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December 19, 2010 4:30 PM

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Marilu Henner's Super-Memory Summit

By: Overtime Staff
Topics: Overtime Original

This week on "60 Minutes," Lesley Stahl reported on a very rare ability: to remember each day of your life as if it happened yesterday. It's called "superior autobiographical memory" and scientists have only identified a handful of people in the world who have it. One of them is actress Marilu Henner of "Taxi," oddly enough.

Marilu is an old friend of Lesley's, and in this "Overtime" video, produced by David Rubin, you'll hear the story behind the "60 Minutes" story. It's one you won't soon forget.

Watch part one of Stahl's report.

Watch part two of Stahl's report.

Do you think you might have superior autobiographical memory? Take the test. For each event in question, can you remember any details about your day?

1) What big sporting event occurred on Jan. 30, 1983?

2) What disaster occurred on March 24, 1989?

3) What happened on June 4, 1989?

4) On what date did Tiger Woods win the Master's Tournament?

5) The Chicago Bears defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX on what date?

6) What day did Baby Jessica fall down the well?

7) On what date did the Queen Mother die at age 101?

8) Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right knee on what date?

9) On Feb. 11, 1990 what historical event occurred?

10) When were the Beltway Snipers arrested?

Click here for the answers!

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by TedPalmer1 August 21, 2012 12:16 AM EDT

I'll make this as short as I can, but the subject really deserves a lot more dialog than this.

Marilu Henner's shoes matches her: belt, purse, braclets, earings, eye shadow, and her whole ensemble including her car. She has a remarkable memory. What good is it? When Steve Kroft interviewed J. Craig Venter the PhD microbiologist, Mr. Venter volunteered the statement: "I have no visual memory whatsoever."

Mr. Venter's company gets paid hundreds of millions of dollars a year by ExxonMobile to discover an alternative to carbon based fuels that is abundant, cheap, safe to use, and doesn't harm the environment. Mr. Venter at the time had a staff of 25 PhD scientists working (reporting directly to him) for him to assist him in implementing his ideas on how to accomplish this very worth while task. I forgot to mention the source of inspiration for the interview. Mr. Venter was the first human to create a new form of life in a laboratory environment.

Who is making the contribution of greater value to humanity -- Mr. Venter or Ms. Henner? I pose this question not to try to dimish Ms. Henner in any way. I have a much bigger agenda and purpose.

Managers assign a higher value to the work performed by those who multitask well (and hit the ground running -- but that is another subject). They are very productive. And you have to have a really good memory to recall what you were working on when you were interrupted last, and the time before that, and the time before that, . . . . and the time before that, etc., etc. This especially requires a good short term memory. What Dr. Kandel recently referred to as "working memory" on the Charlie Rose show.

I program computers for a living. My short term working memory borders on nonexistance. I historically get faulted by managers for being too slow. I do design patterns, algorithms, and data structures real well. I have won awards for my software that were a very big deal at the time, and used what I have learned by reading a lot to be a point on the critical path to getting a multimillion dollar business deal that without my contribution would not have been obtained.

To do this requires intense concentration over very long intervals of time without interruption; i.e., I don't multitask very well. First level managers as a class are the biggest bunch of cowards and liers I have ever encountered. They see their future advancement occuring as a consequence of "no problems". So they are very risk adverse and what problems they can't fix, they lie about.

The effect of this can be seen in a project at one of my former employers, Express Scripts, that had to be scrubbed after spending $6 million dollars. The FAA spend over $200 million dollars to develop better software to manage air traffic control across the entire country. Then they shelved it because they were more affraid of the bugs they didn't know about than the ones they did know about in the very old old software that to the best of my knowledge and belief they are still using.

I write all this to let as many people as possibly know that it really pisses me off that so many people who are in positions of authority and control of the disposition of so much money and resources that they have their head so far up their ass and priorities in the wrong order.

To those who say that I should go work in a scientific laboratory where I could be happy and make a good contribution, I respond by saying "you just don't get it!" Computer software models the activity it automates. That model is defined by business rules. The business rules get made up where the rubber meets the road. If you really want to know what those business rules really are, then you have to discover them where the rubber meets the road. That is where I was working when I wrote the software that won the awards and made a very big difference in the success of my employer at the time.

FYI: This is the short version. If you want to read the long version, you have to go to my personal website, but I don't want this to get blown off for self promotion. So if you want to find my website, google "theodore palmer".

