Hyper memory, synaesthesia, savants Luria and Borges revisited
Hipermemória, sinestesia, savants: Luria e Borges revisitados
Abstract
In this paper, we investigated two subjects with superior memory, or hyper memory: Solomon Shereshevsky, who was followed clinically for years by A. R. Luria, and Funes the Memorious, a fictional character created by J. L. Borges. The subjects possessed hyper memory, synaesthesia and symptoms of what we now call autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). We will discuss interactions of these characteristics and their possible role in hyper memory. Our study suggests that the hyper memory in our synaesthetes may have been due to their ASD-savant syndrome characteristics. However, this talent was markedly diminished by their severe deficit in categorization, abstraction and metaphorical functions. As investigated by previous studies, we suggest that there is altered connectivity between the medial temporal lobe and its connections to the prefrontal cingulate and amygdala, either due to lack of specific neurons or to a more general neuronal dysfunction.
Referencias:
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1. James, W. The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1. New York: Henry Holt & Company; 1980:689. 2. Parker ES, Cahill L, McGaugh, JL. A case of unusual autobiographical remembering. Neurocase 2006;12:35-49. 3. Ally BA, Hussey EP, Donahue MJ. A case of hyperthymesia: Rethinking the role of the amygdala in autobiographical memory. Neurocase 2013;19:166-81. 4. Fornazzari L, Mansur A, Schweizer TA, Fischer CE. Proust and madeleine: Together in the thalamus? Neurol Clin Pract 2015;5:355-6. 5. Gibson RK, Morello R. Pliny the Elder: Themes and Contexts. Leiden: Brill; 2011:247. 6. Luria AR. The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory. Harvard University Press; 1968:165. 7. Borges J. Funes, the Memorious. In: Ficciones. New York: Grove Press; 1962:107-16. 8. Gordon J. El primo ruso de Funes el memorioso. Revista de la Universidad de México 2005;18:108. 9. Cytowic RE, Eagleman D. Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. Cambridge: MIT Press; 2009:309. 10. Fornazzari L, Fischer CE, Ringer L, Schweizer TA. “Blue is music to my ears”: multimodal synesthesia after a thalamic stroke. Neurocase 2012;18:318-22. 11. Smilek D, Dixon MJ, Cudahy C, Merikle PM. Synesthetic color experiences influence memory. Psychol Sci 2002;13:548-52. 12. Yaro C, Ward J. Searching for Shereshevskii: What is superior about the memory of synaesthetes? Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2007;60:681-95. 13. Chun CA, Hupé J. Are synesthetes exceptional beyond their synesthetic associations? A systematic comparison of creativity, personality, cognition, and mental imagery in synesthetes and controls. Br J Psychol 2016;107:397-418. 14. Ward J, Thompson-Lake D, Ely R, Kaminski F. Synaesthesia, creativity and art: What is the link? Br J Psychol 2008;99:127-41. 15. Baron-Cohen S, Bor D, Billington J, Asher J, Wheelwright S, Ashwin C. Savant memory in a man with colour form-number synaesthesia and asperger. J Conscious Stud 2007;14:237-51. 16. Hillis AE. Inability to empathize: brain lesions that disrupt sharing and understanding another’s emotions. Brain 2014;137:981-97. 17. Ozonoff S, McEvoy RE. A longitudinal study of executive function and theory of mind development in autism. Dev Psychopathol 1994;6:415-31. 18. Church BA, Krauss MS, Lopata C, Toomey JA, Thomeer ML, Coutinho MV, Volker MA, Mercado E. Atypical categorization in children with highfunctioning autism spectrum disorder. Psychon Bull Rev 2010;17:862-8. 19. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th Edition (DSM-5®). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2013. 20. Boucher J, Mayes A, Bigham S. Memory in autistic spectrum disorder. Psychol Bull 2012;138:458-96. 21. Bowler DM, Matthews NJ, Gardiner JM. Asperger’s syndrome and memory: Similarity to autism but not amnesia. Neuropsychologia 1997; 35:65-70. 22. Hahamy A, Behrmann M, Malach R. The idiosyncratic brain: distortion of spontaneous connectivity patterns in autism spectrum disorder. Nat Neurosci 2015;18:302-9. 23. Welchew DE, Ashwin C, Berkouk K, Ashwin C, Berkouk K, Salvador R, et al. Functional disconnectivity of the medial temporal lobe in Asperger’s syndrome. Biol Psychiatry 2005;57:991-8. 24. Baron-Cohen S, Johnson D, Asher J, Wheelwright S, Fisher SE, Gregersen PK, Allison C. Is synaesthesia more common in autism? Mol Autism 2013;4:40. 25. Asher JE, Lamb JA, Brocklebank D, Cazier JB, Maestrini E, Addis L, et al. A whole-genome scan and fine-mapping linkage study of auditoryvisual synesthesia reveals evidence of linkage to chromosomes 2q24, 5q33, 6p12, and 12p12. Am J Hum Genet 2009;84:279-85. 26. Milner B. Intellectual function of the temporal lobes. Psychol Bull 1954;51:42-62. 27. Milner B, Squire LR, Kandel ER. Cognitive neuroscience and the study of memory. Neuron 1998;20:445-68. 28. Tulving E, Markowitsch HJ. Episodic and declarative memory: role of the hippocampus. Hippocampus 1998;8:198-204. 29. Lavenex P, Amaral DG. Hippocampal-neocortical interaction: A hierarchy of associativity. Hippocampus 2000;10:420-30. 30. Squire LR, Stark CE, Clark RE. The medial temporal lobe. Annu Rev Neurosci 2004;27:279-306. 31. Quiroga RQ, Reddy L, Kreiman G, Koch C, Fried I. Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain. Nature 2005;435: 1102-7. 32. Quiroga RQ. In retrospect: Funes the memorious. Nature 2010;463:611. 33. Chien HY, Gau SS, Hsu YC, Chen YJ, Lo YC, Shih YC, Tseng WY. Altered cortical thickness and tract integrity of the mirror neuron system and associated social communication in autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res 2015;8:694-708. 34. Treffert DA. Dr. Down and “developmental disorders”. J Autism Dev Disord 2006;36:965-6. 35. Crane L, Goddard L. Episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in adults with autism spectrum disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 2008;38:498-506. 36. Baron-Cohen S. The hyper-systemizing, assortative mating theory of autism. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2006;30:865-72. 37. Gaigg SB, Gardiner JM, Bowler DM. Free recall in autism spectrum disorder: The role of relational and item-specific encoding. Neuropsychologia 2008;46:983-92. 38. Happé F. Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style? Trends Cog Sci 1999;3:216-22.
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