What we would like you to do is to
find a topic from this week's chapter that you were interested in and search
the internet for material on that topic.
Please be sure to use at least 3
quality resources. If you use videos, please limit it to one video.
Once you have completed your search
and explorations we would like you to:
1a) State what your topic is.
1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
2) Next, we would like you to take
the information you read or viewed related to your topic, integrate/synthesize
it, and then write about the topic in a knowledgeable manner. By
integrating/synthesizing we mean taking what your read/experienced from the
internet search organize the information into the main themes, issues, info,
examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own
words using the information you have about the topic.
3) At the end of your post, please
include working URLs for the three websites. For each
URL you have listed indicate why you chose the site and the extent to which it
contributed to your post.
The chapter dedicates a section to autobiographical memory and I thought it was very interesting. It is what shapes who we are today; the emotion we remember we felt at a certain moment, or the specific events we remember happened at a certain point in time have great impacts on why we decide to do what we do today. I started off my research with “autobiographical memory”, but the results are very general. What caught my attention was highly superior autobiographical memory, where people do not forget any details of their day to day life in the past. According to Wikipedia, it is also called hyperthymesia. I have heard of cases like this before and I am very interested in learning more how this type of autobiographical memory in general.
People with highly superior autobiographical memory can remember many details about their lives that most people forget after some time, or details that most people do not even pay their attention too. For instance, they remember the strangers they passed on the street or what they first see when they woke up ten months ago. These people spend an excessive time reliving their past and have an extraordinary ability to recall any events that happened. There is no hesitation or attempts when they recall a certain event, as they can vividly see what they saw when they think of a date. It is believed to be an unconscious process.
It is important to distinguish between individuals who possess exceptional memory and individuals who possess highly superior autobiographical memory. People with exceptional memory remember events that are associated with some personal meanings to them. Meanwhile, people with highly superior autobiographical memory are not in control of the association between the dates and the events, it is believed to be an automatic process that allows them to have such vivid images of the events when recalling what happened on a certain date. The memories are involuntarily encoded and automatically retrieved.
Highly superior autobiographical memory was first discovered in a university of California. They came across the case of AJ, the first person to come out with such extraordinary ability to recall practically any events in her life to a near perfect level. Then, the Californian scientists did some research on more people with such ability. The scientists claimed that there is a significant difference in the brain structure of these people compared to the average population. It is suggested that the brain structure relies on a change in behavior and memory.
Information encoded by people with highly superior autobiographic memory is thought to be semantic, using semantic cues for retrieval of memories. On cue leads to another and another and another, as AJ described, she did not have any control over the retrieval of many memories. This explains that people like AJ have both semantic memory and episodic memory during any recall.
As a student who often cramps for exams, I initially admired these people’s ability to not forget – how awesome would it be! If I could just recall what teachers said in class during an exam, or what I read a day before, I could have easily gained straight A’s. However, this is not what people who “suffer” from highly superior autobiographical memory feel. As in the case of Alexandra Wolff, she finds it difficult to live in the present because her inability to forget keeps her reliving the past over and over again. She cannot have a relationship because people do not know why she is so fixated to the past. There are painful moments in the past that she cannot forget, and those moments are still haunting her after decades have gone by. Although she can also relive the good moments, but the downside of this inability to forget is apparently outweighing the advantages we think these people have.
McGaugh said that people with highly superior autobiographical memory are not superior learner, but rather very bad at forgetting. Bill Brown, another case of not being able to forget, said most people like him are struggling with depression, and very few are able to maintain a long term marriage. It is reasonably hard to maintain long term romantic relationship with others when one partner is fixated on the past. Lives would have been a lot easier for people who suffer from highly superior autobiographical memory if they could forget unnecessary details of their lives, or if they could control how much time they spend reliving the past.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/18/255285479/when-memories-never-fade-the-past-can-poison-the-present
This website provides real life cases of people with highly superior autobiographical memory; the stories show me their struggles in life vividly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia
Wikipedia provides great details on this topic, from research to definition of terms.
http://hyperthymesia.net/hyperthymesia/
There is some information that overlaps with Wikipedia in this website but nonetheless it is a good website for me to start off with. It is easy to understand with very minimal amount of information that are necessary for me to get a general idea of the topic I chose.
Chapter 6 Topical Blog
My topic is on episodic memory. I looked at episodic memory to learn more about this specific type of long-term memory and the declarative side of long-term memory. When reading chapter 6, I thought it would be interesting to look at the types of long-term memory as there are many umbrellas of memory spanning from long-term memory. I specifically chose episodic memory as it is our memory based on life events and enables people to remember past happenings. It is interesting to recall past occasions and the experience we have gained.
Episodic memory is explained in depth within our textbook. Episodic memory is a part of explicit memory which relies on the retrieval of conscious recollections from our past. Explicit memory is declarative in which it recalls facts and episodes. Our episodic memory is therefore events that are stored in terms of our “autobiographical reference.” We recognize events we encountered in the past. Episodic memory does not have a formal structure as it does not recall information, but rather just happenings. This type of long-term memory is also similar to autobiography memory that is discussed in this chapter of our textbook.
An important aspect to episodic memory stressed among my sources is the first step in forming this type of memory. This step is the process of encoding. Encoding allows new memory to be created by converting an item into a construct that is stored within our brain and then recalled late in our long-term memory. Episodic memory is stored within the hippocampus of our brain before it is consolidated in our cortex. The hippocampus then forms an “episode” by distributing the visual and auditory elements of the event to the particular areas of the brain. For example, we can recall a night out with friends at the movie theater by playing back the event in our brain’s cortex so the lights, sound, and people’s faces are strongly linked together in our memory. If the hippocampus is injured, encoding will not occur which is linked to patients with Alzheimer’s disease struggling with memory.
With the encoding process, we are able to recall remote events within our episodic memory. Individuals can recall what they did during the day, where they were when they received shocking news, their first kiss, or the first time they went to the ocean. The encoding process for episodic memory allows us to remember experiences such as the ones mentioned and the knowledge gained from these experiences. The experiences and knowledge can also be stored independently within our brain.
Episodic memory is the only long-term memory in which an individual remembers personal experiences. It also is memory that is within our conscious awareness meaning that instances when we are daydreaming are not a part of our episodic memory because we are not conscious about when we are daydreaming. Episodic memory, too, is closely related to disease as it is vulnerable to diseases such as Alzheimer’s or other dementias. The impairment of episodic memory (unable to recall previous experiences) is often seen as the first symptom in Alzheimer’s patients.
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Episodic_memory
This URL discusses the importance of the encoding process. It also provided unique features of episodic memory. Most importantly, this URL explained ways in which episodic memory is different from other types of long-term memory.
http://memory.ucsf.edu/brain/memory/episodic
This URL explained the encoding process at a deeper level. It explained how episodic memory is linked to the brain and the importance of how the hippocampus is connected to episodic memory. It also discussed how Alzheimer’s disease impairs episodic memory and how encoding will not occur if the hippocampus is damaged.
http://www.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html
This URL focused mostly on the hippocampus and cortex in relation to episodic memory. It provided examples of episodic memory and how our hippocampus helps in recalling these memories. This URL additionally explained autobiography reference and declarative memory.
As I read through this week’s chapter the topic that most caught my interest was Alzheimer’s and how it’s symptoms can most be prevented, or most specifically, the nun study. While I’ve been blessed enough to not yet personally know anyone close to me who has suffered from Alzheimer’s, I know it’s a possibility for people I really care about now. I’m interesting in knowing how the nun study has helped our knowledge of Alzheimer’s and what we can do to help prevent symptoms in the future.
Alzheimer’s is a real problem for many people in America because there are more than 5 million people living with the disease right now. Additionally, more than 1 in 3 seniors die with the disease. However, seniors are not the only one’s affected by Alzheimer’s, since people as young as their 30’s can be diagnosed with it. These figures make research on the disease even more important and beneficial in preventing such severe symptoms or even the disease altogether.
