There is a teenager who was kicked in the head. As a result her memory reseted every two hours, meaning she woke up thinking every day is 11 June. After 154 days of having a 2hr memory, she finally had her first memory since the accident, thanks to a treatment center in Utah. They identified […]
Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) Is a Rare but Real Condition
The few people who have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) can tell you exactly what happened on any given day, down to the way they felt and at what time. It’s both a superpower and a curse, depending on the circumstances. And to this day, scientists have no idea what contributors make a person have HSAM.
Though they do have some theories.
In 2006, a case study of Jill Price, referred to by the pseudonym AJ in the study, was published in Neurocase. It described in detail her unusual memory. Price later outed herself as AJ publicly.
In an email, Price explained her ability:
I can take a date, between 1974 and today, and tell you what day it falls on, what I was doing that day and if anything of great importance (i.e.: The Challenger Explosion, Tuesday, January 28, 1986) occurred on that day I can describe that to you as well …Whenever I see a date flash on the television (or anywhere else for that matter) I automatically go back to that day and remember where I was, what I was doing, what day it fell on and on and on and on and on. It is non-stop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting.
And she wasn’t alone. A number of people came forward after the report, saying they had the same ability. Some were tested and found to have HSAM, same as Price.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Currently, only about 60 people worldwide are believed to have HSAM. Scientists are working with them to see if they can learn more about the average person’s memory, as well as how, and why, their super memories operate the way they do.
Something researchers have uncovered is that people with HSAM tend toward obsessiveness with cleaning, collecting and organizing, so there is thinking that perhaps collecting and organizing memories is part of HSAM.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Also, structural differences in the areas of the brain associated with autobiographical memory creation show up on scans. When asked about particular dates from the past, regular people lose their ability to recall them after about a week. People with HSAM recall details up to a decade and longer.
Something else researchers found was that people with HSAM can recall false memories just as often as regular people. So, their superhuman memories are far from perfect.
Photo Credit: Pexels
So, what does this all mean? Maybe the answer lies in the mysterious part of the brain where we turn short-term memories into long-term memory.
It would be interesting to figure out, although where this could have practical applications for those of us with normal to poor memories remains to be seen.
I kind of like living my life able to forget – at least I don’t remember all my regrets…
The post Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) Is a Rare but Real Condition appeared first on UberFacts.
Scientists Just Partially Revived Dead Pigs’ Brains Just Hours After They Were Killed
THE END IS HERE. It’s all there, right in the title: scientists have managed to partially revive the brains of dead pigs, hours after they were killed.
Oh god.
While your brain swims with images of pig zombies coming to seek revenge on us all, let me try to explain the science. A research team at Yale restored some cellular activity in the brains of dead pigs, hours after they’d been killed in a slaughterhouse. They did this by soaking the brains in a “specially formulated chemical cocktail” for six hours.
Mmmmmmmkay.
The team has been careful to clarify that the revived brains are not conscious or aware.
“This is not a living brain,” neuroscientist Nenad Sestan explained, “but it is a cellularly active brain.”
The discovery marks a major breakthrough — but not because the scientists are actually trying to bring pigs back from the dead.
JUST IN: The brains of dead pigs have been somewhat revived by scientists hours after the animals were killed in a slaughterhouse.https://t.co/jvk2oXO8z3
— NPR (@NPR) April 17, 2019
Instead, they’ve been trying to figure out how to directly study brain cells while they’re still in an intact organ. Restoring cellular function to a deceased brain is one way to do that.
With this breakthrough, researchers will be able to study brain diseases and injuries in an entirely new way.
“We could actually answer questions that we can’t now,” researcher Zvonimir Vrselja said.
Okay. ::pinches bridge of nose:: Do you want zombie pigs? Because that's how you get zombie pigs. https://t.co/aSyo6LpYiI
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) April 17, 2019
Still, this comes way too close to zombies for comfort. People are kinda flipping out, and can you blame them?
THE ASTEROID IS COMING TO END IT ALL, CAN YALL JUST WAIT, JESUS CHRIST
watch these fools put the pig brains in alexa and then we all get eaten by echo dots https://t.co/mXMGBytoNR
— tracy the emotional support penguin (@brokeymcpoverty) April 17, 2019
Given the apocalyptic-feeling state of the world in 2019, we can just go ahead and add this to the long list of possible ways that the world might soon end. More nightmare fuel, NBD.
The post Scientists Just Partially Revived Dead Pigs’ Brains Just Hours After They Were Killed appeared first on UberFacts.