TheyneverforgetThestrangegiftofperfectmemory.docVIP

Some people can recall what happened on almost every day of their lives. Unlocking their secrets could shed light on the way all our memories work IT WAS an email that memory researcher James McGaugh found hard to believe. The sender, a 34-year-old housewife named Jill Price, was claiming that she could recall key events on any date back to when she was about 12, as well as what she herself had done each day. Some people call me the human calendar, she wrote, while others run out of the room in fear. But the one reaction I get from everyone who finds out about this gift is amazement. I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy! McGaugh invited Price to his lab, making sure he had to hand a copy of?20th Century Day by Day, a book that lists important events by date. He opened the book to random pages and asked Price what had happened on those days. Whether it was a plane crash or some elections or a movie star doing an outrageous thing, she was dead on, he recalls. Time and time again. That was in June 2000. McGaughs group has worked closely with Price ever since, and has discovered she is one of a select few with similar abilities. These individuals are neither autistic savants nor masters of mnemonic-based tricks of recall, yet they can remember key events from almost every day of their lives. Learning more about their abilities and how their brains are wired should lead to insights into the nature of human memory. Intrigued by McGaughs findings, I arranged to visit his lab at the University of California, Irvine, to find out how these people live with such unusual abilities – and what it is like for the researchers working with them. It never ceases to amaze me, says McGaughs colleague, Aurora LePort. Some of them can remember every day you give them. She says studying people whose powers of recall seem to be enhanced, rather than impaired, offers us a new too