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.

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

A Conversation About Life, Knowledge, and God Philosophically with Descarte' and Plato

Memory: Study Smarter not Harder

An Amazing Memory Enhancing Technique! Can visualizing a familiar place really help you remember important things?

A Conversation About Life, Knowledge, and God Philosophically with Descarte' and Plato

          Renée Descartes’ was a seventeenth century rationalist philosopher who, if alive today, would still have the bragging rights to being the father of modern philosophy. Descartes’ made major contributions in many disciplines. More importantly however, Descartes’ spent his days attempting to set up a framework to establish the most fundamental truths about the universe. He worked to ascertain how we could separate what is absolute truth from everything else. To achieve this Descartes’ came up with a method of philosophical inquiry called methodological skepticism. It was a system of doubt set up as an experiment and not for the purposes of everyday life. All of the so-called knowledge that Descartes’ had acquired in his life up until that point was subject to doubt. He metaphorically cleared his table of knowledge and vowed to only place back on that which he could replace with absolute certainty. After examining what Descartes’ thought he knew he came to one troubling conclusion; there was nothing that he could prove with complete surety. Like fellow rationalist Plato, Renée Descartes’ believed that the senses were fallible and could not be relied upon for true knowledge and because we experience the world in which we live through the senses nothing can be truly known. Descartes’ purposed that everything we think we know is actually varying levels of belief. Nevertheless, Descartes’ kept at it and after a while he finally came up with a single solitary fact that he could unapologetically announce without any room for the slightest bit of doubt and that was that he existed. He defended this conclusion with the argument that for him to be questioning the nature of his existence there must exist something to ask of in the first place. This theory highlights his famous saying “I think, therefore I am”.

     Descartes’ did manage to add several more things to his table of knowledge. He believed in the existence of various axioms of geometry for example; a square always has four sides; a triangle always has three sides, and so on. Also, it was through this theory that Descartes’ believed that he could prove the existence of god and put yet another truth on his table. The French philosopher believed that just as the definition of a square necessitates the existence of a square, the definition of God necessitates the existence of God. This was Renée Descartes ontological argument. This argument also lined up his belief with Plato’s in terms of innate ideas. Descartes’ also put forth that the universe is primarily made up of two categories: the matter that you see every day and the non material substance of the mind and spirit. Much of this is similar to Plato’s approach to dualism. Plato taught that reality is comprised of two realms. The first of the two is the natural world, the world that we can observe with our senses and second, there is a world made of eternal ideal “Forms” or flawless templates that are present somewhere in another dimension. These forms are the definitive position points for all objects we observe in the natural world. The term “Forms” is the key difference. The two philosophers seem to agree in regards to the first domain, but Plato’s “Forms” are unchanging and seem to have no location. On the other hand, Descartes’ believed that metaphysical concepts such as souls were subject to science and even believed that he had located the soul within the pineal gland. Though biology and medicine have advanced quite a bit since the seventeenth century, much of what we are taught in school can be traced back to Descartes’ which is ironic considering that his central philosophy is that everything you’ve been taught could be wrong.

     Do you believe that God gave us his definition or is it more of a man made idea? It seems to me that many philosophers would have been much more liberal with their arguments on God had it not been for fear of punishment by the church. What do you think? Weigh in…. what would your ontological argument be?

Your Memory Palace: Method of Loci

Brain Science: An Amazing Memory Enhancing Technique!
Can visualizing a familiar place really help you remember important things?

The method of loci, also called the memory palace, is a mnemonic device introduced in ancient Roman rhetorical treatises. It relies on memorized spatial  relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. The term is most often found in specialized works on psychology, neurology, and memory, though it was used in the same general way at least as early as the first half of the nineteenth century in works on rhetoric, logic, and philosophy.

Method of loci is also commonly called the mental walk. It is a method of memory enrichment which uses visualization to organize and recall information. Various memory contest champions claim to use this technique in order to recall faces, digits, and lists of words. These champions’ successes have to do more with brain structure than intelligence. The technique of using regions of their brain that have to do with spatial learning are the source of the success. These techniques can be learned and utilized by anyone and the younger the learner the more they have an opportunity to develop this skill into a habit.

To use the method of loci bring to mind a familiar building, such as your house. Take a moment to conduct a mental walk through the rooms in your house. Pay particular attention to the details, noticing anything particularly pleasing that make your mental images more vivid. Make sure you can move easily from one room to another.

Along your route create a list of "loci”:i.e. well defined parts of the room that you can use later to memorize things. A locus should be the pleasing things previously mentioned, but can be anything that stands out, a door, a bed, an oven, etc. Be sure that you can easily go from locus to locus as you visit the house.

