Local Man Remembers Years' Worth Of Information

Imagine remembering in detail, almost every day of your life. It's an extremely rare condition called hyperthymesia.

Alex DeMetrick reports, there are only nine documented cases in the U.S. and one of them lives in Baltimore.

A traumatic event like 9-11 can sear into an entire nation's memory:

"Most people can remember Sept. 11 and where they were and what they were doing. I do that for just about every day for the last thirty or so years of my life," said Sean Conlon.

Sean Conlon's ability is called "hyperthymesia," although he prefers super autobiographical memory.

"I have to specifically experience them in order to remember them. If I didn't experience it, or I wasn't interested in it, or wasn't around it, then I really probably wouldn't remember it," said Conlon.

Sean Conlon is currently concessions manager at the Hippodrome, but he can remember the Preakness winners going back decades.

He also helped set up concessions at the Raven's new stadium for the first game in 1998.

A study at U.C. Irvine has documented only nine people with hyperthymesia. Tests from brain scans show how they do it.

Doctors encourage people to test their own memory. Start by remembering something recent, like the dates for last winter's blizzards.

The subject of hyperthymesia will be explored on "60 Minutes" in the middle of November.