Studying Autobiographical Memory
Researchers Use Wisconsin Man's Brain To Test Syndrome
Researchers are gaining new insight into the way that human memory works by studying a man whose memory far surpasses the average person’s. Brad Williams is said to be one of only three people in the world with an autobiographical memory. He can run through the day’s events of almost every day in his life, including what was going on in the world that day.
Studying the Autobiographical Memory
Williams is a 51-year-old radio news reporter in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His brain is being studied by the University of California-Irvine, the university that gave Williams’ condition its formal name, hyperthymestic syndrome. Two other people, a man from Ohio, and a woman living in California are also gifted with this condition. In studying them, the researchers hope to find new ways to treat people with memory loss, such as Alzheimer’s patients.
Williams learned of the name of his syndrome when his brother showed him an article in the journal Neurocase, about the California woman who possessed a superior memory. After undergoing a memory test at the university, it was confirmed that Williams had the same condition. Since then, the researchers have been working to create a three-dimensional picture of Williams’ brain using MRI scans.
How Hyperthymestic Syndrome Develops
So far, they have found that people with hyperthymestic syndrome have some larger parts of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with complex thinking rather than learning and memory. They are now searching for more people with this condition in order to get a larger scope of readings to compare with. They have also learned that those with the syndrome do not necessarily do better on standard memory tests nor do they shortfall in any other areas because of their condition.
History of the Condition
Hyperthymestic Syndrome has been identified and studied since the 19th century when English psychologist Sir Francis Galton created a method to test for the condition. This consisted of using a set of everyday words and trying to associate them with personal memories. A version of the test still exists today.
Galton discovered that the brain repeated the use of the associations he gave it, showing that the storage of memories is rather limited in most people. In the 1970’s, this method was used to test the memories of college students and came up with the “power law of forgetting” in which recent memories are more plentiful than past memories and that most of what we learn is forgotten soon after we learn it and what we do retain shapes our knowledge.
In testing middle-aged and older people, they found that while past memories did begin to decline, they then rose sharply as they aged. Some say this is because they are recalling a time when the brain was working at its best. Others say that these memories shaped their way of learning and could not be replaced by secondary experiences. Other factors, such as smell and traumatic events, such as the events of 9/11 are other triggers that help store memories. Some just store them better than others.
