18-year-old Emily Nask is one of the youngest people in the world with a phenomenal memory, remembering everything that happened in the past.
Emily Nask is one of the youngest people in the world with a phenomenal memory.
Emily Nask (18 years old) from Ottawa became the first Canadian and one of the youngest people in the world to fall into the case of "supernatural memory syndrome".
She has the ability to remember life events with extremely high detail and accuracy. Her extraordinary memory allows her to remember everything that happened on every day of her life.
Emily's family discovered her extraordinary memory ability when she was a child. Jason Nash, Emily's father, said that if she looked at a set of colored bowling balls for 10 seconds, she could accurately recall the colors and their order.
Julie Farnworth, Emily's mother, said that at the age of 5, she could repeat any dialogue between characters after watching cartoons.
When Emily was 18, scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA, and psychologist and sleep researcher Carmen Westerberg at Texas State University, tested her memory.
They gave her a list of random dates and asked her to describe her experience, along with verifiable events during that time. The results showed that her memory was 100% accurate.
They determined that Emily had a case of "hyperbolic memory syndrome" (HSAM). There are currently about 100 - 200 people in the world recorded as having HSAM.
Hypermemory Syndrome
For most people, memories fade over time. If someone asked you to talk about what happened on any given day in the past, you would probably spend a long time thinking about it.
But Emily would be able to come up with the correct answer within seconds. For example, given October 21, 2021, Emily immediately remembered the accidental murder on the set of Alec Baldwin's film Rust. She was also certain that it was a Thursday.
On March 4, 2019, Emily remembered the day actor Luke Perry passed away. She said that afternoon, on the way home from work, her mother picked her up and the radio station reported the incident.
Emily says her memories are like a video calendar stored in her brain. "Each day represents a little movie that I can rewind or replay at different times," she says.
Emily hopes to develop a career in scientific research in the future.
Scientists began studying HSAM in 2006. They asserted that the memory ability of these people is completely unrelated to IQ, and is completely different from super memory due to training or using tricks.
In people with HSAM, their memories do not decline over time as they do in most people. It is estimated that there are only about 100-200 confirmed cases of HSAM in the world, however, some scientists suspect that many more cases remain unknown.
Anxiety, depression
Although Emily's good memory brought her many benefits, it also had a serious drawback. She remembered the good things in her past, but she never forgot the sad things. She felt the pain as if it had just happened.
Because they constantly remember painful memories from the past, many people with extraordinary memories like Emily also struggle with anxiety and depression.
For Emily, although she has not suffered much loss or pain, the sad events of the past still haunt her until now. That is also the reason why her mother always tries to guide her daughter to manage negative emotions.
"I've tried to teach her that everyone has their own pain. It's part of life. There will be breakups and you should be prepared for that," Emily's mother shared.
Markie Pasternak, 29, from Minneapolis, is also a person with HSAM. The most important advice she gave Emily was that if you can't forget, you need to develop forgiveness.
"Everyone gets hurt because we're all human. Most people can forget that memory, but we can't. So Emily and I have to try to cultivate forgiveness, try to admit that everyone makes mistakes," Markie said.
In the future, Emily hopes to pursue a career in scientific research. However, she has another short-term goal: to meet people with extraordinary memories like her.
(According to Vietnamnet, March 27)
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