I remember best when I am in a state of turmoil. Then why are scientists saying that stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is in repose and the memory-related neurons in the brain do a little tango with certain brain waves?
I differ here, even if it goes against all scientific logic. Synchronisation requires harmony and often the management of material. Now suppose you recall every little detail of a turbulent experience, how do you sort it out? If it is sorted out, then it ceases to be a memory. Or turbulent. It loses its character and transforms into a linear ‘wave’ in the mind.
What perhaps a relaxed mind can do is memorise. Memorisation is not about memories. Memories are intangible and nostalgia makes you ache for the jerky ride.
Memories are apples bitten into that have left teeth marks; they are ripped open gift packages where the satin is frayed; they are stains that won’t go away and scars that don't fade; they are losses that you don’t count because you could not count on them when they were gains; they are moments that left with the wind and dust that settled in its trail.
Scientists may optimise the state of the brain and believe that relaxation brings about new information and improves memory. But all new information will be memory.
Will they be able to ask us to relax and remember the times we wish to forget?
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Memory – Barbra Streisand
There are different memories and the study is showing how to improve memory and help in illness.You are talking about emotional memory
ReplyDeleteI am. Because we remember selectively. As I said, memorising is different from memories.
ReplyDeleteConsciously avoiding seeing pictures and hearing music that triggers such memories is a way to avoid recollecting specific memories.
ReplyDeleteI believe the bit about requiring sleep to retain memories is because sleep provides crucial "down time" for the brain to convert short-term memories into long-term memories.
This is why drug addicts who consume drugs like cocaine and methamphetamies, and can end up staying awake for days and "feel fine" end up "remembering" a lot of fictional things they never said or did. Chronic users of this sort show a drastic reduction in brain function over time (as demonstrated by a brain scan of people addicted to such drugs).
It is a simple experiment one can try on oneself -- try staying awake of 2 days at a stretch with perhaps a extra large pot of coffee. Having tried that when I was younger, I found it hard to even keep a train of thought going for a few seconds before the train derailed. I will stop talking about trains now.
Al:
ReplyDeleteAgreed with your analysis, but drug addicts are given to hallucination due to the effect of the drug. The memories of a tumultuous mind has much to do with particular episodes.
Re. sleep, do we not hear about how one must 'sleep over' a problem? I would imagine that helps in getting rid of flotsam, therefore there would be no scope for retention.
I know I might be scientifically on shaky ground, but then I shall always remember that!
PS: Why don't you want to talk about trains? Are you alluding to something?
FV wrote:
ReplyDelete"Agreed with your analysis, but drug addicts are given to hallucination due to the effect of the drug. "
FV, hallucinations are while under the effect of the drug. I meant the memories of addicts when they are no longer on the drug is not reliable, unfortunately there is no "test" one can conduct on a human to determine the truth-ness or false-ness of a statement.
Even narco-analytical methods depend on the correlation between a lot of brain activity and lying, as telling the truth requires a lot let brain activity, because it is just a recollection of memory. Whereas lying is a conscious act of reconciling past falsehoods with apparent reality, which takes some original thinking, in addition to recollection of memories.
"The memories of a tumultuous mind has much to do with particular episodes."
No doubt. Mental anguish and trauma can hurt worse than getting hurt physically and cause even more damage to a person.
Traumatic episodes can drastically alter the mind in bad ways, and the brain seems to have mechanisms for suppressing memories of such kinds as seen in adults who were victims of violent crime in their childhood/teen years. People who are unable to reconcile the tragedy in their past end up doing things that make no sense to the rest of us. Changes the person in ways even the person can't themselves explain, I think.
"Re. sleep, do we not hear about how one must 'sleep over' a problem? I would imagine that helps in getting rid of flotsam, therefore there would be no scope for retention. "
ReplyDeleteIf you go through the weird dreams of REM sleep the next time and manage to remember the dream somehow (takes some effort), you will realize that it is associated with some thought you had in the recent past. I have tried this experiment on people where I mention something they hate, like spiders or snakes, a few hours before they go to sleep, and they describe strange dreams involving their object of hate or love.
I think sleep turns off some switch in the brain that allows it to construct alternate realities in the unconscious mind, like dreams.
I am a believer in sleeping over a problem, it can bring a point of clarity about something very specific that was not obvious earlier for months.
"PS: Why don't you want to talk about trains? Are you alluding to something?"
Just a pointless reference to my rants in another post involving trains. The doctor has me on a course of 2 chill pills every 8 hours to avoid recurrences of such episodes.
Al 1:
ReplyDeleteAccording to your theory then,drug addicts misuse their memories because on the one hand they remember and then they fib.
Past traumas do haunt, but I thought I made sense!
Al 2:
I have tried this experiment on people where I mention something they hate, like spiders or snakes, a few hours before they go to sleep, and they describe strange dreams involving their object of hate or love.
You are such a sadist. And why are you around people just before they sleep? Are you a p[professional temporary 'undertaker'?
More seriously, if sleep arranges 'alternative realities', then where do memories figure since they are about real realities?
PS: No probs, as I already said. Will you pass on the link of this blog to your doc? S/he might prescribe something similar or even more potent to me.