not a severe pathology or an intense clinical emergency requiring surgical intervention. Although it is a kind of functional deviation from the normal process, it is not undesirable to be a person who has a super memory. Clinically, a person with hyperthymesia has no mental complaints, so unless the patient experiences any functional or structural abnormality in the brain region, no intervention is required.
Diagnosis of hyperthymesia
Tests for hyperthymesia can be divided into three parts: motor function tests, radiographic scans and electrophysiological tests. All studies are non-invasive and performed under the supervision of a radiologist or electrophysiologist. Motor function tests are usually performed to analyze mental performance, such as the ability to reason, think logically, remember, and recall minor events that happened in the past.
Motor functional tests
A motor function test is used to check the activity of neurons in the brain during movement, speech and memory. In addition, these tests are also used to analyze mental performance such as reasoning ability, logical thinking ability, memorization ability, and the ability to recall minor events that took place in the distant past. They include a visual functional motor test, a lateralization test, an executive function test, a pattern recognition test, and a language proficiency test.
Radiographic scanning
Radiographic scans are performed to examine the internal structures of the brain in order to rule out any structural abnormality if a person has complaints. These tests include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT scan).
Electrophysiological studies
Electrophysiological studies are carried out to study the rhythmic activity of the cerebral region. These include electroencephalography (EEG), etc. Electrophysiological tests are mainly used to analyze the brain wave pattern and its frequency.
Hyperthymesia versus eidetics
Functionally, hyperthymesia and eidetics differ from each other. In hyperthymesia, a person has a deep autobiographical memory of events that happened previously, while eidetic memory is characterized by a condition in which a person has an extensive and strong photographic memory that is not limited to autobiography. A person with eidetic memory has the ability to remember everything seen in the past, recognize faces, recognize places, etc.
How to get hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia is a characteristic that is not normal, but, giving exceptional memory ability, is desirable for many people. This is a trait that nature bestows on a person and which cannot be achieved through medicine or any other practices.
Extremely High Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)
Highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) is a rare condition that was discovered only a few years ago. This is a condition in which a person can remember the vast majority of personal experiences and events in his life. Typically this condition is called hyperthymesia, but clinically it is defined as extremely high autobiographical memory (HSAM).
Hyperthymestic syndrome
Clinically, hyperthymesia is often described as hyperthymestic syndrome to make it more understandable to healthcare professionals. Hyperthymestic syndrome can be defined as High Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), which allows a person to remember a huge number of events that happened to him previously.
People with hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia is a mental condition where you have unusual autobiographical memory, remembering everything that happened to you in the past. People with hyperthymesia have the ability to remember a huge number of experiences and events in their lives. In general, it takes a lot of time to go through all the old memories of your life.
There are 25 famous people known to have an amazing memory that retains details of all events in the past. Marilu Henner is one of the 25 people with hyperthymesia.
Hyperthymesia Marilu Henner
Marilu Henner is a famous American radio host, producer, actress and author who has an enormous memory, remembering everything about her past life. In fact, she has the hyperthymesia you've ever read about. When someone tells her about her past life and events, she can talk about every minute of her life in detail, demonstrating a remarkable memory. She is a lady who is able to tell others everything that is stored in her skull. They say that Marilu Henner's hyperthymesia and her ability to manage her memory are impressive. On various platforms, she has shared several bad and good events of her life, including from her childhood, with her fans and followers. She spoke about many events in detail on the radio.
If you are studying hyperthymesia and looking for someone who has this type of memory, the best example is Marilu Henner. She has the best autobiographical memory in the United States, and most likely in the world. Marylou says that it is quite easy to remember some event, no matter whether good or bad, but in fact it is boring and difficult to keep in mind any date, day, year, conversation with an unknown person, any word said somewhere. Her main characteristic is to remember all these ordinary things when someone asks her.
Do I have hyperthymesia?
It is extremely difficult to determine whether you have autobiographical memory or not. There are several ways to find the correct answer to this question - inherited knowledge and psychological practice.
If a person wants to evaluate his autobiographical memory, he can test it by remembering various events and little things from the past. If you manage to remember in detail, down to the smallest detail, all the events or things in your life in the past, then you may be a person with hyperthymesia.
Examples from life
As mentioned above, there are up to 20 people with hyperthymesia living in the world. One of them is Australian Rebecca Sharrock. She remembers absolutely everything, even how, at the age of 7 days, her mother wrapped her in a pink blanket and held her close.
As a child, Rebecca thought that everyone had such a wonderful memory as she did. She changed her mind in January 2011 when she saw a TV report about hyperthymesia. Seeing the journalist’s admiration, the girl was very surprised.
