Hyper memory, synaesthesia, savants Luria and Borges revisited.

Luis Fornazzari, Melissa Leggieri, Tom A Schweizer, Raul L Arizaga, Ricardo F Allegri, Corinne E Fischer

Open access · diamondAbstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Dementia & neuropsychologia. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 41% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Luis FornazzariMD, FRCPC. Department of Medicine, Behavioural Neurology Division, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8. St Michael's Hospital Memory Disorders Clinic, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada, M5S 1A8.

Melissa LeggieriBSc. Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8. Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8.

Tom A SchweizerPhD. Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8. Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8.

Raul L ArizagaMD. Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Viamonte 430, 1053 Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Ricardo F AllegriMD. Centro de Memoria y Envejecimiento. Ins Investigaciones Neurol "Raul Carrea" (FLENI) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Neurosciencias. Universidad de la Costa (CUC). Colombia.

Corinne E FischerMD, FRCPC. St Michael's Hospital Memory Disorders Clinic, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada, M5S 1A8. Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 1T8.

University of Toronto · CAEscuela Colombiana de Carreras Industriales · COUniversity of Buenos Aires · AR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

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.

Indexed as

autistic spectrum disorderFunes the memorioushyper memorymemorysavantismSolomon Shereshevskysynaesthesia

Identifiers

PMID29988344

DOI10.1590/1980-57642018dn12-020001

PMCPMC6022980

OpenAlexW2809717803

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.