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What if you finished reading this article and remembered every detail of it for the rest of your life? Thats the problem people with super-autobiographical memory faceand yes, its often referred to as a problem, not a gift. Their minds are like a computer hard drive that retains everything: dates, middle names, license plate numbers, even what they eat for lunch on a daily basis There are only four confirmed super memory cases, a disorder experts say is somewhat related to OCD, though no doubt there are plenty others who havent been identified yet.
So who are the four individuals whove all recently been the subject of a study at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.? Lets meet them and find out 1. Bob Petrella
A Los Angeles based producer for the Tennis Channel, Bob Petrella may remember every number in his cell phone, but its his ability to recall sporting events thats most remarkable. Give him a date, like March 30, 1981, and he could tell you not only that it was the day Reagan was shot, but also that Indiana beat North Carolina for the NCAA championship that evening. Even more impressive: when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers, his favorite team, you can show him a single freeze frame from most any game that hes seen, and he can tell you not only the date of the game, but the final score.
According to a piece on ABC news, Patrella remembers all but two of his birthdays since he turned 5. He recalls where he was and what he did with high school buddies. Grainy images of the 1970s are vivid pictures in his head. I remember all my ATM codes, he said. I remember peoples numbers. lost my cell phone Sept. 24, 2006. A lot of people, if they lost their cell phone, they would panic because they have all these numbers. I didnt have any numbers in my cell phone because I know everybodys numbers up here [in my head].
2. Jill Price
Probably the best known of the four, Jill Price has described her gift as nonstop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting. She was the first to be diagnosed with the condition, and recently published a memoir, The Woman Who Cant Forget. Price remembers most details of nearly every day shes been alive since she was 14 and compares her super memory to walking around with a video camera on her shoulder. If you throw a date out at me, its as if I pulled a videotape out, put in a VCR and just watched the day, she has said.
Like Bob Petrella, Price calls California home, though working as an assistant at a Jewish religious day-school, shes about as far from Hollywood as you can get. And although people she meets at parties are impressed with her ability to remember everything from the date of the Lockerbie plane crash (December 21, 1988) to the last episode of Dallas, (May 3, 1991), in her memoir, she describes super memory as a nuisance, partly because she cant seem to forget painful events, like when someone she was crushing on rejected her.
3. Brad Williams
For every Jill Price, theres a Brad Williams, a Wisconsin radio anchor who embraces his super memory and enjoys having it tested. Ask him what happened on November 7, 1991 and hell tell you that it was the day Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive. But Williams does not stop there. It was a Thursday, he once said in an MSNBC piece. There was a big snowstorm here the week before.
Unlike Bob Petrella, Williams has a tough time with sports, but excels at pop-culture trivia. For instance, he could name you every Academy Award winner and even went nailed all five questions in the category 1984 Movies when he appeared on Jeopardy! in 1990.
Although the folk at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine dont agree, Williams says he never saw his ability as anything out of the ordinary. Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasnt like everyone else, he has said. A feature-length doc on his life, titled Unforgettable, is presently in production.
If youre interested in the subject, remember to check it out once it hits theaters.
4. Rick Baron
A Cleveland, Ohio native, Rick Baron came out and announced his super ability directly to USA Today, after reading a piece the newspaper publish on Jill Price. Unlike Price, Baron uses his super memory to win stuff. Although unemployed, hes extremely resourceful and is constantly entering, and winning trivia contests. His list of rewards include restaurant gift cards, tickets to sporting events, even all expense paid vacations (Baron has won 14 of them). Baron claims to remember every detail of his life since the age of 11, and is usually pretty successful at remembering the day-to-day going all the way back to when he was seven.
According to the USA Today piece on Baron, his sister claims he shows signs of hardcore OCD. He organizes and catalogs everything. He even keeps his bills in order of the city of the federal reserve bank where they were issued and also by how the sports teams in that city did.
So who are the four individuals whove all recently been the subject of a study at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.? Lets meet them and find out 1. Bob Petrella
According to a piece on ABC news, Patrella remembers all but two of his birthdays since he turned 5. He recalls where he was and what he did with high school buddies. Grainy images of the 1970s are vivid pictures in his head. I remember all my ATM codes, he said. I remember peoples numbers. lost my cell phone Sept. 24, 2006. A lot of people, if they lost their cell phone, they would panic because they have all these numbers. I didnt have any numbers in my cell phone because I know everybodys numbers up here [in my head].
2. Jill Price
Like Bob Petrella, Price calls California home, though working as an assistant at a Jewish religious day-school, shes about as far from Hollywood as you can get. And although people she meets at parties are impressed with her ability to remember everything from the date of the Lockerbie plane crash (December 21, 1988) to the last episode of Dallas, (May 3, 1991), in her memoir, she describes super memory as a nuisance, partly because she cant seem to forget painful events, like when someone she was crushing on rejected her.
3. Brad Williams
Unlike Bob Petrella, Williams has a tough time with sports, but excels at pop-culture trivia. For instance, he could name you every Academy Award winner and even went nailed all five questions in the category 1984 Movies when he appeared on Jeopardy! in 1990.
Although the folk at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine dont agree, Williams says he never saw his ability as anything out of the ordinary. Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasnt like everyone else, he has said. A feature-length doc on his life, titled Unforgettable, is presently in production.
If youre interested in the subject, remember to check it out once it hits theaters.
4. Rick Baron
According to the USA Today piece on Baron, his sister claims he shows signs of hardcore OCD. He organizes and catalogs everything. He even keeps his bills in order of the city of the federal reserve bank where they were issued and also by how the sports teams in that city did.
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