LOS ANGELES: The 1950s Japanese film Rashomon is famous for its exploration of the way people recall the same incident in different ways, but even outside of how we shape our recollections to suit our own personal narratives, it seems humans really do remember things differently.
For the first time, researchers have shown that the different ways people experience the past are associated with distinct brain connectivity patterns that may be inherent to each individual. These life-long ‘memory traits’ are the reason some people have richly detailed recollections (episodic memory) while others can recall facts but little detail (semantic memory).
“For decades, nearly all research on memory and brain function has treated people as the same, averaging across individuals,” said Signy Sheldon, a psychologist now with McGill University in Canada.