There have been many fascinating findings in the nun study – a study of 678 nuns - that is helping us understand what factors may contribute to Alzheimer’s. The nun study has been great because it rules out many environmental factors and differences that can often play a role in diseases people develop later on. These women all had very similar life experiences for most of their lives and were perfect candidates without all of the variation in lifestyle factors that can affect research. They all lived within the same place, experienced many of the same activities regularly, and didn’t bear children which can initiate physical changes.
There are things people can do that can potentially help stop the development of Alzheimer’s very early on in their life. Dr. Snowdon, the man who originally developed this study, has found connections between early language development and later development of Alzheimer’s. The nuns who early on in their lives, around age 20 or so, who showed higher language development and density, were less likely to show symptoms of Alzheimer's several decades later in their life. This means there’s a possibility that even reading to children at a very young age to help them with their language development can help improve their health and prevent Alzheimer's 8 decades later!
Other findings in this study have suggested that in addition to language development, positive thoughts and emotions appear to help ward off Alzheimer’s symptoms. The women who wrote about and expressed positive thoughts more often didn’t develop symptoms for the disease as much as women who were less positive. This is really interesting because this suggests that how we view and feel about life can impact our health. Other findings were that women who were more active with their brains, they continued learning and challenging their brains very late into their life, also were less likely to develop the disease.
I thought this nun study was very interesting in how they found such a good homogenous group to study and have carried through so many years (since 1986!). The findings suggest that we should read more and be more positive, which I think is a great message to anyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmMVoltH6nE
I enjoyed this video because it gave an overview of the nun study and allowed me to see what some of their environment actually looked like. It contributed to my post by explaining why this particular group was such a great study sample.
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_facts_and_figures.asp
This was a good link because it was a trustworthy source on current Alzheimer’s data. It contributed to my post by telling me how much Alzheimer’s is really affecting our nation right now.
http://www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/selflearn/Nuns&alzheimers.htm
This was my favorite link that I found. It was very thorough and explained some of the findings in very understandable terms. It contributed the most to my post through helping me know what they’ve actually learned from the nuns and how we can use that information to help ourselves in the current battle against Alzheimer’s.
1a) The topic I chose to do this week’s topical blog on is autobiographical memories and highly superior cases of them.
1b) Autobiographical memory was briefly mentioned on page 179-180 in chapter 6. The book mainly touched on it’s exact definition: memories of an individual’s past history and it mentioned how they can tell us a lot about an individual’s personality and concept of self. It described how we often remember our firsts and compared the content of these memories to the content of ones attic.
1c) I was interested in this concept because I never really knew that there was an actual term for this since it basically is just referring to the memory we have of our own experiences. I wanted to learn more about what it all entails, some of the science behind it, and if there were any case studies done on people lacking or excelling greatly in this area.
2) Autobiographical memory is a memory system which consists of episodes people collect from their own lives, these memories are a combination of episodic and semantic memory. The base we create for ourselves and for our autobiographical memory contains knowledge of what the self is, what the self was, and what the self can be and this is further categorized into three areas.
The first, is lifetime periods. This area is composed of knowledge about a distinguishable and themed time in one's life such as the time they spent studying abroad, or when they entered the workforce. These times have a specific beginning and end but there is often a fuzzy overlap. These periods also contain thematic knowledge about the features of this period (activities, relationships, locations) and also thematic information which can be grouped together into broader themes which can later reflect one's personality just like the book said.
Next is the general events period which is much more specific and consists of single representations of repeated events or a sequence of related events. These things can be grouped into clusters with a common theme. A lot of times these types of memories involve our “first-time” doing something which can also be grouped into achieving or failing personal goals.
Lastly there is event-specific knowledge which is vividly detailed information about individual events which often provide a form of visual images and sensory perceptual features. These types of memories have a high level of detail but fade very quickly. Different types within this category include originating events (mark the beginning of a path toward long term goals), turning points, anchoring events (affirm individuals beliefs/goals), and analogous events (past events that direct behavior in the present).
Along with these three different bases which autobiographical memories are categorized into there are also 4 different types. First there is biographical or personal which relates to who you are, next there are copies vs. reconstructions (copes are vivid autobiographical memories of an experience with a considerable amount of visual and sensory detail whereas reconstructions are no reflections of raw experiences but are rebuilt to incorporate new information or interpretations), then there are specific (high in detail) vs. generic (vague), and lastly there are field (first person point of view) vs. observer (third person point of view). All of these different subcategories can be affected by different things including: memory age, emotionally at the time memory is encoded, self-awareness (amount of consciousness individual has of themselves), culture, gender, personal identity, and trauma.
It has been proven that brain differences do result from unique experiences that occur during development. For example, rats raised in enriched environments show increased cortical weight and numbers of glial cells and also show benefits to memory ability. Also, people who have been exposed to musical training also have structural changes due to this. A woman by the name of Marilu Henner has stated that during her childhood she used a technique to fall asleep at night where she would attempt to remember everything from the day before, and then in her free time when she was bored she would quiz herself about things that happened on certain days years before. She believes that this lead to changes in her brain which gave her the ability of having Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. This allows a person to remember ordinary events in time that people would usually forget. Many researchers though believe that the ability to forget has been adapted to our own well being and people who have this HSAM ability often struggle with depression because it can be so taunting not being able to forget things. There have only been 55 people diagnosed in the US with this disease and it is rumored that only 2/55 have had long lasting marriages and almost all do suffer with depression because they are not able to let memories go even from 20 years back. It is not clear why the brains of people with HSAM can do what they do, there are differences though it’s not clear whether the differences are the cause or the consequence of this ability.
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory
This website was very useful because it gave a very nice clear description of the definition of autobiographical memories. It also provided detailed information about how we categorize our memories into 3 areas, it talked about the four different types of autobiographical memories, and it then went on to describe different things that can have an effect on these types of memories.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quirks-memory/201301/people-extraordinary-autobiographical-memory
This website was very useful because it provided an example of autobiographical memories in a person with very high abilities. It also gave information about how our experiences can shape the way our brain is structured and organized so perhaps if we engaged in a certain experiment where we train ourselves to remember things maybe we could change our brain and have stronger autobiographical memory.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/18/255285479/when-memories-never-fade-the-past-can-poison-the-present
This last website was also very beneficial and it expanded a bit more on the person I mentioned from the above website. It went into detail about an ability called highly superior autobiographical memory HSAM, it mentioned what it entailed, and some of the drawbacks that go along with this.
1) The Topic that I chose to look further into was life without semantic memory. This topic relates to the chapter as it talked a lot about semantic memory in the book and what it was and how we used it in our daily life. I find this topic particularly interesting because I think that we should all know about living under different living conditions like living without different parts of our memory. If we are missing parts of our memory we would have to find different ways to go about life and be able to function the same. I wanted to take time out and do some more research on the topic because I find people with disabilities interesting in the way that they live life and find different ways to live what they perceive to be a normal life.
2)
Semantic memory is the memory of meaning and understanding, and other general knowledge such as language. There are two major parts of our memory semantic memory and episodic memory, but sematic memory refers to the memory of language and sentences and words. Often times those who do not have semantic memory have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. One way to describe a lack of semantic memory is trying to build a tower out of blocks but not knowing how to because you don’t know what the block are or how they would stack on one another.
This is something that has been researched by many psychologist and neurologists, they often looked at how in studies clients were unable to connect the executive function to the semantic memory. They often have to rule out what part of the clients memory is not working by using multiple different tests and functions and by seeing that they are not able to do simple tasks like remember 5 words or talk in a complete sentence rather than something short like “I drink milk.” They have to go about it and figure out what is causing the memory to be lacking is it something like Alzheimer’s or is it something that they were born missing parts of their memory.
Often time’s people who are lacking parts of their semantic memory have a hard time comprehending things that people around them say. They are often time miss understood by those around them because the words that they do know may not be used in the right context or may not be pronunceated correctly for what they are trying to say. When watching a video of a four year old who had been missing parts of his semantic memory his mom was trying to talk to him and through this you can really see that the mother of the child was getting frustrated that she was unable to understand her child and her child could not understand her.
