INTRODUCTION: Brad Williams, in background,
listens as UC, Irvine memory researcher Larry Cahill introduces him to
a class at the university. Williams is an extraordinarily gifted person
who can recall detail in his life years ago as if he were watching a
INTRODUCTION: Brad Williams, in background, listens as UC, Irvine memory researcher Larry Cahill introduces him to a class at the university. Williams is an extraordinarily gifted person who can recall detail in his life years ago as if he were watching a movie.
IRVINE It seems an odd place to store such precious cargo.
But there it is, in a Tupperware bowl tucked in an old cardboard box. Larry Cahill pulls on rubber gloves, pops the lid and lifts his prize:
"Yes, I do get razzed about keeping a brain in my office," says Cahill, a leading brain researcher at UCI, pointing out the dura mater ("tough mother"), the pia mater ("soft mother"), which cover the cerebral cortex.
"Everything they ever loved, hated or cared about," he says, "went through here."
And everything they ever remembered.
Cahill is trying to explain the living brain of a man undergoing tests in the next room. A brain that makes Cahill's jaw drop. A brain that effortlessly answers questions like:
When was Anwar Sadat killed?
It was Oct. 6, 1981.
What happened to Princess Grace?
She had a stroke and had a car accident and died in 1982 – on September 14th.
What happened 23 years ago today (April 7, 2008)?
"Ok, in 1985 it was Easter Sunday, and my mom and dad were visiting me in Nebraska where I was working. We went to the movies the night before and saw Cher in "Mask" in downtown Lincoln."
It'll take more than a brain in a Tupperware bowl to explain this
He is Case #2 in a pioneering research program at the University of California, Irvine.
Brad Williams has been featured on "NBC Nightly News" and "Good Morning America." He's the subject of an upcoming documentary called "Unforgettable." He's even outwitted America's reigning brainiac in a one-on-one trivia contest.
"He cleaned my clock," says Jeopardy's all-time champion Ken Jennings, 33, of Seattle, Washington, who won 74 straight games in 2004, earning $2.5 million. "It wasn't even close. The guy's phenomenal."
Williams, 51, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, is visiting UCI researchers again, to get more MRI images of his brain. His first visit?
"June 5, 2006," he says, without hesitation. "The next time was Aug 6, of '07. And then April 7 of '08."
Brad's supersized memory has its limits. He sometimes forgets where he parked. He can't memorize a telephone book. But he's off the charts in what is called "superior autobiographical memory" – meaning he effortlessly recalls the days of his life and events that fell on them.
Dec 31, 1967?
"That was the "Ice Bowl" game. The Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys. Bart Starr did a quarterback sneak to win the game."
The premiere of "All in the Family?"
"January 12, 1971. A Tuesday. 8:30 p.m. Central time."
He remembers what he ate for lunch on Aug. 18, 1965 (a hamburger at the Red Barn in Flint, Michigan – verified by a family vacation scrapbook); who won Miss America that same year (Vonda Kay Van Dyke who sang "Together, Wherever We Go"); and what was Record of the Year in 1975 ("Love Will Keep Us Together" by the Captain & Tennille).
He is not autistic. Not a savant. The La Crosse radio newscaster is as normal as you and me. Except that he is one of only two people in the world so far identified with "hyperthymesia."
Which begs the question: Who's #1?
In 2000, a woman asked UCI brain researcher James McGaugh for help with a memory problem.
"This is not a memory clinic," the internationally renowned neuroscientist said.
"You don't understand," she said. "My memory is too strong … It's like a running movie that never stops."
So began a five-year study of AJ (who reveals her identity as Jill Price, of Los Angeles, in a book available May 9).
"Most have called it a gift," she wrote to McGaugh. "But I call it a burden. I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy!"
McGaugh found himself in uncharted water. No one had ever studied this kind of memory. There wasn't even a name for it. So he called it hyperthymesia, meaning "remembering more than normal."
There was no test either. So he bought "20th Century Day by Day" – all 1,558 pages of it. Then he and colleague Larry Cahill devised a test of some 40 questions.
"You and I, honest to God, would probably get zero," says Cahill. "I personally scored zero and I helped write the test."
They asked questions like: When did Bing Crosby die? What significant, national event happened on Sept. 19, 1985? When was the Titanic found? And random, personal questions culled from 24 years of daily diaries that AJ had turned over.
"She got like 38 of 40," Cahill says. "There comes a point where your jaw drops, where you say Uncle."
In 2006, they published their findings in the scientific journal "Neurocase." They expected a nod of scholarly interest from a few cognitive scientists.
Boy were they wrong.
The lid blew off. Everyone from "Inside Edition" to "National Geographic" called. People with good – and not-so-good – memories called. Skeptics called.
"My favorite was the person who said: 'How can you be sure there is not someone in the next room secretly giving answers to your questions?'" says McGaugh. "Which raises the question: 'How does the person in other room know the answers? And how are they transferring them?'"
One caller turned out to be Case #2, Brad Williams. That changed everything.
Before him, the neuroscientists thought of AJ as someone you come across every 100 years. Wow! Fascinating! Now let's get back to our regular work. No one knew there was a small population of AJs out there whose brains might break ground in memory research.
AJ stories attracted Brad. Brad stories attracted others. The UCI team now has five more possible cases and 50 more potentials. Suddenly, they have the makings of a scientific sampling.
"This has grown from an interesting, curious sideshow to potentially a major, major development in the field of brain and memory," Cahill says.
Though it's still early, two patterns have emerged. The first three subjects all are either left-handed or display left-handed tendencies. They also accumulate things: TV Guides, old movies, theater programs – and not drawers full, but rooms full.
"We're interested in the possible tie-in between these two tendencies," says McGaugh.
Then there are the MRI brain scans. They hope that comparing the brain images of their test subjects to the brain images of others will reveal structural differences somewhere in the brain.
Cahill turns his human brain over to point out the two medial temporal lobes, each of which contains a seahorse-shaped hippocampus inside.
"The memory must go through there in order to stick," he says.
That's where you'd expect to find the difference. But early results don't point there.
"My hope," Cahill says, "is that a sign may well point somewhere else entirely."
Now, that would be memorable.