People who have rare super memory sought

The condition – known as hyperthymesia or superior autobiographical memory – has only been documented in among 20 cases in the United States.

But Prof Giuliana Mazzoni, the director of Hull University’s Human Memory Lab, wants to find out if there are cases in the UK.

“If it is a universal condition, then even if the numbers are very small, there should be cases in Europe as well,” she said.

People with the condition are able to recall details from most days of their lives, including what they ate, wore, who they spoke to and what was said on a specific day. Among those with the condition is the actress Marilu Henner, best known for her role as Elaine in the US comedy Taxi.

Prof Mazzoni believes it could overturn established theories about how people store and access memories.

“The current hypothesis is that memories are reconstructions, which we select and store,” she said. “This is why we get false memories, or have memories based on what we’ve been told, rather than on what we remember independently.

“In hyperthymesia, it seems that every detail of a person’s life is retained, showing that the brain may have a huge storage capacity. It’s therefore possible that what limits our memories is not what we choose to retain, but what we are able to access.”

To take part in the research email [email protected], call 01482 466154 or go to the website at www.hull.ac.uk/memorylab/participate.php.