This makes me wonder how often in today’s society do we go about life miss treating those who are lacking parts of their semantic memory or better yet even other parts of their memory or even other disorders that they may have without taking the time out of our day to stop and try to understand and help them with even one thing out of their day. Even just stopping to make them laugh or smile making them noticed in the world makes a huge improvement in their lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_memory- Used to find out more about the different types of memory and the types of memory that pertained to semantic memory and a little of the history of this type of memory.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/may07/makingsense.aspx this website gave me more information on how they did the research and the science behind looking at the memory and how the clients are missing parts of their memory and different ways that they may have tested this.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Semantic+Memory+and+Language&FORM=RESTAB#view=detail&mid=1183C4DAC548C14A69E71183C4DAC548C14A69E7- This video really gave me a visual perspective of a child who is struggling with loss of his semantic memory and how it really does affect his language and his ability to communicate with those around him.
This week I decided to look into autobiographical memory. From there, I learned about superior autobiographical memory, or hyperthymesia. This relates to the chapter because it is all about long-term memory and an ability to recall events from your past.
Hyperthymesiacs can remember minute details of their daily lives back to puberty. There are only 12 known hyperthymesiacs in the world, one of which is the actress Marilu Henner. These individuals can use their mind like a database or like Google Search and can instantly recall information about any day that you present to them. They can remember what they wore, who they talked to, where they went, etc. They are said to see the days events in their heads like a video. Hyperthymesiacs often have trouble in relationships.
Hyperthymesia is a condition that has only been around since 2006. The case of A.J. was the first known case of hyperthymesia. A.J.'s case was reported by researchers at the University of California, Irvine. Tests of memory, lateralisation, IQ tests, tests of visual functions, language tests, and more were performed on A.J. to confirm hyperthymesia.
As a result of the constant remembering, hyperthymesiacs are often stuck in the past and can get lost in their memories on a daily basis. cognitive function is often impacted by the constant influx of memories. Hyperthymesia does not translate into better memory in other areas; hyperthymesiacs are often average students and may even have poor memory skills otherwise.
One possible explanation for hyperthymesia is that hyperthymesiacs store information using semantics, and that semantic cues are used in retrieval. Another possible explanation is that an enlarged temporal lobe and caudate nucleus allow for better storage and retrieval of memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uFDhJPKOc
This video shows a person with hyperthymesia remembering random dates from their life and explaining how it works for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia
This link discusses the known cases of hyperthymesia, gives background information, and discusses several possible causes.
http://www.hyperthymesia.org/
This link talks about what life is like for hyperthymesiacs, how they remember, and characteristics that they all have.
I wanted to look into more research about the Tip of the Tongue phenomenon. It has always interested me because I just couldn’t understand how at times it can take me hours or even days to remember one small detail that I know I have stored somewhere in my brain but my brain struggles to recall it. I hope to get a better idea of what causes it or how we eventually find that information.
TOT is the feeling you get when you are searching for a target word but can’t find it. You are usually able to find similar words but you can’t find that one particular word that you know you know. The tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon is a form of metacognition which means the awareness of your own cognitive processes. We know enough about our memory to be aware of when TOT is happening. TOT is related to multiple different topics: language production, semantic memory, and consciousness, and the feeling of knowing. The feeling of knowing is the prediction you make about whether you could actually recognize the answer to the question or the target word you are searching for. This process is done consciously as we decide whether we would be able to recognize it if it were to be presented to us.
Semantic memory is another way of explaining TOT. Our semantic memory is the organized knowledge we have about the world. Semantic memory is described as a net-like organization of our different memories that are all interconnected. However, sometimes we only have partial memories or have lost part of our memories, so when we attempt to recall something we can only remember what letter the word starts with or how the word sounds. The brain has to search for other pathways to find another memory that holds that same information. It usually takes about 2 minutes to recall the information we are looking for. This process is called lexical retrieval which is a fancy way of describing when we search for a particular word in our memory storage.
In one particular study, McMaster University professor Karen Humphries found that in most instances, if you can’t recall the word quickly then you would save more time giving up. She set up questions on a computer and had the participants in the study either press “know,” “don’t know,” or “TOT.” She gave people that pressed TOT 10 or 30 seconds to try to find the answer before showing it to them. She then had them return the next day and retake it. She found that if they were stuck on the TOT the first day, they were much more likely to get in the TOT state for that same word the next day. This result really surprised me because I thought if you struggle long enough with remembering a word you would be more likely to remember it if it came up again in the near future. The results of this study show that if you really can’t think of a word, unless you have someone there that you can try to get to help, you should just give up.
I think the study I found definitely surprised me because I feel like many times I am able to recall the information if I sit there long enough and think. I also remember how frustrating it can be when I’m doing homework and I really need a word to complete my sentence and my brain refuses to give it to me. I think it would be interesting if we could research a way to possibly rebuild those connections in our brains when we experience TOT and are later able to recall the answer.
Terminology: Tip of the tongue (TOT), Karen Humphries, research, study, results, semantic memory, lexical retrieval, memory storage, metacognition, feeling of knowing, language production, consciousness,
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
http://faculty.mercer.edu/spears_a/studentpages/tipofthetongue/TipoftheTongue.html
This source helped explain the relationship semantic memory has with TOT and also gave good facts about TOT in a general sense.
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
http://mercercognitivepsychology.pbworks.com/w/page/32859313/Tip-of-the-Tongue%20Phenomenon
This source helped explain metacognition, the feeling of knowing, and lexical retrieval. It also helped explain how the process of TOT works in our brains.
Tip of the Tongue Learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T36I8Coiz64
This video gave me a lot of good information on a study that was done involving Tip of the Tongue research. The results of this study were surprising but interesting to learn.
My topic is the effects of exercise on Alzheimer’s disease. This topic relates to the chapter because chapter six was about long-term memory and patients with Alzheimer’s disease progressively lose their long-term memories. I am interested in this topic because I am very interested in how physical fitness and exercise effects the brain.
First of all, Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50-80% of all cases of dementia. Dementia is the loss of memory and other intellectual abilities that interferes with daily life. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease and worsens over time. Alzheimer’s begins with mild memory loss but individuals eventually lose the ability to respond to their environments at all in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals with Alzheimer’s live an average of eight years after symptoms become noticeable. Protein fragments called beta-amyloid plaques build up in the spaces between the neurons in the brain. Another protein called tau also creates twisted fibers called tangles in the brain. Plaques and tangles are present with normal aging; however, there more plaques and tangles in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s. This buildup of proteins blocks off communication to other neurons as well as blocking the processes that the cell needs to complete to survive. The dying cells are responsible for the loss of memory and other basic functions.
Within the last decade, Alzheimer’s disease started being referred to as Type 3 diabetes. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing enough insulin or the body’s cells become insulin resistant meaning that the cells start ignoring the insulin. Without insulin, the cells are unable to remove glucose from the bloodstream. Glucose is the body’s main source of energy and the body cannot function without glucose. Buildup of glucose in the blood stream also has serious, negative side effects. It is possible for your brain to become insulin resistant as well. This can happen independently of or co-occur with Type 2 diabetes. One study blocked insulin’s path to the brain in rats and found the same neurodegeneration that occurs with Alzheimer’s disease. The drug used to block insulin’s path to the brain chemically resembles nitrites which are found in most processed foods. The neurodegeneration was accelerated by diets high in fat as well.
While dubbing Alzheimer’s disease Type 3 diabetes might not be entirely appropriate, exercise and a healthy diet are undeniably important to brain health. Areas of the brain involved in memory increased in efficiency after just 12 weeks of an exercise program for individuals showing early risk signs for Alzheimer’s. Fewer natural resources were needed for these areas to function to perform the same memory tasks as compared to individuals in a control group that were not part of an exercise program. '
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp This resource provided a good overview of Alzheimer’s and how Alzheimer’s alters the physical structure of the brain.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/02/alzheimers.aspx This was a great article that talked about why Alzheimer’s disease has been called Type 3 diabetes. This article included a lot of information about the biological workings of Alzheimer’s as well as a research study that showed a link between Alzheimer’s disease symptoms and insulin resistance in the brain using animal studies.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264201.php This resource explained the findings of a study that found support for the improvement of memory after participating in a 12 week exercise program.
1a) State what your topic is.
This week I chose to look more into the topic of connectionism.
1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
Connectionism was discussed in the chapter with regards to storing and retrieving memories.
