Is a photographic memory real? It has never been conclusively proven, but there are some people who come close.
Memories are vital evolutionarily. They let us know who is in our pack, where to find food, how to get home, and so many other things in life. There are a lot of animals that have bad short-term memories, but all animals have some system of long-term memory. Chimpanzees surprisingly only have a short-term memory of about twenty seconds, but they have a very good long-term memory. In animals, though, there would be no benefit to having a photographic memory. If an animal can remember the necessary things for life, then that is plenty. There is a limited amount of information in the animal world and having the capacity to remember more would require more brain power and thereby more energy, which wouldn’t have any obvious benefit.
In our world, we are swamped with information and having a photographic memory could be a blessing. So, what is a photographic memory? A photographic memory is where a person is able to remember events with the accuracy of a photograph. They are able to go back to those events in their minds and walk around them, recalling everything that they saw when they made the memory.
So, is a photographic memory real? Unfortunately, it isn’t. There are people who have excellent memories, but none of them have been able to demonstrate photographic memory. An example of this is Kim Peek. He is the person that the character Dustin Hoffman plays in Rain Man is based on. He was able to read a book very quickly because he would read one page with each eye, and he could remember every word that he read. He is said to have read 12,000 books. However, he was able to recall every word, but he couldn’t read back the words in reverse order. If his memory was truly photographic, he would have no trouble reading the sentences forwards or backwards because he would be looking at them in his mind.
People who claim to have a photographic memory are also not able to remember anything. Most people have some things they are better at remembering than others. A truly photographic memory would not have these limitations.
Some people that say they have a photographic memory may have an eidetic memory. The difference is that an eidetic memory allows people to see things for a few seconds, sometimes up to a few minutes, after they have gone. For example, if they are given a photograph to look at and then it is taken away, they will still be able to “see” the photograph as though it is still there. They can recall information that was in the photograph. However, German children with eidetic memories were tested and they weren’t able to recall all of the letters that had been in a word in the photograph they just looked at. People with eidetic memories may be able to remember well, but they make up details, just like the rest of us. There aren’t any adults with eidetic memories. About 10% of children have the skill, but it disappears once they get older.
So, why might someone appear to have a photographic memory? There are several possibilities. People who can remember very detailed things from their own lives are said to have Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. People who have this tend to have enlarged temporal and parietal lobes. The temporal lobes are at the side of the brain, just above the ears. They help process and understand sounds, such as speech, they manage emotions and help us recognize faces. The parietal lobes are above the temporal lobes and they help us make sense of the things we touch, they tell us where our body is in relation to other objects, they help us with fine motor skills and reasoning. These areas are also responsible for memory storage and retrieval.
Studies have also shown that people with better memories tend to have more dopamine receptors in their brains. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, and one of its jobs is the encoding and consolidation of memories. Tests have demonstrated that people with more dopamine receptors can remember things in more detail and for longer. Perhaps people who come close to having a photographic memory have an inordinately large number of these receptors. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0246-y
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/open-gently/201504/theres-no-such-thing-photographic-memory
https://headway.ie/about-brain-injury/introduction-to-the-brain/the-lobes-of-the-brain/