The Predicament with Amnesia
Amnesia is a type of memory loss that one develops in certain situations. It does not mean, however, that one forgets their self-identity. It states that those who have amnesia only have the trouble of acquiring new memories or forming new memories. Some causes of amnesia are damage to the brain structures that form the limbic system, which is where your emotions and memories are controlled, those who have Alzheimer’s disease, seizures, strokes, tumors in the area of the brain that controls memory, and also alcohol abuse. There are two main different types of amnesia. The two types are retrograde and anterograde, and there are some significant case studies in which these individuals had one or both types of amnesia such as Clive Wearing, Henry Molaison, and Patient R.B.
Retrograde Amnesia refers the inability to recall events that occurred before the emergence of amnesia. In other words, those who have this deficit cannot remember old memories. Individuals with retrograde amnesia could still form new memories. According to Ribot’s Law, early memories are better remembered than memories that occurred before the trauma. It is said that the more distant these memories are, the more it is less likely for these memories to get lost through amnesia. Retrograde could be caused by damage to the brain other than the hippocampus, however. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that deals with encoding new memories; therefore, it is not affiliated with retrograde amnesia. Episodic memory is usually affected. This memory is associated with experiences and specific events, for one with this type of amnesia may remember a general knowledge of things; however, they might not recall specific situations.
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Have you ever forgot something, but you never knew you forgot it? Like it just slipped your mind and instead of going somewhere that you can remember, it dies in a bottomless pit. Your parents remember and your older siblings remember, but you do not. You were too young to remember it. Completely normal, everyone has gone through this. Astronauts, great philosophers, and even celebrities have gone through this. Kristen Ohlson, a freelance writer who has written several books and articles, wrote about this in her article the great forgetting.
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...
What Makes Your Business Better, Better? The “Kitchen Controversial” by Rebecca Traister, and “The Great Forgetting” by Nicolas Carr, both examine role changes in our society. The “Kitchen Controversial” examines changes or the lack of changes in gender expectations. While “The Great Forgetting” examines changes in manual labor due to automation. Updating centuries old gender expectations can be good for society, but can we control our reliance on automation?
The evolution of technology has had a great impact on our lives, both positive and negative. While it is great to be able to be able to travel faster and research anything with the smartphones that now contain almost every aspect of our daily lives, there are also many advances within the realm of technology. Nicholas Carr presents information on the dependency aircraft pilots have on automated technology used to control airplanes in the article “The Great Forgetting”. Likewise, in “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche, the result of isolation and pseudo relationships created by social media is shown throughout the article. We live in such a fast paced society with so much information at our fingertips that we don’t make
Amnesia, a severe long-term memory loss disease, is caused by damaged brain tissue. There are two different types of amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is also known as backward moving. This is when you have a hard time remembering the past, especially episodic memories. This occurs because of memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is the process of a new memory setting until it becomes permanently in the brain. If this process is disrupted, the memory may be lost (Hockenberry and Hockenberry page 265). Anterograde amnesia is also known as forward moving. This is when you are unable to form new
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Remembrance is an integral part of our everyday lives. Both pleasant and unpleasant memories shape who we are as human beings. The definition of memory is two fold 1. “the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information” and 2. “Something remembered from the past; a recollection” (Google Definition). The life of memory has three stages in which it is created. An event occurs in ones life it becomes encoded and stored in the brain. Following the encoding, the brain then has full access to retrieve the memory in a response to any current activity or thought. Memories are unique to each person. There are three main types of memories that are studied. An individual memory is one that is formed by his or her personal experiences. An institutional
Our memory is made up of many different types of memories; episodic, semantic, and implicit. Episodic memory is the remembrance of a certain event. An example of this
I will first be discussing declarative memory, which is characterized by knowledge of facts and events. Much of our current knowledge of the structure and substrates of declarative memory derives from studies of amnesiac patients, from which we can derive two primary findings: declarative memory is separate from other forms of memory such as working and non-declarative memory, and function of declarative memory is dependent on structures
The human brain consists of many subsystems within the long-term memory. One of which is episodic memory. Episodic Memory is the remembrance of a phenomenal personal experience in terms of what, when, and where. This memory begins by retrieving information such as, words, objects, or faces; using this knowledge the episodic memory finds links and slowly transitions into recalling the complete memoir.
“The Vow” is a movie that encases the turmoil and hardship associated with retrograde amnesia and the classic symptoms and steps associated with recovering and potentially regaining lost memory. Taking into account the information gained through multiple sources; such as, lecture of Mental Health, medical databases, and the personal experiences of Krickett Carpenter, the Vow provides both an accurate and inaccurate depiction of retrograde amnesia.
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