1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
I’m interested in this because it seems to offer a clear view of how the brain works, generally speaking.
2)
Connectionism is an approach to psychology that models that all mental or behavioral processes as the result of the workings of many interconnected simple units (neurons). This is very interesting to me, because I enjoy contemplating the smallest parts of things. I find it super fascinating that everything is made up of atoms, and I very much enjoy to find out how interaction of these small particles make up everything we know in the observable universe. Connectionism allows me to view the brain in the same way as I view other things, although the simple units in the brain are still clusters of a large number of smaller units (atoms), and smaller units within them (quarks), and the possibility of smaller dimensions within them (refer to super string theory). In the introductory chapter of the text, they discussed how studies of computer science benefit from and contribute to the field of cognitive psychology. To better my understanding of connectionist modeling, I looked up the computer modeling approach to connectionism. They identified four aspects that are present in all connectionist models: units, activations, connections, and connection weights. The units in a connectionist model are the basic information processing structures. When considering the brain from the connectionist approach, the neurons act as the units. The connections then, are the synapses through which information is sent between neurons. The activations in the model represent the input and output messages, which in the case of the brain would be characterized as the neural signal being transmitted. The final aspect of connectionist models are connection weights, which are simply the strengths of the connections, or synapses in our case.
There exists an extensive amount of research involving connectionist models on the internet. A good amount of research deals with connectionist models of learning, reading and memory. A very interesting, and prominent aspect of this connectionism research deals with consciousness. Consciousness is correlated closely with attention, cognitive control, and working memory. Consciousness can be thought of with relation to the global workspace theory, which suggests that consciousness actually depends on having access to a ‘global workspace’. The basic assumption when considering this theory is that the winning coalition of neurons determines conscious experience at a given moment. There are many different theories branching off from this point, but these are the basics that we need to know. Your brain is made up of neurons, lots of them (~100 billion of them actually), and they communicate to one another via the synapse. These neurons do not simply communicate with a single neuron providing input and another providing output, no, not at all. These neurons are connected to up to 10,000 other neurons at all times, making the brain a very hectic and confusing place. When these neurons are firing, whatever aspect has the largest number of signals from these neurons at any given time is the aspect that attention is focused on, and correspondingly, that you are conscious of. The notion here, is that attention, working memory, cognitive control and consciousness are not all distinct functions implemented by separate brain systems, but rather constructs derived from the same neural networks. The PFC has been pointed out to be a very important brain region in this regard. The PFC (prefrontal cortex) has been shown to be responsible for biasing activation in other areas of the brain as well as focusing attention. This is why medication for ADHD targets the PFC. As we get more information about the brain, and work towards a complete brain map, we learn more about how brain regions interact with one another. Despite how complicated the brain actually is, I don’t think it’s crazy to anticipate us understanding how it works one day, down to the specific neural networks.
3)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661305001889
This link contained an article that used a connectionist model approach and the global workspace theory to try to explain consciousness.
http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/connectionism_intro/connectionism_1.php
This link contained an article describing the basics of connectionist models while equating neural brain networks to computer networks.
http://psych.stanford.edu/~jlm/papers/McCCleeremans09CnxMdlsOCC.pdf
This link contained an article describing connectionist models as they relate to processing, implicit learning, and consciousness.
For this weeks topical blog I thought that I would talk about false memories. I liked this section of the chapter because it was very interesting. I liked the part of the section that talked about the false memories with people that are in car accidents. Also, I thought that the part that dealt with child abuse was interesting because of the way people lie and then start to believe their own lies. I thought for the research that I would try to find an article that had a case of child abuse. I also that that researching a topic on the classic car accident study or the "lost in the mall" study. Then maybe a little background on Loftus would be interesting since she was a major researcher behind most of the studies in the book.
I found a cool article about the lost in the mall technique. What I did not get from the book because was that it is an implantation technique. I must have looked over this fact in the book, but it makes the technique much more understandable. What the basis of this study was to do is see if they could plug false memories into people. The participants were told that they would be given five memories from their childhood, and that those memories would be provided by their family members. What the participants did not know is that one of the memories was false. The participants were told to fill in most of the details from the experiment and say if any of the memories that the family provided were false. 5 out of 24 participants or 25% said that they did in fact remember the lost in the mall story which was fabricated by the researchers. The article said that the reason that some of the participants believed that they were lost in the mall was due to false memories. The participants in the study may have had a time that they were lost, but overtime they lost full detail of that memory and then just fabricated the rest of the story to the researchers. I thought that this was really interesting because this research could be used in many criminal studies, and to help people that have been wrongly accused because someone thought that they had remembered a repressed memory. This leads perfectly into the next part of my topical blog that I wanted to research. I wanted to see some recent research on a child abuse study that dealt with false memory. I had questions while reading the chapter because I did not know how they found out that the person was lying about a repressed memory. How do they know when someone is making up a false memory?
The next article that I found was also helpful in my research on false memory. I learned that false memories are not considered a disorder in the DSM, but what happens when a false memory becomes an obsession is that it now is a delusion. In the case of the lost mall technique or in a child abuse case is that some of the people that create these false memories is that they truly believe them. A person that keeps adding detail and thinks that the story is true in the lost in the mall case could be categorized as delusional. What my question was about child abuse was how people know that a victim is lying. What this article mentioned is that there are reactors. Some of the people that say they had a repressed memory come out some time later and say that the incident did not happen. When this happens psychologists that had told the courts that the repressed memory that the person was having was true, is now in trouble. Some of the psychologist are then sued because someone has been wrongly accused. I thought that this would be a sticky situation for psychologists and lawyers because you are putting trust into a memory that someone could have or could not have had. It is a lot of risk to be in that profession.
The last research that I found happened to be the most useful to me. It was a youtube video of a ted talk. It was Loftus talking about false memory, and a specific case that she talked about. It was about a man named Titus that was wrongly accused of rape. The background of the story is that a girl ws raped in her hometown. Titus ws out that night driving around and was brought into the station to be questioned. They put his picture in the line up and asked the girl to pick out the person that she thought raped her. She got to his picture and said he looked the closest. I could not believe this when I was listening because her decision about him being the "closet" caused Titus a lot of trouble. Titus was later taken to court, and at court the girl said that she was sure that Titus was the one that raped her. Titus then wrote to a journalist and asked for her help in trying to get him out of jail. She actually found the actual rapist and he later confessed to the rape and up to 50 other rapes that he committed in that town. Titus then sued the court and on the day of the trial he died of a stress related heart attack at the age of 35. The girl that had a false memory of Titus as her rapist later killed Titus. The reason that the girl went from thinking that Titus was close enough to her being for sure that it was him was other people telling her crap. Loftus described a persons memory as a wiki page. You can go in there and change the information, but so can other people. What happened is that the police offers were forcing the idea that Titus was the one because they needed a conviction. The girl started to believe that Titus was in fact that one, and later Titus died because of her false memory. I thought that this article was the best because I got to hear about a study that Loftus worked on. Hearing about false memory from her made me understand the material that much more, and I truly enjoyed the ted talk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_mall_technique
This article was helpful because it was useful in explaining the lost in the mall technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory_syndrome
This article gave me information about child abuse cases dealing with false memories.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory.html
This ted talk was very informational because I got to hear from Loftus herself about a case that she worked on dealing with false memory.
1.
a. This week I decided to look into the topic of autobiographical memory, more so on hyperthymesia, also known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM).
b. This relates to this chapter 6 because the book goes over autobiographical memory. The book states, “autobiographical memories are the memories of an individual’s past history.” The books says that autobiographical memory is choosing what it wants to store in the LTM, and that memory is not perfect.
c. I like this topic because I find it very interesting to remember past events. Because my memory isn’t the greatest to begin with. Yet, the thought of remembering my past or others remembering theirs.
