The human brain is a big, intricate—yet delicate, structure in the human body. It is the key structure in cognitive function. Any damage to the brain does not only “erase” memories but also may “deceive” the brain to erroneously remember a new object as being familiar (2010). The innovative researchers at Cambridge University investigated this phenomenon in their research on The Paradoxial False Memory for Objects after Brain Damage.
The publication began by stating the widely acceptable premise that medial temporal lobe damage results in the inability to remember new experiences soon after they are learned. They indicated that the general belief is that this occurs because the ability to remember such information becomes compromised after a short period of time. They therefore deduced based on this premise that such information or experiences are either lost or become inaccessible to the extent that when such experiences are presented and re-experienced, they appear as if they are new or never have been learned. They therefore set out to explore this premise by using the generally used model of memory impairment, the “the standard object recognition memory model.”
According to James Hampton, a well-renowned Professor of Cognitive Psychology at City University London, “recognition is the process of matching a perceptual representation of the stimulus item [into] stored representations of previously [exposed] stimuli” (2003). This stored information is known as structural representations based on the visual-spatial nature of the retained information (Moss and Hampton, 2003). “Object recognition memory is the ability to discriminate the familiarity of previously encountered objects” (Gaskins et al., 2009). The standard object ...
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...indings from the simulation were valid because animals that suffered damage to the perirhinal cortex saw novel objects as familiar. Based on the support of these simulations and their laboratory findings, I agree with the notion “that object recognition memory impairments does not result from damage to the memory system. Rather brain damage that results in such impairments only compromises only a [precise] type of complex stimulus representation” (McTighe et al., 2010). Such may be the case of individuals with cortical brain damage such amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease based the combination of perirhinal lesions and object recognition impairments similar to the findings in this research. However in order to evaluation between and the paradoxical phenomenon, more research is needed and further representation-hierarchical simulation testing must be performed on humans.
Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are responsible for both types of amnesia. According to multiple trace theory, the author suggests that hippocampal region plays a major role in effective retrieving of episodic memory (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For example, patients with hippocampal damage show extensively ungraded retrograde amnesia (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). They have a difficult time in retrieving information from their non-personal episodic events and autobiographical memory. However, this theory conflicts with standard model of consolidation. The difference between these theories suggests that researchers need to do more work to solve this controversy. Besides retrieving information, hippocampus is also important in obtaining new semantic information, as well as familiarity and recollection (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For instance, hippocampal amnesic patient V.C shows in ability to acquire new semantic knowledge such as vocabularies and factual concepts (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). He is also unable to recognize and recall even...
Tate, R. L., & Pfaff, A., Jurjevic, L. (2000)Resolution of disorientation and amnesia during post-traumatic amnesia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 68, 178-185
For cognitive neuroscientists who study memory, it is a commonly accepted fact that human memory is imperfect. People regularly forget, misattribute, or confabulate information that is presented to them. In his seminal review, Daniel Schacter (1999, 2002) notes seven sins of memory. However, the three most relevant to this study are insufficient attention, misattribution, and pre-existing beliefs and biases.
The modal model of memory is one of the most basic models that describes memory today. It involves the three stages named sensory memory, short-term memory, and Long-term memory and how each stage transfers information from one to another (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2012). Healy and McNamara (1996) explained how the original modal model of memory, developed in 1890, consisted of only the primary and secondary memory. The primary memory was defined as, “…that which is held momentarily in consciousness…” and the secondary memory was defined to be, “…unconscious but permanent [memory].” As time progressed, the primary memory was then referred to as “short-term memory” while the secondary memory started to be called “Long-term memory”. In 1968, Atkinson and Shiffrin added what is now called “sensory memory” to the list, which consists of sensory registers for sight, sound and even touch. This new modal model of memory that is currently used also explains the transitions between short and Long-term memory.
The nature of memory can be explained as a set of stages that are necessary but not sufficient for memory to have taken place. These involve "input" -registering or encoding information, where a memory trace is formed from translating the sensory data, "storage" which is either temporary or permanent and "output" which involves retrieval - memories would be useless unless they could be retrieved. It is these stages that form the fundamental characteristics of the process of memory and in order for this to occur it is necessary for the data to become engaged in the memory structure. Memory structure can be separated into three distinct categories, sensory memory (input store) where the sensory data remains unchanged in the mind fo...
