Oa Recovery

This essay will consider evidence from studies to show the strengths and weaknesses of research methods used by cognitive neuroscientists in their understanding of the biological bases of behaviour and mental processing specifically in the case of amnesia. This will be done through the use of journals, textbooks, articles and other relevant sources to outline where the research methods are used in studies and how they aim to provide an understanding in behaviour. Research methods to be discussed include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalogram (EEG) and positron emission tomography (PET). Amnesia is the loss or partial loss of a large area of memories often caused by a sudden brain injury or shock. (Eysenck, 2004). Amnesia caused by trauma is often temporary but can be permanent loss of an area of memory.

Certain qualities are consistently observed in the Alzheimer’s victim. These dysfunction’s, though, are not exclusive to Alzheimer’s disease. Consequently, declaring Alzheimer’s by these parameters is a matter of degree rather than an absolute. Characteristic dysfunction’s have been noted in Alzheimer’s victims, but the degree and severity of these varies from patient to patient. Thus, evaluation of the patient’s mental status must be made based on the sum, rather than a single characteristic. Memory is one of the first noticed deficiencies, beginning typically with the recent and short term memory, and progressing from there as the disease grows more severe. In addition, deterioration in language skills, attention span, praxis (performance of an action), and visuospatial skills are commonly seen. Also observed are changes in the actions and personality of the Alzheimer’s victim. These include changes in mood, motor activities, activities of daily living, socialization skills, psychotic disturbances, vegetative symptomology, and rise in anxiety levels. Again, the

In Chapter 12 of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Mr. William Thompson suffered from an extreme case of Korsakov’s, also known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (Sacks, 1985, p. 109). According to Anderson (2010), Korsakoff syndrome can cause serious damage to one’s hippocampus and temporal lobe due to habitual alcoholism, resulting in amnesia (p. 201). Similar to HM (Anderson, 2010, p. 200), Mr. Thompson suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember nothing for more than a few brief moments (Sacks, p. 109). Anderson (2010) states that anterograde amnesia results in the incapability of creating new memories, leading to fractional or absolute inability to remember something that just happened (p. 201). Yet, one’s long-term memories before the incident remain intact; such as when Mr. Thompson recognized his younger brother, Bob, as he walked by the window (Sacks, 1985, p. 112-113). Mr. Thompson and HM both suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember some long-term memories but not remember new ones, signifying that the neural makeup involved in making fresh memories are diverse from maintaining past memories (Anderson, 2010, p. 202).

If the episode is associated with a traumatic event, the amnesia may clear when the individual is removed from the traumatic situation.

In the world of psychology there are many forms of dissociative disorders. Some of these dissociative disorders have been around in the world of psychology for a long time while others have only recently been included in the field of interest. One of the more recent inclusions is Dissociative Amnesia (DA) which was formerly known as “repressed memory” has been around for a long time, but it has only really been seriously discussed in psychology journals and other publications since the mid 1980’s (Pope, et al. 2006, p. 20). When most people think of amnesia they think of it in terms of what they know from popular culture such as someone forgetting their identity by being hit on the head. This is certainly not the case with DA

This condition is not common and not many people know it exists. As stated by Kathleen Flannery, “False Memory Syndrome is a condition in which

Research by Della Barba, Cipolotti and Denes (1990) focuses on the assessment of memory dysfunction based on the case study of a single patient suffering from a severe Korsakoff’s syndrome. Researchers focused on three main purposes for this study. One being to critically assess if selective impairment of episodic memory is affected due to amnesia without impairment of semantic memory. When confabulations appear, is it due to faulty memories or only when the patient is using specific forms of recall. Finally researchers were looking to answer the question: are provoked confabulations the result of standard responses or are they ongoing, creating new memories and replacing old ones.