2. Autobiographical memory comes from the self-memory system, this was proposed in 2000 by Conway and Pleydell-Pearce. The information is kind of vague on the concept of autobiographical memory, but I did find information on HSAM. HSAM is a new concept in autobiographical memories. It is where the person in concept is able to recall all their memories from their past. The person that was said to have been participating in the theory was deemed to be called “AJ.” The leading people in the HSAM theory are James L. MaGaugh, Larry Cahill and Elizabeth Parker. This theory was first reported by the main three people in 2006. This topic was previewed on 60 Minutes trying to make the topic more known to the people. The people that have HSAM organize their thoughts depending on topic, or date. They are able to go back in their memories and experience what they did in vivid detail as they are reviewing the date, as if it were happening before them again. The 60 minutes showing of HSAM was very informative, on how HSAM works, and what could be the reason behind why people with HSAM can remember what they do. Now, people with HSAM have been given brain scans so that the researchers can tell what they can learn about their brains. They didn’t think going into HSAM brain scans that people would have differences. Though when the people did see the scans they saw that the temporal lobe and the caudate nucleus were enlarged. They think that the reason that people can remember what they can is because of the enlargement of the two things. Though the enlargement of the caudate nucleus is also led to having compulsive disorders of some sort. It also plays with ADHD and ASD. I found this topic very interesting to learn about.
3. F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia -- i liked this because it gave great information about the topic that I wanted to talk about.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22652113 -- good information on the HSAM topic
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quirks-memory/201301/people-extraordinary-autobiographical-memory -- this was basically the same information as on the 60 minutes video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory --- information on the autobiographical background
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en23bCvp-Fw --- this is the 60 minutes special on the HSAM topic part 2 because it had more in depth than that of part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeEQ85m79I – this part 1 of the 60 minutes video that starts the video for HSAM
This week I chose to look into false memories because the chapter this week was all about the strengths and weaknesses of our LTM. I specifically investigated how they are implanted in our minds. This process is also called inception which as we all know is a pop culture movie that involves a team of people whose job it is to implant an idea into someone’s mind so that he believes it is his idea, and they do this by going into to his dreams making him believe that he dreamt the idea. This is not entirely accurate, however we do have the ability to implant false memories into others, just as easily as our own memories can corrupt each other.
What I’ve learned about false memories is that there are two basic ways a false memory can be created. First, someone else can implant one into you, this is inception. There have been many experiments done on false memories, and what they usually do, for humans at least is tell the participant a few true stories from their childhood as well as one false story, presenting them all as true. They then ask you write down the stories along with any details you can recall for a period of 5 to 7 days. What they found is that not only do you accept the story as a real memory, but the more you explore the “memory” the more details you recall from it. For example, a very common false memory that scientists implant is that as a child you were lost in the mall. What the scientist might say to a participant is something like this: When you were 5 years old you were shopping at the crossroads mall in Waterloo that your family visits often. While shopping you were separated from your family and rescued by an older man and eventually reunited with your family. After dealing with this memory for several days the participant will often add details such as: where exactly in the mall they were lost (a toy store, in the food court, etc), how long they were lost, details about who found and helped them (really cool old man, or an old man with grey hair and glasses, etc).
After doing experiments like these on people it is obvious that we internalize these memories, and we seem to treat them just like real memories. From the findings of false memory experiments in rats we know that not only do we consciously treat false and true memories the same way, but also form them the same way. When rats were but into a maze and dye that is activated by blue light was put into their hippocampus, a part of the brain that we are certain is involved in making memories, and they are allowed to navigate and explore that maze freely, the dye lights up indicating that memories are being made. Similarly if the rat is put into a second maze and sent electric shocks in every part that resembles the first maze, he develops a fear response to the first maze, even though he was never shocked inside the first maze. Once he is put back into the first maze he freezes.
The second way that false memories can be developed is through new or old memories interfering or corrupting them. When new memories corrupt existing memories it is called retroactive interference, while the opposite when old memories interfere with memories being made is called proactive interference. The most common as well as most studied is retroactive interference, and it’s not difficult to see why. It’s much easier to know of an existing memory that someone has and then introduce new information to corrupt it, then attempt to use the person’s existing information and make a memory that that information will corrupt. To me that sounds nearly impossible, and is honestly very confusing.
It’s great to know all of this, but what can we actually do with this information? One of the major discussions in the field surrounding inception of false memories is whether or not it is ethical to continue studying this at all? Many people think that there is already too much readily available information on the topic that could be used in very dangerous ways. One of the main reasons those who advocate for studying this idea claim that it is important is because is so readily applies to the legal system. Too often do we hear of young men and women in their twenties or thirties suing a family member because of some recently remember childhood abuse. These are often referred to as “repressed memories” however there is no scientific evidence to support that the brain actually keeps some memories out of our conscious awareness, so these are now believed to be based on some false memory. If you recall from the shopping mall experiment, it is common that once you accept a false memory you add to it. If you can imagine someone in therapy for an anxiety problem or what have you, and then the therapist asks even just one leading question about childhood abuse the person could internalize that idea, and the worst part about false memories is that we have no idea we are creating them until it is too late, because once a memory is a memory to us, there is no physical or conceptual difference between the two. So interestingly, although the experiments that are done may seem harmless and almost silly, the consequences of someone’s false memory could be dire.
http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm
This link provided me with a specific story about false memory in a court situation that I generalized for the use of my blog post.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jul/25/false-memory-implanted-mouse-brain
This link gave me the information about false memory experiments in rats/mice as well as some general information on false memory formation.
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/loftus.mem.html
This link gave me all of the information about the “shopping mall” experiment as well as some general information about other false memory experiments. I also gained a lot of valuable general information from this site.
Once you have completed your search and explorations we would like you to:
1a) State what your topic is.
I have chosen to do more research on long term memory.
1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
This topic relates to the chapter because the chapter heavily focused on memory.
1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
I am interested in this because I am curious about what information goes into long term memory and why some memories do and some memories don’t.
2) Next, we would like you to take the information you read or viewed related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about the topic in a knowledgeable manner.
A memory must be stored once it is created. There are thought to be three ways we store memories. There is the sensory stage, short term memory, and long term memory. Only some memories make it to long term memory. The creation of a memory begins with perception, which occurs in the sensory stage. A sensory memory is what allows a perception such as a visual pattern, a sound, or a touch to linger for a brief moment after the stimulation is over. After that, the sensation is stored in short term memory.
Short term memory has a limited capacity. It can hold about 7 items for about 20 to 30 seconds at a time. Lastly, some memories make it in to long term memory. The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to end up in long term memory. Long term memory can store unlimited amounts of information indefinitely. A short term memory’s conversion to long term memory requires the passage of time. The time process of stabilization, whereby our experiences achieve a permanent record in our memory, is referred to as “consolidation”.
We lose and acquire information through an information-processing system in our brain. This information processing system identifies how we store, encode and retrieve information. For something to go in to long term memory, we have to learn it correctly. A lot of what we think we have learned is soon forgotten or was never really learned in the first place. There are certain strategies to use to store information in your long term memory. It may be obvious, but frequent review keeps memories from fading over time. We can think of our short term memory as an e-mail inbox. Unless we process our e-mails, our inbox fills up and can’t receive any new e-mails.
3) At the end of your post, please include working URLs for the three websites. For each URL you have listed indicate why you chose the site and the extent to which it contributed to your post.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory2.htm
This source gave me great information on how memories get in to long term memories.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-short-term-memory-to-long-term/
This source introduced me to “consolidation” which is when are memories are permanent, which is what I am interested in.
http://duke.edu/arc/documents/Learning%20and%20Memory%20handout.pdf
I liked this source because it gave me information on how to keep information in the brain. I also liked the e-mail reference when it was discussing short term memory.
1. I chose to do my topical blog about how hormones and emotional effect play a role in memory consolidation in long term memory. The chapter for this week focused on long term memory, where it is stored, and the different types of memory within long term memory. Though the exact process of how short term memories turn into long term memories isn't known, there have been findings on what can effect the process. The textbook very briefly mentioned that adrenaline produced from the body during an event was shown to have a positive effect on forming a stronger long term memory for that event. I wanted to better understand how and why this worked, as well as if there were any other hormones or chemicals in our bodies that also has an effect of memory consolidation.
