Psychology

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nonfatmatt

Meet the woman who cannot forget (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/psychology

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Imagine being able to remember every single day of your life, all the way back to when you were a newborn.

Australian woman Rebecca Sharrock is one of only 60 people in the world with a highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), also known as hyperthymesia.

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[–] athairmor 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Your brain seems to actively forget almost everything before age ~4 and most things before age ~7. The phenomenon is known as childhood or infantile amnesia. It’s possible to retain memories from those ages just very unlikely. I think trauma and strong emotions make them more likely to be retained.

There are several theories why but we don’t really know. It’s possible these people have that shut off.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Honestly I wonder how many GB (or whatever the equivalent is for neural networks) the average person's long term memories take up.