The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory \u2013 first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as \u201cAJ\u201d \u2013 has been profiled on CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and in hundreds of other media outlets. But a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Neurobiology of Learning & Memory<\/em>\u2019s July issue offers the first scientific findings about nearly a dozen people with this uncanny ability.<\/p>\n All had variations in nine structures of their brains compared to those of control subjects, including more robust white matter linking the middle and front parts. Most of the differences were in areas known to be linked to autobiographical memory, \u201cso we\u2019re getting a descriptive, coherent story of what\u2019s going on,\u201d said lead author Aurora LePort, a doctoral candidate at UCI\u2019s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the people with stellar autobiographical memory did not score higher on routine laboratory memory tests or when asked to use rote memory aids. Yet when it came to public or private events that occurred after age 10\u00bd, \u201cthey were remarkably better at recalling the details of their lives,\u201d said McGaugh, senior author on the new work.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not memory experts across the board<\/strong>. They\u2019re 180 degrees different from the usual memory champions who can memorize pi to a large degree or other long strings of numbers,\u201d LePort noted. \u201cIt makes the project that much more interesting; it really shows we are homing in on a specific form of memory<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n She said interviewing the subjects was \u201cbaffling. You give them a date, and their response is immediate. The day of the week just comes out of their minds; they don\u2019t even think about it. They can do this for so many dates, and they\u2019re 99 percent accurate. It never gets old.\u201d<\/p>\n The study also found statistically significant evidence of obsessive-compulsive tendencies among the group, but the authors do not yet know if or how this aids recollection. Many of the individuals have large, minutely catalogued collections of some sort, such as magazines, videos, shoes, stamps or postcards.<\/p>\n UCI researchers and staff have assessed more than 500 people who thought they might possess highly superior autobiographical memory and have confirmed 33 to date, including the 11 in the paper. Another 37 are strong candidates who will be further tested.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next step is that we want to understand the mechanisms behind the memory,\u201d LePort said. \u201cIs it just the brain and the way its different structures are communicating? Maybe it\u2019s genetic; maybe it\u2019s molecular.\u201d<\/p>\n McGaugh added: \u201cWe\u2019re Sherlock Holmeses here. We\u2019re searching for clues in a very new area of research.\u201d<\/p>\n Fellow authors are Aaron Mattfeld, Heather Dickinson-Anson, James Fallon, Craig Stark, Frithjof Kruggel and Larry Cahill. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the Gerard Family Trust and Unither Neurosciences Inc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the UC Irvine press release: UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5334,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Memory.jpg\" "\\"memory\\"")
UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10<\/strong>.<\/p>\n