2. We know that many times the events in our lives that have involved emotional arousal are those that we remember the best and with the greatest amount of detail compared to those that are more dull. This can be demonstrated when you ask people where they were when the attacks of September 11th took place. I was only in first grade and I can describe exactly where I was sitting in which classroom and who I was sitting next to. The textbook explained that the hormones associated with adrenaline plays a role in helping to better consolidate a memory. In the further research I learned that the hormone itself is not enough to manipulate consolidation, that hormone secretion must be paired with emotional arousal. This arousal can be either a positive or a negative one to have the effect.
The studies that I read showed that the hormones do not make any impact on the coding or processing of the memories. The impact comes during the consolidation of the memory. The textbook mentioned these hormones helping to make the consolidation stronger, therefor making it a stronger memory. The opposite effect can also come from hormonal impact. The effect of hormones of the consolidation of memory is curvilinear. If an event causes too high of a release of hormones they work against memory consolidation. This is seen in events of traumatic experiences in which people claim to not have any memory of. If there are not enough hormones released during a particularly dull experience this can have a negative impact of the memory consolidation as well. It has been shown that having a moderate amount of hormones released is the point in which the hormones have the largest effect on aiding in memory consolidation.
Up until this point of have just generalized hormones when describing the effects that can be had on memory consolidation. The information and studies that I read for this week focused on cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol and easily enter into the brain and makes its aware around the central nervous system allowing for it to have direct impact on processes in the brain, such as memory consolidation. Adrenaline does not have this luxury. Adrenaline works by activating the amygdala. The amygdala reacts to the adrenaline by turning around and releasing other hormones such as norepinephrine and glucose hormones that manipulate the consolidation of memory. One thing that I would like to better understand is how these hormones make the impact that they do. Much of the information in the studies used neuroscience terms and concepts that were over my head and so I did my best to simply and understand the basic gist of the operation.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=15&ved=0CEoQFjAEOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F12162727_Enhanced_memory_for_emotional_material_following_stress-level_cortisol_treatment_in_humans%2Ffile%2Fd912f50f5b4395b683.pdf&ei=V3IOU6baNKOCyAHKoICACQ&usg=AFQjCNEciM_bh2x0xkyIqxvqGEiiuCHt6A&sig2=YuUdEmQnFe8zShyomzJTWw
This article is about a study done on rats with injected cortisol to show the effects that the hormone had on memory consolidation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3907/
This website went into great detail about the role of adrenaline and the amygdala. It also gave a summary of the ways that memory consolidation can be manipulated.
http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/10/4/270.full
This website explained the different effects that occur with the varying emotional arousals as well as the effects of the varying hormone levels.
1) Superior Autobiographical memory was mentioned withing the chapter. This topic within the subject just really peaked my interest. It mainly was most interesting because of how we can remember the things we do.
2) In our chapter it was mentioned that autobiographical memories are just as they sound, and they are our own memories of our own lives. I have always wondered why I can remember something so vividly from my childhood, but I can't remember something I learned in class in the same day? This is because our brain decides what is important and what isn’t. Our brain receives information then decides if it is something that may be useful for survival later on. Think about it we don’t go into every situation blind, we have a sense on how certain some events will go. The reason for why we know this is based on older memories. Also, the amount of rehearsal can play a big part in the extent of what memories we keep.
Now would it be nice to remember everything in your life? To me I wouldn't because then I would have to relive almost every embarrassing moment in my life. In resent research, in 2006, within neuroscience and cognitive psychology there has been something called superior autobiographical memory. Superior autobiographical memory refers to a person who literally can recall every aspect of their lives and major events, down to the date and day of the week. Dr. McGaugh has been a major player in understanding this phenomenon. In 2011 there have been 20 known people to be labeled as having superior memory. The first woman to come forward as having this was a woman named Jill Price. While some of the others embrace their “condition,” Price has found it to be very isolating and hard to handle. Actress Mary Lou Henner, during the 60 minutes segment, was told she also had a superior memory. This was due to her remembering the day she bought, and each day she first wore every pair of her many shoes.
There is real no known reason for why they have such good memories, but McGaugh and his colleagues have some explanations. The people with superior memory were given MRIs which it was then discovered that some parts of their brains were more highly developed than the typical person. They all had bigger temporal lobes, which was not a surprise to them, but they also discovered that they all had larger caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus is a part of the brain buried deep inside that is associated with creating habits, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. During the 60 minutes interview the people were asked about compulsions. Mainly all of them had admitted that they had some sort of compulsion. In 2012, a new paper was published in a peer reviewed journal that had new discoveries into superior memory. The researchers, when comparing the superior memory brain to control brains, had variations in nine structures of the brain, including the white matter linking the front and middle parts. The parts of the brain with the biggest difference was the area associated with autobiographical memory. They also have more recently confirmed 33 cases of superior autobiographical memory.
Even though they have superior autobiographical memory they do not remember everything. The people can mainly remember just more personal memories not something that they have to learn like a math equation for example. They are not very different from you or I, but the main difference is there memory is a little bit better in some aspects.
Discovering the cure or atleast slowing the process of Alzheimer's may benefit from those who have this ability to remember, believed by Dr. McGaugh. No only this but since the caudate nucleus is associated with compulsive disorders this may also help in understanding why we have them, and how to treat them better. Who knows when this will happen because research on superior Autobiographical memory has just started
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/05/07/good-question-why-do-we-remember-some-things-and-forget-others/
This article provided a good summary of the topic
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/29/opinion/la-oe-bar-memory-20110529
This article provided information on how we only remember certain things.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120730170341.htm
Is the link to Dr. McGaugh's short summary of new research that has been done on
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gift-of-endless-memory/
60 minutes episode on superior autobiographical memory. Provided quite a bit of information on some of the people who have been classified of having superior autobiographical memory.
The topic I decided to research more this week was Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's relates to this week chapter because it involves the slow degradation of memory and cognitive functioning. Alzheimer's is something that I've always wanted to know as much about as possible because it could happen to a family member or even myself sometime in the future.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative disorder within the brain that attacks neurons and results in dementia through a loss of memory and cognitive functioning such as thinking and some language skills. It also results in altered behavior as the disease progresses. The disease is irreversible and there is no cure for it at this time despite being the most common cause of demetia in the elderly, with estimates being between 50-80%. The disease results in a person unable to function without assistance from a caregiver and can be very hard on both the person suffering from the disease, and those caring for them.
Alzheimer's Disease is the result of a slow degradation that takes years to develop to the point of impairing function. It is currently unknown how the process begins but it is estimated that neural damage begins a decade or more before cognitive functioning becomes visibly impaired. An early symptom of the disease is impaired short-term memory to a degree unusual for the person's age. Another early symptom of the disease is a decline in other general cognitive abilities like impaired reasoning or judgement and vision and spatial issues. The disease progresses through three major levels of severity: mild, moderate, and severe. Mild Alzheimer's is typically the stage that people are diagnosed at and is the begin of cognitive decline and the symptoms mentioned previously. Moderate Alzheimer's results in damage to the brain in areas controlling language, reasoning, sensory processing, and conscious thought. Previous symptoms from the mild stage grow worse and this is the stage where a person begins to have trouble recognizing family members or close friends. Severe Alzheimer's is the final stage, in which the brain has shrunk significantly. In this stage, the sufferer cannot communicare or function on their own anymore and require constant care.
Two abnormal structures are suspected of damaging nerve cells in the brain and contributing to the advancement of the disease. These structures are plaques and tangles. Plaques are deposits of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid that build up in the spaces between nerve cells. Tangles are twisted fibers of another protein called tau that build up inside cells. These two structures develop fairly commonly in people as they age but subjects with Alzheimer's have been shown to develop many more than the average person. It is unknown what role these two structures play in the advancement of the disease but they have been shown fairly consistently to coincide with the disease in a fairly predictable way.
Alzheimer's has also shown to have a partial genetic component to it. Early-onset Alzheimer's is a rare form of the disease in which symptoms begin to develop between age 30-50, decades earlier than the usual onset after the age of 60. Most of these cases are related to by a familial connection. Many studies have linked the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene to late-onset Alzheimer’s. Although this gene may be present, it doesn't necessarily result in Alzheimer's in a subject and people without the gene can also develop the disease.
