Hyperthymesia: the cognitive and cerebral processes of the people who never forget

In the present thesis, we explored hyperthymesia, a rare memory syndrome that makes people remembering very accurately their autobiographical experiences. We suggest that living with hyperthymesia is not a gift but rather a burden. Indeed, hyperthymesia does not help persons in their daily life. Moreover, hyperthymesia can even imply difficulties in cognitive functions, such as abstract and creative thinking. This statement has been supported by studies led among the years by authoritative scholars. In Chapter 1, a general overview of the current memory taxonomy is presented. After a brief historical background, the Atkinson-Shiffrin’s model is explained to describe sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, including all their subdivisions. In Chapter 2, memory disorders, as pathologic memory loss, are briefly presented, for later introducing hyperthymesia. To this aim case studies of amnesic patients such as patient HM and C are mentioned. Hyperthymesia is then fully discussed. Case studies such as Jill Price, MM, BB, and HK are presented to explain the neural correlates, the mnestic functioning, and the concrete performance of the people affected by this syndrome. Moreover, distinctions with other forms of extraordinary memory are made, and the relation with obsessive compulsive disorder is considered. At the end of the chapter a consideration regarding the impairment that hyperthymesia causes and the patients’ need of oblivion is presented. Finally, in Chapter 3, we considered some critical points regarding hyperthymesia. First, we discuss some recent research about the topic, including possible treatments based on a phenomenological approach, some genetic studies, and the discovery of the severely deficient autobiographical memory syndrome. Thereafter, we analyzed how hyperthymesia can influence the scientific advances in discovering a cure for memory disorders, with special reference to Alzheimer’s disease, thanks to the apolipoprotein E2 (APOE2). Finally, hyperthymesia and the need of forgetting are discussed from a more anthropological perspective, presenting the cases of digital hyperthymesia and the ancient Greek myth of Lethe and Mnemosyne. As a last point, we agree that much more research is still needed for fully understanding hyperthymesia and for using it for getting closer to a cure for other memory disorders.