About memory

• First case of hyperthymestic syndrome or superior autobiographical memory. A woman of thirty four years of age can recall any day of her life since she was fourteen. In her own words: "... give me the day and I see it. I go back to the day and I just see the day and what I was doing." Although to everybody else this seems to be a marvellous gift, to her it appears as a burden as she describes herself as both the warden and prisoner of her memories. Parker, Cahill, and McGaugh published a captivating report on this woman in Neurocase, 2006.
• Funes, the Memorious. A fantasy short story by Jorge Luis Borges, first published in 1942. It tells about Ireneo Funes, who was thrown from horseback and was hit on the head and became unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he found that he was paralyzed but his memory had become infallible. He saw and remembered things in all their minutiae. For example, to him "dog" is a word, too general; he wished there were specific words for dog in the morning, dog in the afternoon, or even for a dog seen from the side or from above; because, all these differed greatly from each other in his extraordinarily complete perception and memory.