Here's an account of an exceptional memory. This woman has an incredible memory for the details of her personal past. She's been studied for the last 5 years by some very well-respected memory researchers, and is the first case on record to have such a memory "naturally", ie not through using mnemonic strategies. It's worth noting the costs of such memory, however -- organizing information, for example, is difficult for her. (The famous case of "S" also had difficulties resulting from too much can't-be-forgotten detail).

Here's a lovely example of how our memories are so much more (or less) than an exact recording of events. A new study has found that people who read about a man who walked out on a restaurant bill remember the bill as much higher if they were told he "was a jerk who liked to steal", while people who thought he left because of an emergency remember a significantly lower bill. In other words, our view of a person's character distorts our memory of their behavior.

Another study has found that African Americans and Caucasians viewing African American faces both show the same sort of activity in the amygdala -- a region of the brain that responds to emotional events and is particularly active when a threat is perceived. Two-thirds of the Caucasians and the African Americans in this small study responded with greater amygdala activity. But perhaps even more interesting, when the photos were given verbal labels (e.g., "African American"), the amygdala no longer responded. Instead, part of the prefrontal cortex associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences, and with inhibiting behavior, impulses and emotions, became more active.