Understanding Memory: Deciphering the Brain's Mechanism

How Our Brains Make Memories Summary
The article “How Our Brains Make Memories” explains how traumatic events and the memories they hold can become forgotten over time. Karim Nader recalls the day that two planes slammed into the twin towers in New York City and like almost every person in the United States he had vivid and emotional memories of that day. However he knew better than to trust his recollections of that day because he was an expert on memory. He attended college at the University of Toronto and in 1996 joined the New York University lab of Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist who studies how emotions influence memory. Fast forward to 2003, Nader is now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, where he says “his memory of

When the body senses fear or danger the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla to produce epinephrine and norepinephrine. This is known as the fight-or-fight response. The amygdala is also involved in forming memories and learning and can also detect stimuli that is threatening. If the stress response is prolonged the fight-or-fight response can become prolonged. Most people who are going through a stressful event, will get over it eventually but sometimes traumatic events can create long lasting, vivid memories that are known as flashbulb memories. When traumatic memories are intense and prolonged some people might develop PTSD, just like the patients in the articles. In people who have PTSD, they have anxiety, sleep disturbances, irritability, and have recurring memories of the traumatic events. Life is filled with many potential stressors, any situation can cause stress if a person doesn’t have the sources or the coping ability to get through the situation. Stress impacts the brain, research has shown that people who are under chronic stress have shorter telomeres. Stress also adds fat to the abdomen, and unravels chromosomes, reducing immune system functioning, and increases rick of