deepstash
Beta
Memory involves the whole body. It’s how the self defies amnesia | Psyche Ideas
Amnesia: The Forgotten Life
People who are unable to form new memories have to adjust to a stark reality of losing their pre-amnesia lives. To live without the means to form any ‘autobiographical’ memory, makes the patients unable to ground their sense of identity, or even orient themselves to maintain a timeline of their existence in their minds.
The only guiding light in the dark is the present moment and the action that they are doing with their entire bodies.
67 SAVES
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
5
Key Ideas
The different kinds of memories
We hold on to different kinds of memories.
- Short-term memories last seconds to hours and long-term memories last for years.
- We also have a...
Where your brain keeps memories
By studying people with amnesia, it seems that short-term and long-term memories don't form in precisely the same way, nor do declarative and procedural memories.
- Emotional responses such as fear occur in a brain region called the amygdala.
- Memories of learned skills are associated with the region called the striatum.
- The hippocampus is essential for forming, retaining, and recalling declarative memories.
- The temporal lobes play a critical role in forming and recalling memories.
How we experience memories
Memories are held within groups of neurons called cell assemblies. They fire as a group in response to a specific stimulus, such as recognising your friend's face.
The more neurons fire together, the more the interconnection of the cells strengthen. We experience the nerves' collective activity as a memory.
3
Key Ideas
Memorizing new material
When we try to memorize new information, we assume that the more work we put in, the better we will do.
But, our memory for new information is the most fragile just after it has first been en...
Take some downtime
Aiming for minimal interference - to do literally nothing - is the best way to consolidate the facts and remember it better.
Research found that short periods of rest increased the ability to recall information up to 30 % in healthy individuals. For people with neurological injury, such as a stroke, the ability to recall after some rest, places them almost within the range of healthy people.
We remember better after rest
When memories are initially encoded, they pass through a period of consolidation that cements them in long-term storage.
It was once thought to happen mostly during sleep; studies have found that it is not limited to sleep, because it happens during periods of wakeful rest, too.
4
Key Ideas
Childhood Memories
Memory is essentially an activation of neural networks inside the brain, which are dynamic in nature.
We can form memories as infants, but we do not have the ability to sto...
Memory Distortion
We all can form complex false memories in us, and it can even impact our decision making and future behavior. Planting false memories in a person can be used to tackle certain disorders like obesity and alcoholism.
Memory researchers have concluded that it is possible to induce fictional memories of the past in volunteers and even make them believe in some past criminal deeds that never happened.
False Memories: Legal Issues
False memories are a challenge in legal cases, as they are indistinguishable from real memories, with any distortion being undetectable.
Certain regression therapies where patients confront their buried childhood memories are prone to ‘implantation’ of false memories in their minds.