Hypermnesia (almost unlimited memory): causes and symptoms

Being able to remember the things we live is something that most people value as something positive, which allows us to learn and treasure what we have experienced. Over time, we tend to forget most of the information we receive, which is adaptive for us since it allows us to make room in our consciousness for the arrival of new information.

Many people wish they could keep in their memory more information for longer, make your memories never disappear. However, this does not occur in cases of hypermnesia, in which all kinds of memories remain vivid and fresh permanently in memory.

Hypermnesia: when we remember everything

Most people are able to recall specific moments that have deeply affected them. The first kiss, the last time we saw a loved one before he died... The emotions that these events cause us to make some details remain with us forever. However, even in these types of memories we usually keep only small scraps, forgetting a large number of details that we consider of little importance.

People with hypermnesia, also called hyperthymesia, have a capacity for recall and evocation far above average, being able to remember a large amount of material with great precision and detail. This capacity allows them to be able to encode, store and retrieve new content very quickly in order to use it when it is needed. It is a tremendously useful ability that has nothing to do with the level of intelligence of the person who possesses it and that in itself is not pathological.

The memory capacity of these subjects is mainly subject to a specific type of memory: autobiographical memory. People with hypermnesia are able to remember almost every detail of the events they have experienced. However, as a general rule they are not more capable in other types of memory unless they are able to link stimuli to memories of a personal nature.

Problems in this memory impairment

However, on some occasions the memory does not focus solely on aspects that the individual wants to remember, but there may be serious difficulties in abstraction and selection of the remembered material, assuming a significant discomfort for the subject that decreases its functionality and can cause anxiety and serious alterations in the state of cheer up. In these cases, it could be considered a pathology, calling it hypermnesic syndrome.

In many cases, hypermnesia or hyperthymesia appears in people with obsessive characteristicsThis fact may be one of the factors that contributes to the retention capacity or an indirect effect of such capacity.

Although there are very few people who suffer from this strange syndrome, various cases have been documented both in the past as in recent times when some individuals indicate that they are able to remember every detail of what they have experienced since the childhood wave adolescence.

Some differences at the neuroanatomical level

The few cases of subjects with hypermnesia that have been studied have shown that they present some peculiarities in some areas and elements of the brain.

It has been found that in these people the frontal and temporal parts of the brain present a stronger connection, with a higher density of white matter, than in most population. There appear to be alterations in the inferior and medial temporal gyrus of the temporal lobe, a area in which the uncinate fascicle is located which has an important role in memory autobiographical. In people with hypermnesia, this fascicle is widely developed.

Likewise, in some of the cases a larger size of the amygdala and his connections with him hippocampus compared to subjects without hypermnesia. This fact supports the belief that the increased level of recall is linked to the connection of stimuli with emotions.

Hypermnesic phenomena

Hypermnesia is a rare phenomenon with very few cases registered. However, there are a large number of phenomena related to this type of problem that appear occasionally in some subjects.

In some cases, great moments that have marked us can appear as clear memories in the form of a flash, especially when we refer to important moments when we clearly remember what we were doing when such an event occurred (say, for example, the arrival of man to the Moon).

Phenomena similar to hypermnesia also appear in some disorders such as psychotic or manic, especially when these memories are used for a specific purpose such as justifying abnormal behaviors.

It is also possible that an event that has caused us a deep emotional alteration, generally events experienced during childhood or some traumatic events, is remembered in an especially vivid way, and can even be confused between the past and the present and consider that the memory is the current experience. This phenomenon is known as ecmnesia.

Profit or torture?

As we have said before, for many people to be able to remember all the events of their life or just being able to hold a much larger amount of information in memory is something positive. Quick recall of information can facilitate learning of many disciplines and skills, gives us a good ability to remember the things that are important to us and our loved ones and can even open the doors to jobs or other opportunities.

However, while some people with hypermnesia live relatively normal lives, for some others their condition can be extremely painful and disabling. And is that in some cases, what could have been a gift became a curse that caused serious difficulties in all areas of life.

In this sense, not being able to forget means that every time we have to do a specific action we have to stop for a long time to organize our mental contents, resulting in a high level of propensity to be distracted and a decrease in the productivity of our Actions.

It can make it difficult to discern between what is necessary and what is circumstantial, placing great importance on elements that really do not have to be necessary. It can also generate a high level of indecision in those who suffer from it.

Emotionally painful memories

In the same way, being able to remember with great clarity means that the painful events that have happened to us throughout our lives cannot be overcome with quickly, with feelings such as guilt and humiliation lingering in one's psyche and making grieving processes a much greater challenge than habitual.

Decreased attention and learning ability

The acquisition of new knowledge is also complicated, since the level of attention decreases with the application of mental resources to try to filter and use the necessary memories and not others.

In addition, the transition between learning and automating tasks becomes difficult, since not only the basic procedure is remembered but the entire set of associated details and therefore it costs more to abstract what is necessary from the accessory.

In addition, in some cases the vividness of the memory can cause a confusion between past and present, can lead to ecmnesic delusions in which it is believed that what is actually a I remember.

Is it really infinite memory?

It must be taken into account that hypermnesia, although it is a very striking phenomenon, is still confined to the field of mental processes (specifically cognitive) and, therefore, depends on the functioning of the brain. This is so because holding the opposite would mean defending dualism in psychology, the belief that there is something incorporeal separate from the material world which in turn affects the latter. That is, an unscientific point of view.

On the other hand, in many cases of people with hypermnesia this goes hand in hand with an abnormal brain. Kim Peek, for example, in addition to being able to memorize entire books, it did not have a corpus callosum that joined the two cerebral hemispheres. It would be a lot of coincidence that these two facts had nothing to do, Obviously, the extraordinary mental capacities they exist because behind them there is an extraordinary nervous system.

That means that hypermnesia has a limit for the simple fact that it arises from something that is also limited: the brain, by its material nature.

Bibliographic references:

• LePort, A.K.R.; Mattfeld, A.T.; Dickinson-Anson, H.; Fallon, J.H.; Stark, C.E.L.; Kruggel, F.; Cahill, L. & McGaugh, J.L.. Behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2012; 98 (1): 78.

• Linscott, R. J. & Knight, R. G. (2001). Automatic hypermnesia and impaired recollection in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 15, 576-585.

• Santos, J.L. (2012). Psychopathology. CEDE PIR Preparation Manual, 01. CEDE. Madrid.