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Remembering The Past Like It Was Yesterday – The Condition That Has Doctors Stumped

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Have you ever wished you could remember a special day in your past as if you were re-living it?

There are actually a few people in the world who can do this. One of them is 31-year-old Nima Veiseh:

"I happen to remember every day of my life since I was 15 years old," he says.

Nima has a rare condition called Hyperthymesia, which is described as superior autobiographical memory.

"This ability to be fully enveloped in the entire sensory experience of a memory," he tells KYW Newsradio, "whether it be sights, sounds, smells and everything else that encompasses the feeling of being transported back to a moment in the past."

When Nima's mental time travels began December 15th, 2000 he was on his way to a friend's birthday party in Michigan and falling in love for the first time.

A few years later these and every day thereafter came flooding and even crowding back into his mind which sent him to a doctor for answers. At first the doctor didn't know what it was.

So rare is this condition that the medical community is still trying to figure it out.

"I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly how this works," says Jefferson University Hospital Neurologist Miyail Serruya.

Dr. Serruya says there are areas in the brain that contribute to memories, especially the all-encompassing ones that are a hallmark of Hyperthymesia:

"There is episodic memory which requires structures in the media temporal lobe such as the amygdala and hippocampus and other mental structures there."

Nima says his condition can be a burden, as you might expect, because there are moments he'd like to forget, but he's able to channel these layers of experience plus memories onto canvas in a form of abstract art bursting with color.

It's a welcome gift because for Nima, and the few who live with Hyperthymesia, forgetting is not an option.

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