Week 10 - Emotion & Memory / Unusual Memory Abilities / Uncommon Amnesias

• what is a flashbulb memory?

• what is an example of one?

• A special type of emotional memory

• The term was coined because people would report vivid and detailed memories of shocking, traumatic, or impactful events (ex. 9/11, Jan 6th, assassination of JFK or MLK)

• It feels as if a flashbulb picture of the event was taken by your mind (like a perfect picture was taken in your brain of the moment it happened, and that picture-perfect representation stayed perfect/accurate forever)

• How does the brain handle the consolidation of emotional memories (compared to non-emotional ones)?

• Would memory over time be better, the same, or worse for the emotional memories involving the amygdala?

• There is increased levels of activation of the amygdala for emotional memories which results in higher rates of consolidation

  • lower rate of forgetting when compared to non-emotional ones

• Memories would be BETTER for the emotional memories involving the amygdala

What does research on flashbulb memories look like? what are the results?

• Background:

  • Two tests: recall tests on flashbulb vs everyday memories

• Results

  • Details: BOTH everyday and flashbulb memories decline in number of details recalled

  • Belief: Confidence rating in accuracy was HIGH for flashbulb memory but LOW for everyday memories

• Why might we see a normal rate of forgetting or details of “flashbulb memories” (memories of 9/11) rather than a slower rate of forgetting compared to the non-emotional memories?

• why might people remain relatively more confident about their flashbulb memories despite them not being particularly accurate? are emotional memories special?

• flashbulb memories do not involve the amygdala because they are usually about people learning of a tragic event happening and not at ground zero. It may be an emotional memory but not to the point where it involves the amygdala

• people believe emotional memories are special however, ones that do not involve the amygdala are just as prone to forgetting than any other memory. we are confident that we would not forget such an ‘emotional’ event but it turns out it didn’t involve the amygdala so that’s why we’re so confident.

what are two uncommon memory abilities discussed in class?

• highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)

• memory athletes

what are characteristics of HSAM?

• they can remember days of their lives with uncanny accuracy, as if they had a personal mental calendar

• individuals are otherwise “normal”

what type of lab testing did subjects with HSAM undergo?

• they had significantly better performance at recalling public as well as personal autobiographical events (things that happened in the news, things that happened to themselves, etc.)

• their performance was comparable to age- and sex- matched controls on most standard laboratory memory tests (e.g. digit span)

• they are not immune to memory distortions (e.g. false memory)

what explains HSAM?

• there could be brain differences, but no obvious ones have been identified

• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tendencies

  • from a young age, A.J. would become upset when order in her environment was disturbed (A.J. was a research subject of Dr. McGaugh)

  • she kept a daily diary for 32 years as a way of maintaining control over her environment

  • hoarding behavior is also common (e.g., collecting guides

• key point: their superior memory abilities have to do with autobiographical (personal) memory in particular, not to non-personal memories (like lists of words or numbers)

what are two uncommon amnesias discussed in lecture?

• transient global amnesia (TGA)

  • anterograde AND retrograde amnesia with sudden onset that resolves in about 24 hours

  • 1/3 precipitated by physical or emotional stress

• DIssociative amnesias / dissociative fugue (“fugue states”)

  • different types outlined in your textbook

  • psychogenic amnesias

    • psych = mind; gen = birth / origin

    • psychogenic amnesias = amnesias caused by something psychological instead of something biological (such as brain damage)

• who is patient W.J.

• what are some features of TGA?

• Patient W.J.

  • 63-year-old man who experienced three brief episodes of amnesia

• Features of TGA

  • invariably leaves the patient with memory loss for event that occurred during the episode

  • occasionally, some retrograde amnesia (a few hours to a few days before TGA) remains permanent

  • during TGA, anterograde amnesia is substantial and retrograde amnesia is temporally graded

• what task was given to TGA patients to compare to a control group?

  • what do their results look like?

  • what group of people are their results similar to?

• what do researchers believe is the cause of TGA?

• TGA patients were given the ROCF task

  • results: copy = good; delay = at floor ☹

  • pattern of results resembles classic amnesics (MTL amnesics)

• Researchers believe that TGA is rooted in a neurological (organic/biological) cause, not a psychogenic etiology

  • they believe this because of the results looking similar to MTL damage people

what are some features of the dissociative amnesia / fugue states?

• usually induced by extreme emotional stress

• these amnesias are purely retroactive in nature

• some involve complete loss of one’s past / identity, others involve only a loss of events related to a certain time period

• some involve traveling to a completely new location