An Exciting Use for State-Dependent Memory: Showing how state of mind directly affects how a memory is stored and retrieved!

Could recreating "state-of-mind" help recover and treat issues from repressed memories?

Many of us are aware that the human brain is capable of taking traumatic memories and hiding them from our conscious. However, almost just as many of us are not aware of how.

State-dependent memory or learning is a process that is believed to aid in the creation of memories that are inaccessible to consciousness. State-dependent memory, or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon through which memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed ( Russell Dewey, State-Dependent Memory, 2007)

This process takes place in the GABA System of the brain. State-dependent memory shows that state of mind can directly affect the way that memory is encoded. This illustrates that there are several pathways to memory retrieval.

All working together properly this system proves to balance out quite a bit of the brain’s activity being directly linked to the nervous system while, at the same time playing a role in memory. The system breaks down like this:

Glutamate, works with synaptic GABA. Both are highly present in the brain and play a major roll. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter, where, synaptic GABA is an inhibitory. If Glutamate only was present, we would be far to excitable. Synaptic GABA works to balance things out. A second GABA, extra synaptic GABA does this as well as contributes in encoding inaccessible memories.

“Findings show there are multiple pathways to storage of fear-inducing memories, and we identified an important one for fear-related memories,” said principal investigator Dr. Jelena Radulovic, the Dunbar Professor in Bipolar Disease at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

A study at Berkley in California demonstrated that the most efficient way to retrieve the memories in this system is to return the brain to the same state of consciousness as when the memory was encoded.

This Information provides great hope to Psychology. Especially in regards to patients with repressed memories that are adversely affecting their mental health.

More Articles on the Science of Memory!
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CLICK HERE for Memory Article

Astronomy: Breaking Down Distance Beyond the Sun Through Space and Time.

With all of the latest buzz surrounding Pluto and the data that human kind has been privy too thanks to New Horizons, my family and I have picked up the conversation of space and time and their relativity to each other. I realized something through the course of these conversations, I basically knew the concepts, but had a difficult time articulating when it came to putting the concepts into words.
So, it began.
 I sat down to brush up on the basic Astronomy that I was taught in High school and college. When I was through, I was excited at the new found firm grip I had on the numbers, terms, and what they meant. In the hopes that I am not the only one on the planet who enjoys the subject yet, has a hard time keeping all the facts straight…..

….I decided to write about it.

     When we talk about the speed of light we are talking about how much distance light can go in any given time frame, i.e. seconds, hours, even years. It is the basis for which we measure out from the Earth to any given object in space. It is a constant because it is the fastest speed known to man. In one second light can travel 186,170 miles or 670,616,629 mph! That is a mind blowing rate of speed! The Earth is approximately 24,860 miles around. If you were traveling the speed of light, you could circle the globe 7.5 times in 1 second! For more perspective consider this, NASA has reported the highest rate of speed that man has ever achieved is on the Apollo 10 at 24,816 mph or 413.6 miles per second. That is 450 times slower than the speed of light! Now, think of this, the range of speed we can go from one of the slowest we know (sloth) .003 mph to the fastest we have ever gone as humans (Apollo 10) at 24,816 mph, is a wide one. It has many variations in between. Going even further past the speed of Apollo 10 we cap off at 670,616,629 mph, the speed of light. Reinforcing that the speed of light is a constant, it goes no faster or slower.

     Now that we know the basics of the speed of light we can discuss how measurements that sound like time are actually talking about distance.

     First, we will cover AU. AU stands for Astronomical Unit and refers to the distance from the earth to the Sun. 1 AU = 93,150,000 miles. To make it clear, remember that the speed of light is 670 million mph. This means, that it takes light 8 seconds to reach the earth from the sun. For example, if we were able to switch the sun off and then back on, it would take only 8 seconds for the light of the sun to reach us again after it was turned back on. Most objects in our own solar system are measured in terms of AU. Mars is 1.523 AU from the sun which is about 140 million miles or 1.523*93 million miles.

     Next, we will talk about Light Year. We have discussed the speed of light in terms of seconds (186,000 miles per second). We have talked about it in terms of hours (670 million miles per hour). How many miles can light travel in one year? 5.9 trillion miles! There are 65,555AU in a light year. Meaning, to accomplish traveling the 5.9 trillion miles it takes to cover a light year we would have to travel back and forth to the sun almost 33,000 times. To travel a light year, or 5.9 trillion miles you would have to go passed Pluto deep into the Oort cloud.

     Finally, the parsec. A parsec is 3.26 light years. 3.26*5.9 trillion. Can you imagine the size of that number? That brings us to the reason for this odd terminology. Like any other enormous numbers in math, Scientists abbreviate them to make it easier to read and get the idea. This is especially helpful in dealing with numbers that are almost too big to grasp. To give perspective to the parsec, the closest star to the sun Proxima Cetauri. It is 1.295 parsecs from the sun or 4.22 light years.

     

     I hope this article has been helpful and you are walking away with a refresher or new knowledge. If you do still have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Happy Space Travels!

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