Imagine being able to remember what this day had lunch three years ago. Or to know in detail the daily news of an arbitrary date, both a moment ago as two decades ago. Or, if you wish, you can not erase the vivid memories of an accident or a breakup.
Such is life for those with highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM according acronym in English), a rare condition that causes very precise records of past events related to the experience: from a family event to what someone told them, read or heard on a particular day.
The syndrome got its name just five years ago, the memory expert James McGaugh, a neurobiologist at the University of California at Irvine. In 2006, the scholar published a paper on a six-year study of a patient with symptoms.
The picture is certainly not new in fiction: the pen recorded Borges 'Funes the memories' and now is the hub of the TV series 'Unforgettable', which just released in the United States.
But in the real world, there are only 20 people officially diagnosed with HSAM, all in the United States.
'Probably there have been some people with this condition for centuries, but have never been scientifically researched their bases. It is a very rare and unusual box, 'says the researcher McGaugh told the BBC.
The group of academics who discovered the HSAM worked with 10 cases, the only ones that had been detected before. A few months ago, when CBS aired a report on the condition, was seen by at least 24 million people in the U.S., of which 500 contacted the researchers think that could be candidates of these only 10 were positive tests.
'Human Google'
To come to recognize the picture, the scientists established its parameters: potential candidates evaluated with a questionnaire of public events that occurred during the past 20 years, from elections to sports competitions, awards or aviation accidents.
Above them, a superior autobiographical memory keeper can tell exact date and day of the week in which they occurred, and other details. Those who achieve over 55% in this test are then asked about personal experiences.
'The family photos or newspaper gives us and we can have accurate data to prove what they experienced and how much of that memory. It's very, very difficult for an individual record beyond a certain time with a very specific level of detail, 'says the expert.
Not for nothing have dubbed 'human Google'. Brad Williams is one of them:
'The most obvious way to realize it was playing Trivial Pursuit or quizzes in bars ... I'm a fan of these contests and I was always better and faster than the rest. Also in family episodes left to give, I was the one who could remember specific dates and details of everything, 'says the man, 55, who lives in Wisconsin.
He found his condition has specific advantages for the job: as a journalist, you need 'less and less physical file searches on the Internet than it already is in my head', says the BBC. His first memory dates from the 2 years, as vividly seen in the chair stolen home matches igniting an aunt smoking.
'I noticed it in high school, I realized that not everyone remembered what I could and thought it was something unusual, like being left-handed or something. Later I noticed I had another dimension ', has Robert Petrella, one of the patients interviewed by BBC World, who agrees with the same sharpness of the first man on the moon in 1969 that the election of Barack Obama in 2008.
For Petrella, who lives in Los Angeles, life is lighter on your back with your memory: remember birthdays and anniversaries and never used the phone book. But it also puts to good use in his job as a television producer for documentaries on the History Channel and Discovery Channel.
No escape
But not all owners of this superlative memory celebrate their condition.
Academic research, in fact, began at the request of a woman, Jill Price, who contacted the experts at Irvine because they can not stand the constant exercise of remembrance.
"It's unstoppable, uncontrollable and totally exhausting ... The memories are just filled my mind. They are not under my conscious control, and as much as you want, I can not stop, "Price wrote in his autobiographical book" Women who can not forget '.
The absolute memory has been complicated, if any, relations with the environment. And there is a striking fact: most patients are not married and McGaugh have stable relationships.
"The handling of the situation depends on the character of each individual and family relationships with other nearby, there is no single pattern but sometimes can be complicated interactions," says the specialist.
In the 'official list' of cases is also the actress Marilu Henner, known for the series 'Taxi' in the late '70s, for whom power 'life displayed in calendar format' has made the task easier the performance.
Now, the actress gives motivational talks and has written a book to help others to activate their autobiographical memory.
Searching the brain
McGaugh neurobiologist finds, however, that the HSAM not be exercised: it is a preexisting condition and are maintained over time, which still have not found neurological explanation.
To identify its origin, the Irvine team performed a series of structural MRI and other functional environment, genetic analysis. So far, have been observed that some areas of the brain of patients with HSAM are larger than those of an individual with normal memory.
These would be the same brain areas that are linked to obsessive-compulsive: hoard memories is, for instance, an analogy of the compulsive hoarding of objects. Now, doctors are in the process of providing a scientific interpretation of these findings.
For one, recommend that those patients who have the condition and weight are not exposed to traumatic circumstances if they can help: they are not good candidates, for example, to join the army and go to war.
But, according to McGaugh, most patients place a condition that allows them to entertain friends for an evening or waive notebooks and newspaper files.
'Most people think it is a gift. I asked them if they would rather not have it and say they do not change anything, 'says the head of the research.
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