Suspecting that something was wrong with their daughter, the parents wrote to the University of California, where they had been studying this syndrome for many years. After numerous tests, Rebecca was diagnosed with hyperthymesia in 2013.
The girl is not happy with this “gift” of nature. She complains that she reacts to remembered events in the same way as she did at the age when they happened. So, for example, if she remembers what happened when she was 3 years old, she will react accordingly with childish emotions. Because of this, Rebecca is often anxious, constantly nervous, and depressed. She also experiences headaches and insomnia.
And that is not all. Sometimes memories pop up in your head that you don’t want to remember at all. The only way a girl can protect herself from this is to constantly think about the good. And still it is not possible to solve the problem 100%.
Another example of people with hyperthymesia is the American actress Marilu Henner, who starred in the TV series Taxi. She loves to talk about an interesting moment in life. One of my colleagues announced the wedding date during lunch. Without a moment's hesitation, Marylou asked why she decided to get married on Monday. It was not difficult for her to remember in a matter of moments what day of the week it was. And this is 1 example out of thousands of similar ones.
Absolute memory: myth or reality
“Human memory is getting better.
I am sure that almost each of us would like to have a good memory . Absolute memory is the ability of the brain to remember various information in any volume. But is it so wonderful to remember every day of your life in great detail? After all, people with hyperthymesia (the scientific name of the phenomenon) reproduce not only dates, phone numbers, happy events, but also troubles, negative emotions and failures of previous days.
Neuroscientists study the characteristics of the brain . As part of the search for people with good memory, more than two thousand people were studied at the California Neuroscience Center. They were asked sixty questions, which only people who remembered everything could answer.
It is believed that the planet is home to between four and twenty people with super memories . The most famous of them is Los Angeles resident Jill Price, who wrote a book about herself, “The Woman Cannot Forget.” The American city turned out to be rich in unusual talents: the second owner of absolute memory, Bob Petrell, also lives in Los Angeles.
Two more people with officially recognized supermemory also live in the United States: Brad Williams and actress Marilu Henner. The latter is notable for the fact that she remembers herself from the age of 18 months - this contradicts the opinion of scientists that a person is not able to reproduce the events of his life that happened to him before the age of two.
Due to the fact that there are very few people with hyperthymesia , there is practically no data on the occurrence of this ability. Some scientists consider absolute memory a myth and the desire of people to believe in their limitless capabilities. Professor of the history of psychology at the University of Groningen, Douwe Draaisma, writes in his “Book of Forgetting” that “most of our experiences leave no trace in the brain.”
Douet is also Fr. (Based on materials from “Het geheugen is ongezeglijk.” - de Volkskrant, 03.11.10, p. 48-49.)
Most of us, however, are not “lucky” to have absolute memory. And, while scientists are arguing whether hyperthymesia is a disease or a semantic feature of the body, we have the power to make our memory good, because no one disputes the possibility of training it
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Exercises to strengthen the work of the pineal gland
All of the above contributes to the normal functioning of the pineal gland. However, these methods are nonspecific (acting on the entire body as a whole, and not targeted).
One of the ways to selectively influence the pineal gland is through special exercises. The point of these procedures is to stimulate neuro-reflex zones connected by afferent connections with the parts of the brain we need.
All of the above contributes to the normal functioning of the pineal gland. However, these methods are nonspecific (acting on the entire body as a whole, and not targeted).
One of the ways to selectively influence the pineal gland is through special exercises. The point of these procedures is to stimulate neuro-reflex zones connected by afferent connections with the parts of the brain we need.
The following complex is offered:
- Light, calm, stroking circular movements in the back of the head. In this case, the fingers are first kept together, then gradually diverge evenly.
- Special attention should be paid to the point located along the center line of the body, on the border of the forehead and scalp.
- You can use an additional head massager - it allows you to reduce the area of contact with the skin, while increasing the total number of contacts to stimulate a larger number of affector zones.
- Light tapping on the above point in the forehead area.
These actions should be smooth, easy and calm. There is no need to apply force or be overzealous. It is enough to carry out this complex once a day before bed for 5-10 minutes. When performed correctly, the exercises can lead to feelings of warmth, warmth, calmness and relaxation.
What is the pineal gland?
The pineal gland (pineal gland) is an endocrine gland that regulates many body processes. It releases hormones such as melatonin, serotonin, histamine, and norepinephrine into the blood. Also, the state of the central nervous system neurotransmitters, the speed of impulse transmission and the speed of cognitive processes (thinking, memory, learning) depend on its functioning. All cyclic processes occurring in our body depend on the work of the pineal gland. This gland promotes good and fast brain function and controls blood pressure. The state of the immune system and the emotional background directly depend on its activity. That is why the importance of this organ is difficult to overestimate.
