(
)
An Upper West Side violinist has her memory on a string.
Researchers believe Louise Owen is one of six Americans to have “superior autobiographical memory,” an uncanny, bar-bet-settling condition that allows them to recite details from almost every day of their lives.
She and five other savants — including “Taxi” actress Marilu Henner — will be profiled on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.
The Post put Owen, 37, to the test yesterday, and she responded with a virtuoso performance of instant recall.
She nailed seven out of nine dates when significant local and national news happened. Owen even plucked out personal details of where she was as each of the events unfolded.
Owen described her computer-like recall, explaining that she visualizes a page in a calendar before getting down to the actual memory.
“For me, I will often see a calendar in my head, and it’s usually a month at a time,” she said.
“When I hear the date, it’s like my brain immediately goes to a position on a calendar and once I locate it, I see what happened instantly.”
Owen’s mind seamlessly hops from era to era, year to year without a hitch.
“I usually describe it as time travel. As soon as you say that date, I’m instantly there,” she said. “I know how I felt, I know what happened that day. It’s as if it happened five minutes ago, as opposed to 22 years ago.”
For example, while many will only remember July 16, 1999, as the day John Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash, Owen can also recall: “It was also the day ‘The Iceman Cometh’ closed on Broadway. I remember trying to get a rush ticket for the final performance.”
Owen’s only sour notes were failing to recall news events of Feb. 3, 2008, and March, 5, 2004, — when the Giants won Super Bowl XLII and Martha Stewart was convicted of lying to feds, respectively.
Owen, who can remember details of every day from 1985 forward, embraces her skill as a gift, not a curse.
“It makes me want to live my life with much more intensity, connection and compassion,” she said at her West 100th Street pad.
As “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl researched the story, it dawned on the reporter that her longtime pal Henner also seemed to have eerie recall.
The actress met with researchers, and they concluded she was among these one in 50 million Americans.
“It’s like putting in a DVD and it cues up to certain places,” Henner said. “I am there again . . . seeing things visually as I would have that day.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li