Though she’s sensed since she was a little girl that something was different about her brain, prolific Hallmark star Marilu Henner, 72, says ongoing medical tests have now proven it.
When the actress — whose record-setting 21st “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries” movie begins streaming on Hallmark+ on October 10, 2024 — appeared on KTLA to promote the new movie, her discussion with the anchors turned to the rare condition that allows her to recall every day of her life with vivid detail. For instance, she told one of the anchors what she was doing on the day he was born in 1988 within a second of hearing the date.
“It’s like having Google in your brain, it’s very organized,” she said.
Henner is one of only 100 people worldwide identified to have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), according to Brain & Life magazine, a rare condition that was first identified by brain researchers in 2006. Now one of the subjects of a documentary about her experience with HSAM, Henner told KTLA she’s had over 300 brain measurements to better understand what’s happening inside her head.
Marilu Henner Says Scans Have Shown Abnormalities in Her Brain
Ever since “60 Minutes” reported on Henner’s HSAM in 2010, she can’t go anywhere — including taking her bags through airport security — without someone giving her a date to recall, she told KTLA, laughing. But she was happy to sign on for the documentary she’s filming to learn more about her condition and others who have it.
“These documentarians were fascinated by it and feel like it’s sort of a nice exploration of humanity — how we use memory, how we don’t,” she said.
After hours of research conducted during the “60 Minutes” report in 2010, Henner was the sixth person on the planet to be identified as someone with HSAM by leading researcher Dr. James McGaugh and his colleagues at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at UC Irvine.
“They’ve taken 300 measurements of my brain,” she told KTLA of the ongoing research into her condition. “They found nine areas 1o times larger than the normal brain. They wired me, put me through an MRI, and all the people who have this that they’ve tested, we over-index in all these different places (in the brain).”
“The testing is ongoing, she said. “It’s something that I do all the time.”
Marilu Henner Says Newest ‘Aurora Teagarden Mysteries’ Movie is Record-Setting for Her & Hallmark
HallmarkCrystal Balint, Marilu Henner, and Skyler Samuels in “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Death at the Diner” on Hallmark+
Though she has said previously that her memory makes remembering her lines easier than it is for other actors, Henner told KTLA that her “three-dimensional” memory is best, meaning things she’s actually experienced rather than “two-dimensional” words on a page come back to her quickly and vividly.
That means she has lots of memories of filming Hallmark’s “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries” over the years, with her latest being the October 10 Hallmark+ premiere of the latest prequel movie, “Death at the Diner.” She co-starred in the franchise when Cameron Candace Bure played the title character, and returned in 2023 when Skyler Samuels took over for the prequels.
“It’s actually my 21st movie in this series,” Henner told KTLA. “I just reached the Hallmark benchmark for the most mystery movies anyone’s ever done.”
Henner pointed out that she’s done a total of 31 Hallmark movies, including six Christmas movies and four rom-coms, and still loves working for the network.
“They’re the best,” she said. “They’re the best people to work for, it’s a great set … I was flattered enough that they thought I could play myself in the (“Aurora Teagarden”) prequels, so that’s what I’m doing.”
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