Now, when you are faced with a list of words or ideas to be memorized, you must form visual images for each of the words and place them, in order, on the loci in your route. To recall the words or ideas you take a mental walk throughout your house, asking yourself, "What is on the living-room door? What's on the bed? What's in the oven?"  assign everthing on your list to a locus.

Don’t believe that it will work? Let’s try! The list that I am about to give you has seven items on it. Before reading the list I want you to choose a place (like suggested above) that is very familiar to you.

 Got the place?

 Now imagine at least seven very distinct locations within your familiar place. 

Got it all? 

 Once you read the list, assign the first item to the first location, the second item to the second location, and so on. Take a few moments to really visualize each item in each place.

1. Oranges

2. Bread

3. Chicken

4. Corn

5. Milk

6. Eggs

7. Pop

Now that you have each item assigned to a particular place do a final “walk trough” while vividly picturing your items and location. I’ll wait…………… 

Think well, you will be asked to recall....

Got it?

 Ok, now grab pen and paper (you will need it later), continue reading, and at the end we will see how well you remember!

The method of loci can be used for much more than simple single concept lists. It can also be used as something of a navigational map through more complex ideas which will come in handy for college students or those studying to give their current career a boost. You basically follow the same steps that I have listed, but instead of assigning single concept words to each location you will assign key words or phrases that are relatable to whatever it is that you are trying to learn.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that the method for memory described in this article is just one method. To fully develop your brain"s potential it is important to research all methods, find what works for you and use a combination of several methods.

Ready for recall? Without looking at the list given, picture your house or building and begin your mental walk again.

 Can you remember?

 With your pen and paper, recall all that you can from the list of items. Order is relevant since you wanted to match the items in order with the locations. However, to start just remembering all or most of the items is most important. When your list is complete reference it to the list above. Good Luck!
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Memory

Memory: Study Smarter not Harder

   

      At one time or another everyone experiences problems with memory. Whether trying to remember the punch line to a joke you have already started telling or recalling information that was studied for a test, we have all stumbled. In this article I will layout the basics of how memory works and what you can do to improve yours along with the overall health of your brain.

     Nearly everyone has heard of short and long term memory, but many are confused as to how they each work. The biggest misconception seems to be in how long short term memory lasts. Many tend to think that when they are attempting to recall something that they have learned over the last several days or even weeks they are accessing short term memory. In reality, recalling the sentence you just read in order to make sense of the one you are reading now is short term or working memory. It is only designed to last about a minute! What you do with the information and more importantly, the meaning that you attach to the information is what determines how well it is converted into long term memory. This entails much more than simply memorizing information. We have been conditioned to try to memorize things since the first grade when we were beginning to learn our basic facts and when it comes to the facts, memorization can be an effective tool, but that is all it is. It is one tool among many that we can use to store information. The most basic component that supports long term memory is meaningfulness. In this context meaningfulness is the number of connections a new piece of information can make with things already in the long term memory. Mnemonics is an example of one of the ways we do this. I grew up around the great lakes of Michigan. In school we were taught a mnemonic device using the acronym H.O.M.E.S to learn all five great Lakes. We all knew  the concept of a home and that ours was among these lakes. we all knew how to spell it therefore; it was already in our long term memory. That extra connection was made. We were taught that the beginning letter of each lake corresponded to a letter in the word homes. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, and considering I remember that after over 25 years, there must be something to it.

     Another thing that affects your ability to remember is what type of learner you are. Some people learn best while listening, some while reading and others by watching or doing. Most people use and benefit from a combination of all these depending on the material being learned and the situation. My best advice for subject matter you really want to remember, engage all the senses. Once I have taken in all the information I can via lectures and reading I Google the topic or subject I am learning and click the video option and select a handful of interesting videos on the topic to watch. I have even set up entire video study guides. It has been an amazing way to reinforce what I have learned.

     One more important thing to keep in mind, especially for students, is that cramming is never the answer. Within the first few weeks of a class a student should have a pretty good idea concerning what the class is going to require you to know by the conclusion of the course. With that being said begin compiling information early on, study in 20 and 30 minute intervals, carry note cards to pull out when you are bored somewhere. Basically, the learning you are doing should span the entire length of the course not just during lectures or in the few days before an exam.

Overall Brain Health

`Now, we are going to talk about some of the obvious things that you can do that will not require any major life style changes. Sleep is vital to health, but what a lot of people don’t know is that research shows sleep is necessary for memory consolidation, with the key memory-enhancing activity occurring during the deepest stages of sleep. Also, meditation works! Brain images have shown meditation increases the thickness of the cerebral cortex and encourages more connections between brain cells—all of which increases mental sharpness and memory. Diet can also drastically affect brain function. Omega 3s, antioxidants like in fruits and veggies, and complex carbs all support brain health while diets high in saturated fat actually deplete brain health.

Now that you are armed with all of these tips it’s time to hit the books! Whether it is for school, work, or pleasure, happy studying!

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