Some people have a remarkable ability to accurately recall events from their lives, with this super memory typically manifesting in later childhood. Jill Price, a 58-year-old American individual, was diagnosed with this unique ability in 2006 and it was coined as hyperthymesia, or over-remembering. Since then, the term HSAM, which stands for highly superior autobiographical memory, has been used to describe this phenomenon.
Nearly a hundred other people around the world have been identified with hypermemory for life events following the recognition of Jill Price. Individuals with HSAM have the remarkable ability to remember dates with complete reliability and recall verifiable details with 98 percent accuracy. Their memory of events is quick and automatic and they tend to mainly remember events from their own lives, although they are also adept at connecting names and faces.
Despite their exceptional memory abilities, individuals with HSAM do not stand out in terms of intelligence compared to the general population. Brain imaging studies have shown that their memory network dealing with biographical events is highly overactivated according to neuroscientist Jessica Talbotin from La Sapienza University. Additionally, these individuals do not seem to experience the decline in information processing that is typically associated with normal aging.