A fundamental aspect of human memory is that the more time elapsed since an event, the fainter the memory becomes. This has been shown to be true on a relatively linear scale with the exception of our first three to four years of life (Fitzgerald, 1991). It is even common for adults not to have any memory before the age of six or seven. The absence of memory in these first years has sparked much interest as to how and why it happens. Ever since Freud (1916/1963) first popularized the phenomenon there have been many questions and few robust empirical studies. Childhood amnesia is defined as the period of life from which no events are remembered (Usher & Neisser, 1993) beginning at birth and ending at the onset of your

Losing one’s memory can be a mysterious affliction, and the causes can be quite complex. Severe memory loss is introduced in author Oliver Sacks’ collection of stories The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and lectures given by professor Jim Davies can help with understanding of some of the concepts introduced in the book. In chapter two, The Lost Mariner, the patient Jimmie is suffering from aspects of both retrograde and anterograde amnesia, which Davies explained as loss of memory of events or facts learned before an event (the event that caused the amnesia), and loss of ability to create new memories after the event, respectively. In more detail, and in relation to our book (here, the target example), retrograde amnesia would consist of any loss of memory that happened prior to an event, such as an injury or onset of disease in Jimmie’s case. Dr. Davies’ explanation of retrograde amnesia helps to understand Jimmie’s case, where in the year 1975 he is unable to recall any events after 1945. As well, the explanation of anterograde amnesia as including symptoms such as inability to form new memories, learn information or tasks, or to recall the recent past is useful when applied to Jimmie’s experience of not being able to recall events that happened even a few minutes prior. Jimmie’s suffering from both retro and anterograde amnesia, as explained by Sacks, results from Korsakov’s syndrome – a destruction of memory caused by alcoholic

Secondly, the characteristics of Dissociative Amnesia may include various psychological aspects. Singh reports that, “Dissociative amnesia is characterized by inability to recall important autobiographical

built on a combined approach of clinical observation and theoretical model proposals. The former was

H.M. was a patient who suffered from epileptic seizures. Doctors at the time found that removal of the medial temporal lobe from the hemisphere where the seizures originated could eliminate the epilepsy. Doctors could not identify the origin of the seizures, so they removed his medial temporal lobe bilaterally. As a consequence, H.M. developed amnesia; he could not form new memories for facts or events. This is known as anterograde amnesia. His prior memories were intact but any new information was immediately forgotten. He was also aware of his memory problems. Incidentally, his personality was unchanged and his IQ score actually increased, probably due to the ability to concentrate without the seizures interrupting. He could perform well

“Psychogenic amnesias are usually caused by some sort of emotional trauma. Emotional trauma is the common thread that runs through the amnesia associated with the following disorders: dissociative amnesia (the inability to recall significant personal information); fugue (memory loss accompanied by sudden, unexpected travel from home); dissociative identity disorder (the presence of two or more distinct personalities, with the inability to recall extensive time periods); and post-traumatic stress disorder (significant distress and memory disturbances following an extreme traumatic event). Psychogenic memories, while principally involving episodic information, may extend to semantic information, which is rarely seen in biogenic amnesia” (Chara 1).

Memory as a whole is often broken down into smaller more specialized components, The focus of this essay will be on declarative memory, which is a form of long-term memory that requires conscious retrieval of previously learned information, and the subcategories semantic memory and episodic memory. Episodic memory consists of personal experiences and as such includes autobiographical memories of the self. Semantic memory is primarily composed of generalized factual information. As both episodic and semantic memory are as stated earlier examples of long-term memory, they are as such subject to changes over time, due to vulnerability to forgetting. Though memory is a fundamental component of everyday functioning, it is not necessarily reliable

Case 1 tells the story of Henry Molaison (HM), a man with no memory. He lost his memory due to the operation of suctioned out the hippocampus to treat his epileptic seizures. At that time, it was not known yet that the hippocampus was essential for making memories. After operation, his seizures were significantly reduced, but Henry suffered a global amnesia. Owen et al. (2007) describes patients with global amnesia as perceptive and attentive but with a total loss of short-term memory and some trouble accessing memories of the recent past. Henry could not learn new things as he quickly forgot everything that he had learned. He could learn at a subconscious level only.