Mysterious people with 'superhuman memory', only 100-200 people in the world

Just by mentioning any day in the past, people with extraordinary memories can recount what happened that day .

Remember everything

Emily Nash, a person with "superhuman memory" syndrome, has just been discovered - (Photo: CTV W5).

Emily Nash (18 years old) from Ottawa, Canada has just been recognized as one of the youngest people in the world with super memory, also known as "superhuman memory syndrome" (HSAM) . Emily is the first recorded Canadian to own HSAM.

For most people, memories fade over time. If someone asks you to recount what happened on a past day, you will probably have to spend time reflecting.

But if asked, Emily will respond accurately in just a few seconds. For example, on October 21, 2021, Emily immediately remembered the manslaughter incident on the set of Alec Baldwin's film Rust. Emily was sure it was Thursday.

What about March 4, 2019? Emily remembers the day actor Luke Perry passed away. She said that afternoon, on the way her mother took her home for lunch, the radio broadcast this news.

Emily says her memories are like a calendar in video form right in her brain. "Each day represents a little movie that I can rewind to different times ," Emily said.

Emily's family discovered Emily's strange memory ability when she was a child. Her father, Jason Nash, said that by simply showing Emily a series of multi-colored bowling balls for 10 seconds, she could recite the correct color and order.

And her mother, Julie Farnworth, remembers when Emily was 5 years old, after watching cartoons, she could repeat any dialogue between the characters.

Emily participating in surveys with Northwestern University and Texas State University - (Photo: CTV W5)

At age 18, Emily was examined by scientists at Northwestern University, Chicago, and Texas State University. They gave Emily a list of random dates and asked Emily to talk about her experiences. As a result, Emily was 100% accurate.

The research team determined that Emily had "superhuman memory syndrome " (HSAM). There are currently about 100 - 200 people recorded with HSAM in the world . "Now I see I'm not alone ," Emily said.

Looking for solutions to extraordinary memory

Scientists only started researching HSAM in 2006. Studies confirm that the memory ability of these people is completely unrelated to IQ, and is completely different from "super memory" caused by practice or training. use tricks.

People with simple HSAM have extraordinary memory abilities. For people with HSAM, their memories do not fade over time as they do for most people.

"It can be understood that they are not trying to remember, they simply do not forget ," said psychologist Carmen Westerberg from Texas State University.

She added that the extraordinary memory ability of people with HSAM is mostly about remembering real-life experiences. Although they will have vivid diaries right in their brains, they may suffer many negative emotions when they cannot forget things they want to forget.

Memories are always vivid for people with HSAM - (Photo: NEW SCIENTIST).

For example, they keep remembering something negative that happened to them in the past, while normal people can gradually forget over time. That's why many people with HSAM also have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The team from Northwestern University attached sensors to Emily's head and chest to study her sleep. Emily is part of a project comparing the sleep of 12 adults with HSAM with 24 normal people.

After analyzing brain wave diagrams, the team found that people with HSAM often recorded twice as many sleepiness episodes as people with normal memory.

They also have unusually slow sleep patterns in early sleep stages. This is thought to strengthen memories of what happened during the day.

The group's research is in the final stages and will be fully published by the end of 2024.

Many people with HSAM also experience psychological disorders when they cannot forget memories they want to forget - (Photo: ALAMY)

Although there are only about 100 to 200 cases of HSAM currently confirmed in the world, some scientists suspect there are many more unknown cases.

Psychology professor Valerio Santangelo from the University of Perugia said he has calculated that theoretically, 0.01% of the world's population has HSAM, equivalent to 700,000 people. Most of them have not been officially tested.