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by TedPalmer1 August 21, 2012 1:04 AM EDT: I forgot to mention that I like to tell my wife that I don't clutter my creative mind with the kind of crap that she thinks about. But I have to do that very sparingly because I always pay a terribly high price when I indulge myself that way. Does anybody recall the latest Jack-in-the-Box commercial lately? Hint: scrabble word: "NoNookie".

by Debikins September 22, 2011 2:01 AM EDT

I am wondering why this condition is explained as how you remember all the things in YOUR life, yet all the questions they posed were about events that did not affect most people in the world. And I didn't see anyone saying, oh, I was 2 and it was a Monday, I was really mad cause I lost my blankey. This is interesting, and fascinating, but the dates are always associated with some event. Guess I am always the skeptic, mostly because I can remember so many things vividly, and my mother says, I never said that.

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by Debikins September 22, 2011 4:03 AM EDT: And kind of weird how the only people in the world affected by this are all Americans. I would think the same date would mean different things to people in different countries. Like if you live in Uganda, you probably would not have memories associated with the superbowl or what you were wearing when you went out to eat at the cafe down the block from the Beverly Wishire.

by gajaco December 28, 2010 12:32 AM EST

I was wondering why an IQ test wasn't taken? Also, why weren't these people super achievers in science, the law, medicine or some other discipline that requires total recall? I am so curious about this human capacity as it shows we only know the edges of the total human ability.

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by Debikins September 22, 2011 2:05 AM EDT: excellent point!


by demo.xnola December 21, 2010 11:20 PM EST: Henner must be able to learn lines after one reading and only . . . "Taxi" ???; Reply to this comment


by laplam December 21, 2010 1:43 PM EST: this makes me wonder if it has a connection with Rainman who also had this special ability but had autism.; Reply to this comment


by antoniof123 December 21, 2010 10:02 AM EST: very cool story.....; Reply to this comment


by gruven13777 December 20, 2010 11:56 PM EST: I'm actually glad I have a bad memory.; Reply to this comment


by rsnbrunswick December 20, 2010 11:06 PM EST: Fascinating segment on autobiographical memory. I agree with a couple of previous writers whose comments suggest the value of neurological and other research into any link between this and Asperger's syndrome, and with those who wondered about the subjects' earliest memories. For example, can they remember the earliest specific day about which they have such superior memories (which can be discovered by going backward year by year, month by month, day by day, if they can't specify it on their own)? Since one of them indicated she remembered so well only from when she was 11, while another said (I think) 5 or 6, it might be instructive to find out not only when each one remembers back to, but also, where possible, to try to determine if anything happened then in each of their lives that might have triggered some lifelong hormonal or neurological change.

I also hope that research is being done into the subjects' adrenaline levels (both everyday and when a particularly strong memory is being introduced in testing); whether, in addition to the enlarged portions of their brains related to memory, any other portions--adjacent or not--are smaller than usual (or if their brains overall are larger); and whether any of the subjects is capable of deliberating suppressing a memory.

And considering the OCD connection to these subjects, it might be useful to examine and compare them neurologically (and in terms of hormone and other levels) with others who have OCD--those who have superior memories, and those who don't. The same kind of research could be done on anyone who's known to have elevated adrenaline levels.

Whatever the connections may be, despite the dismissiveness of some of the people writing comments here, such research might have serious relevance to the prevention and/or treatment of all kinds of memory problems and loss, not just in something as severe as Alzheimer's but in many other conditions--and could even help in discovering ways in which people with so-called normal memories might be able to increase their capabilities, potentially beneficial to scientists, doctors, and all sorts of other people who need to absorb, retain, and recover massive amounts of information efficiently.

Even if little of practical use to the general population comes out of such research, the segment itself was extraordinary, like all investigations into how the human mind works, particularly minds that function in exceptional ways (for example, savants, people with Asperger's, and those with synesthesia).; Reply to this comment


by FiftyPercents December 20, 2010 11:04 PM EST: If they can recall things like rewinding a DVD, would they ever need to look at a photo a second time or rewatch a favorite movie?

However, this question is really about emotion and sensation, as such would have with events like eating or sex. At least one of the six remembered painful moments vividly perhaps with the emotion of the time of the of the experience. Perhaps it was the memory of the facts of the event with the current emotional interpretation of the facts. What do they recall of the pain of an injury (a crash, cut, break) or the experience of a physical sensation (and emotional feeling), such as taste in eating or orgasms with sex. Are 5/6 single because they do not need to seek out partners (with the same drive as others do) with whom to have and keep recreating such social or pleasurable experiences because they can relive the experiences they have accumulated and obtain the same physical responses and releases.; Reply to this comment


by jblaymon December 20, 2010 10:18 PM EST: This is a great story... I hope I remember it.

Like Leslie said. It bothers me that I have forgotten so much of my life. Maybe that is why I am always archiving and journaling.; Reply to this comment

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