A 22-year-old woman known as “HC” with amnesia since birth as a result of developing only half the normal volume of the hippocampus in her brain, has demonstrated to scientists that the ability to hold a single face or word in short-term memory is impaired. But there’s a catch — only if the information is unfamiliar. When presented with a face such as Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton and asked to recognize the face a few seconds later, the woman could remember A-list party girl Hilton, but she was unable to remember novel, unfamiliar faces as well as healthy age, education and IQ matched control participants. Moreover, HC’s short-term memory was even impaired for faces that were famous, but whom HC did not know, such as former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton.