“When I was about a week old I remember being in this pink cotton blanket,” Rebecca Sharrock recalls. “I’d always know when it was Mum holding me, for some reason. I just instinctively always knew and she was my favourite person.”
Considering most people’s earliest memories don’t start until around the age of four, it would be easy to assume that Sharrock’s description was a nostalgic daydream, rather than a real memory. But then again, the 27-year-old from Brisbane, Australia doesn’t have a memory like most people – she has been diagnosed with a rare syndrome called ‘Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory’, or HSAM, also known as hyperthymesia. This unique neurological condition means that Sharrock can recall every single thing she did on any given date.
People with HSAM can instantly, effortlessly and immediately recall what they did, what they wore, or where they were at any time. They can remember public news and personal events all in photographic detail and with an accuracy that matches that of a tape or video recorder.
Growing up, Sharrock thought that everybody remembered like she did. Until one day: her parents called her to watch a news segment on TV about people with HSAM. “It was 23 January 2011,” she remembers. “When those people were going through their recollections, the reporters were saying ‘It’s amazing, incredible.’ I said to my parents, ‘Why are they calling this amazing, isn’t it normal?’” Sharrock’s parents explained that it wasn’t normal and they thought she might share the same condition. Full story...
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Considering most people’s earliest memories don’t start until around the age of four, it would be easy to assume that Sharrock’s description was a nostalgic daydream, rather than a real memory. But then again, the 27-year-old from Brisbane, Australia doesn’t have a memory like most people – she has been diagnosed with a rare syndrome called ‘Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory’, or HSAM, also known as hyperthymesia. This unique neurological condition means that Sharrock can recall every single thing she did on any given date.
People with HSAM can instantly, effortlessly and immediately recall what they did, what they wore, or where they were at any time. They can remember public news and personal events all in photographic detail and with an accuracy that matches that of a tape or video recorder.
Growing up, Sharrock thought that everybody remembered like she did. Until one day: her parents called her to watch a news segment on TV about people with HSAM. “It was 23 January 2011,” she remembers. “When those people were going through their recollections, the reporters were saying ‘It’s amazing, incredible.’ I said to my parents, ‘Why are they calling this amazing, isn’t it normal?’” Sharrock’s parents explained that it wasn’t normal and they thought she might share the same condition. Full story...
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