Friday, April 21, 2006

That was a Monday and I had conjunctivitis.

I got a call from Lynn this morning while I was driving to work. "Did you listen to NPR this morning?" she asked. "You're calling about the woman with the crazy memory." "Yes!"

On Morning Edition, there was a piece on a woman who is the subject of a study in the Journal of Neuroscience. And man, is she fascinating. My dad spent over thirty years working in a state psychiatric hospital and he used to tell me about one of his patients who, if you gave him the date of your birth, he could tell you what day of the week that was and what the weather was like that day. This woman can do that and she can tell you bizarre details about the day. April 4, 1994? She baked cookies. November 10, 1998? Her house smelled strangely like ham. It's not just those little details - she can tell you everything that happened in that day in her life because, in her mind, it's re-running like a home movie.

Interestingly, this strange gift does not translate to other areas - she was never good in history class and couldn't memorize much of anything in school. Anyway, hearing is believing - check out the story.

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