Overall, this topic is a rather depressing one. No one wants to see someone they know and care about degrade in the manner that this disease causes, let alone suffer from it themselves. Much research is being done on attempts to find a cure for the disease but at this time all we are able to do is slow and ease the degredation process a bit. Hopefully a direct cause of the disease can be determined sometime in the near future and a true cure for the disease can be developed.
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp
This website was a good general source for the topic and gave the direct definitions for plaques and tangles.
http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-fact-sheet
This was my main source of information, which related to and overlapped with the information from the other websites. It provided most of the information and is a very good source for anyone trying to understand more about the disease.
http://www.alzfdn.org/AboutAlzheimers/definition.html
A short source but provides a good definition of the disease.
1a) State what your topic is.
Autobiographical memories.
1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
This chapter deals with memory theories and long-term memory, one section within the chapter deals with the duration of LTM and what can affect how long a memory lasts. A type of memory that have long lasting effects are our autobiographical memories or our personal experiences.
1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
This first interested me because throughout life we are constantly making new memories, some stay with us for a very long time and others are gone in an instant. The reasons for certain memories to last longer than others intrigued me to learn more about how specific memories can stick in our mind and remain vivid throughout our lives.
2) From the moment we are born each of us are exposed to many different stimuli, sensations and information. All of these experiences throughout life, from your first kiss to a family vacation to sad farewells, have the potential to end up as autobiographical memories. Autobiographical memories are essentially a collection of your “greatest hits” throughout life, they can represent personal experiences, specific objects, people and events experienced at particular time and place. Memory has been a topic of great interest for many disciplines, one’s personal memories have also been the subject of many psychological studies because an individual’s experience is unique to them alone. Our personal memories are selected by our brain based on importance, rather than storing everything we see our brain sifts through the information which isn’t important to us and saves the moments that are significant in our lives. We also know from Ebbinghaus’s research that our rate of forgetting is linear over time, the ability to access some episodes from our life becomes harder over time as that information in the brain deteriorates and becomes vague. While this is how the average person’s memory saves data there is a very small population of individuals with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). These people can often recall any event in their life and tell you the day, time and year and sometimes the emotion they were feeling as if it were yesterday. New research is being developed as to how this small population of individuals is able to have such a powerful memory. This is especially interesting because people with HSAM do not show exceptional memory in other areas besides autobiographical memory. Many researchers indicate an amplified white matter consistency in people with HSAM, which they suggest may indicate the transfer of information among connecting neural regions is enhanced in these individuals and this may contribute to their superior autobiographical memories. The research and our understanding of this rare trait is still in the early stages because it was unknown for so long and many of the individuals with HSAM did not even know what it was until recently. Our ability to remember events or people throughout life plays a big role in our self-identity and I encourage further research to help improve and understand memory.
3)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory
This site was helpful in giving me a lot of background on the topic and giving further analysis than the book.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quirks-memory/201301/people-extraordinary-autobiographical-memory
This site discussed individuals with HSAM a phenomenon in a small population of people.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/more-people-have-highly-superior-autobiographical-memory-than-originally-thought/
In this video two people with HSAM are interviewed and talk about their experience with the phenomenon.
1.A. Autobiographical memory and positive affect.
1.B. This topic is very relevant to topics discussed in chapter six. Our chapter talks about autobiographical memory and what types of autobiographical memories get stored. This topic will provide further analysis of that topic as well as what consequences this type of memory have for affect.
1.C. I am interested in this because this kind of long term memory may have ramifications for who we are or how we feel in the present. Past events, behaviors and memories may help us develop a self schema and understanding of ourselves. They could depress if they are negative memories or if we are already depressed, perhaps they can ‘lift us up’ so to speak in order to feel more positive.
First, we need to establish whether or not autobiographical memory can influence someone at all. In my first source researchers examined whether or not ads that appeal to people’s autobiographical memories persuasive. They did indeed find that when certain conditions are met, these ads can be persuasive. This shows that memories of past events can influence how we think and perceive the world in the present.
In my second source, researchers wanted to find out if people associate music with autobiographical memories and what affect is chart eristic of such associations. They found that almost all participants had associated an autobiographical memory with music and that this music elicited a positive affect while also making them ‘relive’ these memories. This shows us that stimuli such as music that are not directly related this kind of long term memory can bring these memories to conscious awareness and give us a positive affect.
Still though, if we believe these findings we must take the participants self report of how they feel when they hear the music at their word. In my final source they asked participants recall specific positive memories and recorded words that indicated positive affect when they said them to the interviewer. In addition they self reported how recalling that memory felt after explaining the memory to an interviewer. They did find that in young people, recalling them positive memories did elicit a positive affect. This has implications for those who are depressed or grieving. When one is told to remember all the good times they had with a lost loved, there may actually be merit to that advice. It could be that depressed people either are not triggered to think of positive memories as often, don’t have as many positive memories, or ten do make more associations between stimuli and negative events.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=8047 I included this source because I felt the article would help me establish that memories of this type do have the ability to influence how we think in the present when presented with certain stimuli.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7363 The previous article dealt mostly with persuasion and I wanted to include a source that spoke to how everyday types of stimuli such as hearing certain songs could elicit these types of memories and by proxy a positive affect.
http://www.psych.ufl.edu/LifeStoryLab/pdf/Bluck.Alea.2009Phenomenology.pdf I felt that this source including both self report immediately after describing positive events as well as having researchers evaluate the content of what they said provided strong support for my main argument that the notion that autobiographical memory recall could elicit positive affect.
The topic I chose is permastore. I chose this topic, because I have never heard of it, and I did not know there was anything past long term memory.
Permastore is extremely long term memory. This form of memory forms after extensive training, learning, or experience. The memory stored here can be accessible for over 50 years, even if all that information is not used or rehearsed. An example would also be the knowledge of a foreign language and math. This kind of memory can also store information that a person has passively learned. There is controversy between researchers, some say that permastore is a separate memory system, others think that the long term memory system can account for both.
Just like any other memory these memories are encoded. The issue with encoding is that it is necessary for storage, but it may not always be sufficient, especially when we are talking about foreign language knowledge. If a person does not use that language for years, the knowledge will start to drop, but after so many years, it is reported that they were forgetting, but after time, it became stable. Harry P. Bahrick did a study and said knowledge was lost after 3-6 years after they study on Spanish speaking, but over the next 25 years the knowledge was pretty stable.
Memories do not lie dormant, they continue to be affected by the new information that is being brought in, and continues to enter the memory system.
Terms: permastore, long term memory, encoded, memory,
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-permastore-memory
I chose this website to get the definition of permastore. It told how it can last around 50 years.
http://books.google.com/books?id=la6mSK9vyIgC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=permastore+psychology&source=bl&ots=C1QWKRwCJh&sig=I44l9iEiFe_07-VXqHqaYf9zxGc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GZEPU-LlF-ewyQG0mIGQBg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=permastore%20psychology&f=false
This website talked about foreign languages and how they can go into the permastore memory system.
http://www.answers.com/topic/memory-myths-mysteries-and-realities
This website talked about language and when the knowledge starts to get lost, and when it becomes stable again. It also talked about how memories don’t lay dormant.
Chapter 6 Topical Blog
The topic that I chose to look further into was the topic of autobiographical memories. There is a lot of information of autobiographical information in this chapter. When people recall autobiographical memories, these are the memories that most would consider long term memories. Chapter six is all about long term memory. There are a couple main sections in chapter six that talk about autobiographical memories. Autobiographical memories are memories of a person’s past history. If you consider the term “autobiography”, this makes sense. An autobiography is a story about a person’s past that is written by that individual. Your autobiographical memories are your own accounts of your past experiences. Autobiographical memory is a huge part of a person’s long term memories.
The reason that this topic interests me so much is because my mom always tells me that I have an excellent autobiographical memory. She doesn’t actually call it an autobiographical memory. But she tells me that I’m really good at recalling past events from my childhood. I never thought that I had a good memory. I was always under the impression that my memory was terrible. I am starting to realize now that my memory is much more outstanding than I think. In one of my other classes we did an experiment to test our short term memories. We were read 8 terms and asked to recall as many as we could. I was one out of two people who successfully recalled all 8. There are about 15 people in my class, so I would say those are pretty good results! I also am starting to realize that I have a very good long term memory. Sometimes I will call my mom and start off with, “Remember that time…” – and she is always astounded by what comes out of my mouth next. There are many things that I remember from my childhood – significant or not. That is why I would like to learn more about long term memory and autobiographical memory in general.
