It's basically about a man named Brad Williams who can recall the smallest details of his life. His specialty is dates. Ask his what happened on a certain date and he will be able to tell you what he did. In fact, if you compare my last memory blog to the article you'll be able to see numerous similarities. They both mention A.J., a women whose memory competes with Williams and her experiences. However, she says that her memory is a burden, with memories flashing in and out like an unedited movie while Williams says that he "never really had reason to think I wasn't like everyone else." So the question remains: why is all this information there?
We know basically where memories are stored and how they are retrieved but we've never known why. Maybe its part of the way we've evolved. If everyone were like goldfish then every three seconds we would have to relearn our lives. I don't think that's possible. However, we have a glimpse of what could happen. Seeing people with Alzheimer's disease is an example of someone who is losing their memory but may physically still be okay. Although its not as instantaneous as a goldfish, we see that humans cannot function without some kind of memory. Is that why we remember? I guess the only way to find out is to learn about people like A.J. or Williams and continue to try to understand the brain and unlock some of its secrets.
If the link didn't work then here's the website:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/22/memory.man.ap/index.html
