severe anterograde amnesia temporally graded retrograde amnesia long-term memory

• severe anterograde amnesia• temporally graded retrograde amnesia

Long-term Memory

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Long-term Memory

• there are multiple memory systems in the brain.• explicit (declarative) and implicit (non-declarative) memory can be doubly dissociated• can anyone see a problem with using human subjects?

Long-term Memory

• What’s the one thing that all of the studies we’ve spoken about have in common?

Lesions!

Long-term Memory

• What about normal memory?

• That is, memory in the “normal” brain

Long-term Memory

The theory is that the MTL is temporally involved in declarative memory in normal humans…

Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory

• functional imaging data from “normal” subjects confirms lesion studies

• be skeptical!

Long-term Memory

• What would it be like to possess the ability to remember everything?

Long-term Memory

• Case study of S. (Solomon Shereshevskii)

• Russian journalist

• never took any notes, recalled everything verbatim

• thought this was “normal”

Long-term Memory

• Alexander Luria - Soviet neuropsychologist

Long-term Memory

• Shereshevskii suffered from synaesthesia• stimulation of one sense leads to automatic stimulation of another • hearing a sound produces a visual experience

“I can see the music…”

Long-term Memory

• random number table

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Long-term Memory

1 this is a proud, well-built man 2 is a high-spirited woman 3 is a gloomy person6 is a man with a swollen foot7 is a man with a moustache 8 is a very stout woman - a sack within a sack.

“As for the number 87, what I see is a fat woman and a man twirling his moustache”

Long-term Memory

• memory consists of associative networks• perhaps mnemonists can create better networks

To Kill A Mockingbird

Long-term Memory

• memory consists of associative networks• perhaps mnemonists can create better networks

To Kill A Mockingbird

highschoolMr. Lacey

English

Long-term Memory

• memory consists of associative networks• perhaps mnemonists can create better networks

birdcanary

chicken

mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

racism

highschool

Martin Luther King

skiing

Mr. Lacey

English

• What do you think the brain of someone that has this “super memory” would look like?

Long-term Memory

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• What if I told you it looked like this?

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Long-term Memory

Kim Peek

Long-term Memory• macroencephaly• no corpus callosum• no anterior/posterior commisure

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• degenerated cerebellum

• Autism• Motor disturbances• Overall I.Q. of 87

• despite this, he displays some amazing abilities…

Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory

• 98% retention rate for reading material• reads on average 8 books a day (has approximately 9000 memorized!)• one page every 8-10 seconds• also has incredible memory for music, often remembering compositions only experienced once

Long-term MemoryWhat could support this ability?

“Does brain damage stimulate compensatorydevelopment in some other area of the brain, or does it

simply allow otherwise latent abilities to emerge?”

Long-term Memory