Mind, Memory, Time by Gunther Carl

Author:Gunther, Carl [Gunther, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carl Gunther
Published: 2012-11-19T23:00:00+00:00

Where is Memory Stored?

Where are the vast videos of life retained? To date, no one really knows. Today, much of the research on memory focuses on identifying the areas of the brain that are responsible for specific types of memory and activity such as speech, spatial thinking, mathematics, and so on. While the patient lies inside a PET scan machine, the researcher can watch an image of the person’s brain on a screen as they perform various mental tasks. In the past, maps of brain memory and function were gained from autopsies of the brains of patients who had lost the specific memory function due to injury or disease. Research is directed at understanding and curing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis that destroy portions of the brain. Such diseases hit certain memory centers and not others. A sufferer of multiple sclerosis may have no memory of the day’s events, he is still able to sing an old song and relate lengthy stories of his college years. Or he may have trouble walking but his speech centers are completely normal and he can readily discuss how he feels.

Particular research has centered on the brain’s hippocampus for it appears to play a vital role in both for transforming short-term into long-term memory and for spatial navigation. The hippocampus looks like a malformed gasket that sits between the top of the brain stem and the lower edge of the brain’s big cerebral cortex. Since the hippocampus is also linked to the brain’s emotional centers, this may partly explain its importance to memory for we tend to recall things with strong emotional attachments. By example, if we go to a party of strangers, when we go home we are most likely to remember someone to whom we were attracted or someone who made us feel uneasy. Damage to the hippocampus can severely impair the ability to retain short-term memories.

It is frequently asserted that neuroscientists have not found the mechanism of memory because the human brain is so terribly complex. Physiologists tell us that the human brain’s network of neurons is the most highly organized matter found anywhere on the Earth. Each of the brain’s one trillion neurons is designed like a tree with long, spidery roots and branches. Densely packed against each other, each neuron in the cerebral cortex interconnects with thousands of other neurons. The slim, filamentous branches of each neuron are coated with dense arrays of synaptic buttons full of neurotransmitter bubbles ready to discharge.

Various authors have calculated that the astronomic density of the brain’s neural interconnections easily provides the capacity to record every waking moment from birth to death. The tiny tendrils of the brain’s trillion neurons have a near infinite number of inter-combinations which allegedly offer the potential to store a near infinite amount of information. If memory is distributed throughout this vast complexity, it might not be observed at a particular points any more than studying the individual pixels of a printed picture will reveal the actual content of the image.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.