I have to do a project at school, and we could choose any topic. I am very intrigued by neurology, and so I started researching. After a while, I came upon photographic memory. I was wondering, is it possible for a ordinary human brain to achieve such madness, and if so, what are some realistic strategies people have used? If you know any people who have photographic memory, and not since they were born, please tell me. Thank you
Answers (3)
There is also this thing similar to photographic memory but it's called Eidetic memory:
Eidetic memory is the ability to recall visual information, such as pages from books, magazines, and license plate numbers, in great detail after only brief exposure to it. It is found in early childhood (between 2 percent and 10 percent of that age group) and is unconnected with the person's intelligence level. Like other memories, they are often subject to unintended alterations usually because of outside influences (such as the way an adult may present a query about a memory). If the ability is not nurtured it usually begins to fade after the age of 6, perhaps as growing verbal skills alter the memory process.
Eidetic images are available only for a small percentage of children aged between six and twelve and are virtually nonexistent for adults. Extensive research, however, has failed to demonstrate consistent correlations between the presence of eidetic imagery and any cognitive, intellectual, neurological or emotional measure.
The popular culture concept of "photographic memory," where someone can briefly look at a page of text and then recite it perfectly from memory, is not the same as seeing eidetic images, and photographic memory has never been demonstrated to exist.
A few adults have had phenomenal memories (not necessarily of images), but their abilities are also unconnected with their intelligence levels and tend to be highly specialised. In extreme cases, like those of Solomon Shereshevsky, Adam Maida and Kim Peek, memory skills can reportedly hinder social skills. Shereshevsky was a trained mnemonist, not a photographic memorizer, and there are no studies that confirm whether Kim Peek had true photographic memory.
Persons identified as having a condition known as Hyperthymesia (also known as highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM) are able to remember very intricate details of their own personal life, but this ability seems not to extend to other, nonautobiographical information. People with hyperthymesia have vivid recollections of such minutiae as what shoes a stranger wore or what they ate and how they felt on a specific date many years in the past. In cases where HSAM has been identified and studied, patients under study may show significantly different patterns of MRI brain activity from other individuals, or even have differences in physical brain structure. Possibly because of these extraordinary abilities, certain individuals have difficulties in social interactions with others who have normal memories, and may additionally suffer from depression stemming from the inability to forget unpleasant memories and experiences from the past. It has also been proposed that HSAM can be explained as a result of obsessive–compulsive thoughts about memories rather than “photographic memory.”
My younger brother has a photographic memory, he's awesome with codes, he's insane with technology. He's practically inherited my Dad's knowledge with numbers.