Autobiographical knowledge is a lot more than just “memories of an individual’s past history”. Autobiographical memories provide information about the self, what the self was, and what the self can be. I thought that this was a very deep statement. This shows that autobiographical memories are the basis for how we view ourselves now, in the past, and in the future. Information about the self is very important for everyday life. Without information of the self, we wouldn’t be who we are. The information about the self can be split into three areas. The three areas are lifetime periods, general events, and event-specific knowledge.
Lifetime periods are specific to certain period of time in an individual’s life. The example the website gives is a “university theme”. This period of time/memories would account for the compilation of memories you stored in your long term memory while you were at college. A lifetime period of memories that I have would probably be called “middle school theme”. Middle school was a really difficult time for me (as it is for most). And I have a lot of long term memories that I could fit into that lifetime period. It would be interesting to look back on my life when I am much older and see how many different lifetime periods I could come up with.
General events seem to be more specific than lifetime periods. General events are grouped together by the certain theme that they have. General events are more geared towards success or failure rates of specific things. The example that the website gives is a category of “firsts”. A person’s first kiss, a person’s first basketball game, and a person’s first F on a test are all examples. These things can help a person better identify a sense of self by seeing the rates of success and the rates of failure. A personal example that I can think of would be when I had to take a speech class. I am utterly terrified of speaking in front of people. I would never have taken this class if I didn’t have to for school. But once I was done with this class, and I completed all of my assigned speeches, I realized that it wasn’t that bad. And now whenever I have to give a presentation of any sort, I look back at that moment when I passed that speech class. I thought that my world was going to end if I had to stand up in front of the class – but it didn’t. And now I have that general event autobiographical memory that I can look back on. And I can have more confidence in myself and my public speaking skills.
Event-specific knowledge is very specific details that happened during a memory. This knowledge will help us know if a memory actually happened or if it was an imagined memory. For instance, I remember when I was little, my whole family when to an amusement park in Shakopee, MN. I still remember very specific details of this event happening. I was young, but I remember when it started raining. And then it started flooding. And before I knew it, we were running for high ground and shelter. That is a memory that will forever be with me and I can remember specific details about it. Event-specific knowledge, general events, and lifetime periods are all very important in recalling and understanding the self and autobiographical memories.
Since autobiographical memory is so closely related to a person’s sense of self. It is also closely related to depression. The example that the website gives makes this concept a lot easier to understand. Say that you are asked to respond to a word given to you with a single memory. Let’s say the word given was angry. Someone who is not depressed might tell a story about how they were angry a couple days ago because they spilled wine on their carpet. A person who is depressed would answer in a more autobiographical way. A depressed person might say that they always get stuck in traffic so every morning they are angry. If you really pick this apart, you can see the difference. The person not depressed gives a straight, one time occurrence example. The person who is depressed seems to link together the term “angry” with every instance they are in traffic. Having a strong autobiographical memory does not mean that you are more likely to be depressed. Someone’s autobiographical memory will just help a counselor or therapist tell if someone is depressed or not.
So all of this information brought me the wonder – when does a person’s autobiographical memory start? There is a lot of difficulty in assessing a child’s memory. This is because it all depends on the child’s level language skills. Infantile amnesia or childhood amnesia is the tendency to not have autobiographical memories before the age of five. Most people, on average, have only a few memories between the ages of 3 and 7 years old. Not a single person on this Earth remembers being born. And this entire phenomenon is known as childhood amnesia. This is the stage right before we are able to make autobiographical memories. So I have now learned that after we are born, our mind enters into what we call childhood amnesia. As children we can remember some events from when we are younger. But as we grow older, we don’t remember much from before the age of 5. Around the ages of 5 to 7 is when we start to develop autobiographical memories. These memories are memories that get stored in our very long term memory and that we can keep with us to help us grow. Autobiographical memory helps us to see a sense of self. In looking at autobiographical memories we can see our past selves, our present selves, and our future selves. This will help us to make decisions about ourselves moving forward in life. All in all, autobiographical memory is vital to life and a person’s sense of self.
Terms: Autobiographical Memory, Long Term Memory, Short Term Memory
URLs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory
This website has a lot of deeper information on autobiographical memory. The main information that I took from this website was about event-specific knowledge, general events, and lifetime periods. These are all important for autobiographical memories and for understanding the self.
http://bipolar.about.com/od/depression-symptoms/a/overgeneral-memory-in-depression.htm
I found information on this website that helped me understand the link between autobiographical memory and depression.
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-is-childhood-amnesia
This website talks about how there is a stage in memory before autobiographical memory. This stage is called childhood amnesia.
This week I picked the Nun Study. The Nun Study is where David Snowden began studying a group of nuns. They were really healthy, had biographical records, and all lived the same lifestyle. The nuns had to have regular check ups, give DNA samples, and donate brains after death. In their findings they believe that “exercising” your brain can help you lower your chances of having Alzheimer's. I think this is a really interesting study. Studies like this could help eliminate the chances of people getting alzheimers all together.
Alzheimers is a form of dementia, which has no cure. Thinking abilities/ memories with this disease are decreased or nonexistence. Alzheimers has a slow onset and can lead to death. It is also not noticeable right away every time. They believe that plaques and tangles deal with alzheimer's. On the website they said that exercise, a balanced diet, stimulation will help prevent the disease.
In the study they made a point to bring up the writing complexity of the nuns. The nuns had to write an autobiographical essay when entering the convent. If they nun had higher complexity writing then they would have a smaller chance of developing alzheimers. The chances of someone that is lacking complexity would have an 80% chance of developing alzheimers. Someone with a higher complexity in writing would have a 10% chance of this development.
For this video they did interviews of nuns that are still in the convent. They brought up about how active the nuns are and what their activities are. The video said that there are nuns in the convent that brains show signs of alzheimer's but the nuns show no memory problems. They believed this was from of the activities they do day to day. This is really interesting seeing that the nuns could prevent the memory lose of this disease. They put a big emphasis on language skills being a big predictor of alzheimer's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw2lafKIEio
This video was about the nuns in the Norte Dame convent. They had interviews with the nuns and talked about that study going on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nun_Study
This website gave lots of background on alzhiemers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer's_disease
This gave information on the development of alzheimer's with how to prevent it.
I wanted to take a little bit more of a look at autobiographical memory. As I was reading I started to read more superior autobiographical memory, or hyperthymesia. It is a form of long term memory and it also told me how you can recall stuff from your past so well. One thing that I thought was really neat Hyperthymesiacs can remember minute details of their daily lives back to puberty and that there are only 12 of them in the world. That would be awesome I thing to be only 1 of 12 but I guess the down side of it would be that you could never use the excuse sorry I forgot. These people can remember everything so there is never a way of getting anything past them by saying remember when and then changing the story so that it sounded better because they really knew what happened. Their minds are like a huge data base always storing things and they are able to just recall it at any time. Some of these people say that when the recall events and stuff that they see it just like a movie playing in their heads. This condition or super power has only been known since 2006, A.J is the first known case to be around. The University of Cal. Did a lot of test to prove that AJ did have Hyperthymesia. Since hyperthymesiacs are always remembering they sometimes find it hard to make it in to the present if that makes any sense. They are always remembering and that hinders other parts of their life they are stuck in the past and can get lost in their memories on a daily basis. Cognitive functions are often impacted by the constant influx of memories. By having Hyperthymesia does not mean that you have better memory about other stuff they are often poor students and this might sound a little odd but they may have memory skills. Sounds like a bad side effect for a pill that will help you sleep but can cause insomnia. Some think that Hyperthymesiacs use semantics to store and retrieve information. They also have enlarged temporal lobe and caudate nucleus which allows for better storage of information and retiring of stuff. As I looked farther in to this at first I thought that this would be awesome like some super power but it might be more like a curse. I can’t remember anything but remembering everything I think that that would be worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uFDhJPKOc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia
http://www.hyperthymesia.org/