Loftus, E. F., Miller, D. G., & Burns, H. J. (1978). Semantic integration of verbal information into a visual memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4(1), 19-31. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.4.1.19
To understand the concept of recovered memories and their validity, we must first understand to an extent how memory works. The Medial Temporal Lobe is the name we give to structures in our brain necessary for memory, this mainly includes the hippocampus, however the amygdala and the frontal lobe also play important roles. The hippocampus is where our long-term memories are stored in the brain, with age this becomes more dysfunctional. The amygdala and frontal lobe both work to encode our memories into our brain, however the frontal lobe also maintains agendas, refreshes and rehearses information, aids in resisting distraction, and directs our attention to certain features (2). When we think of our memory we like to think we remember everything
The question then becomes whether declarative and non-declarative memory are in fact separate or different manifestations of the same neural process. From research on H.M., we find evidence for the existence of a declarative memory system that is independent of non-declarative memory and other forms of intelligence. H.M. had the capacity to hold information in his head for a period of time, suggesting that his working memory was intact (Squire and Wixted, 2011). Further evidence that not all memory is the same is the fact that H.M. acquired a motor skill despite not being able to remember actually learning the skill, thus showing the difference between episodic and semantic memory. Amnesiacs are able to acquire the perceptual skill of reading mirror-reversed words at a normal rate compared to controls (Cohen and Squire, 1980), demonstrating that the ability to learn new perceptual skills also remains intact. Of the forms of non-declarative memory, procedural memory involves the cerebellum, motor cortex, and basal ganglia (General Intro the Neurobiology…). Thus, non-declarative memory can, in a way, be seen as a more primitive form of memory that is not acquired through the integration and consolidation of neural events in the medial temporal lobe, but rather through learned associations outside of the
Another point is that working with humans and monkeys has led to the idea that the severity of memory weakens grow up as more components of the medial temporal lobe memory system are damaged. This idea has been strengthen by oversized number of individual cases in monkeys where performance on memory duties by groups of monkeys with different damage to the medial temporal lobe has been compared. Primarily, these aborts began with large mutual wound of the medial temporal lobe that approximated the damage sustained by the well-studied amnesic patient. This wound includes the hippocampal type, the amygdala, and the surrounding perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices. This wound and others in the same parts that removed fewer waves, produced again in many important features of the memory weaken in specific patient.
Making and storing memories is a complex process involving many regions of the brain. (3). Most experts agree that we have two stages of memories - short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory is the immediate memory we have when we first hear or perceive someth...
...theory takes credence, because one provides a thoughtful and logical explanation as to why children rely less and less on visual imagery to build their memory. There is still a lot to be learned about the nature of the brain and how it matures. Even though a myriad of studies have been done, there are still inconclusive matters. One question remains: which of the theories previously explained is most responsible for the gradual degradation of eidetic memory over time? That is a probing question that might not be concretely answered by today’s research and studies. Still, eidetic memory is a puzzling phenomenon that naturally evokes curiosity. It’s topic many don’t understand, because of the misconceptions surrounding it. But hopefully, upon further research and advances in brain-scanning technology, all of society will come to understand the nature of it thoroughly.
In the field of cognitive neuroscience a memory study usually involves a combination of behavioral tasks and a machine that permits t...
Memory is a process by which we learned are stored for future use. Like the computer, researchers have characterized human memory as an information processing system that has three separate stages during which an already stored memory is called in consciousness. This is called model memory. Once a computer has been named and stored, we can “call it up” by its name and use it again. Human memory works much in the same way. When we recall or bring a memory into consciousness, we have retrieved it. This process is known as memory retrieval. Sensory memory is a very but brief but extensive memory for sensory events. Short term memory is more limited in capacity than sensory memory but lasts longer. Proactive interference occurs when old materials learned more recently. Retroactive interference occurs when recently learned materials interferes with the retrieval of material learned earlier. The initial 10 to 20 second STM period often leads to a second phase, working memory, during which attention and conscious effort are brought to bear on the material at hand. Long-term memory is the memory stage that has a very large capacity and capability to store information relatively permanently. We use maintenance rehearsal when we want to save or maintain a memory for a short period. People who are instructed to remember a list use elaborative rehearsal, which adds meaning to material that we want to remember. These are the models of memory.
The human body is divided into many different parts called organs. All of the parts are controlled by an organ called the brain, which is located in the head. The brain weighs about 2. 75 pounds, and has a whitish-pink appearance. The brain is made up of many cells, and is the control centre of the body. The brain flashes messages out to all the other parts of the body.
Sensory memory provides the ability to truly experience photograpical skills, enabling one’s self to focus on the details from the image (Sperling, G., 1960). However, seconds later, short-term memory can only recover few details from the image (Phillips, W. A., 1974). Days later, it may even be difficult to recall the whole image, so the brain may only recall the gist of the image (Brainerd C.J., Reyna V.F., 2005). According to a research from the book “To see or not to see: The need for attention to perceive changes in