Without a doubt, the brain’s capabilities of memory can be both fascinating and flawed at the same time. For college students, the sheer amount of facts and knowledge we have to remember for exams, quizzes, and other assignments can be astronomically high. Constantly we have important dates, meetings and deadlines that we must remember to make a positive and lasting impression on others. Although the amount of information our brain can store into the long term may be infinite, the initial encoding and maintenance can truly show the immense flaws that accompany our memory system. We have all experienced how easily it is to forget another person’s name or the phone number for our favorite local pizza place. Times when correct and accurate memory is needed, such as a crime scene, can often fail those who were present at the scene. Crime scene investigators and witnesses often battle false or corrupted memories when faced with decisions of determining perpetrators of crimes.
In addition to false memories, different memories often exist between those who witness the same event. Often, arguments between friends can arise when both individuals see an event but both remember the even in a unique and different way. This is often the case when my friends and I play basketball. “I swear that last shot was a 3 pointer!!!” It is clear that some people have great memories and can remember distinct events from their past, while others scratch their head at the question, “What did you have for dinner last night?” Are there differences in bran anatomy in those with excellent memory capabilities compared with those with terrible memory capabilities?
This exact question was examined by researchers Aurora LePort and Larry Cahill from University of California, Irvine. Classic studies on memory have always taken the perspective as memory being accompanied with deficit. In this case, researchers LePort and Cahill took memory into the perspective as being a superior device that can aid in expansion of knowledge and perception. In this study, after interviewing several candidates and eliminating those that did not exemplify extreme autobiographical memory, researchers were left with 11 candidates. To establish what is meant by extreme off the chart autobiographical memory, Laura Sanders writes, “These people could effortlessly remember, for instance, what they were doing on November 2, 1989, and could also tell you that it was a Thursday.”
All 11 subjects participated in brain scans which revealed larger areas of the brain associated with memory, including left temporoparietal junction and, left posterior insula, and lentiform nucleus. What is most interesting, however, is the link the lentiform nucleus shares with both supermemory and obsessive compulsive disorder. Although the subjects were not tested for obsessive compulsive disorder, researchers hypothesize that the subjects use the organization of their memories by date as a mechanism to relieve stress. After reading this I automatically started to think about how our ability to recognize faces is linked to expertise and practice. Since we constantly interact with people on a daily basis, our ability to recognize faces comes as a skill rather than innate. Perhaps for those who experience stress by lack of organization of thoughts and memories, expertise in organizing memories by date contribute to the skill these individuals acquire over a long period of time. This skill, I feel, can only be learned by the select few who experience anxiety when lack of organization of memories exists. However, this does pose interesting questions of how memory may be able to become improved by learned skill and practice. There are several methods to improving memory such as mnemonic devices, repetition, and Hebian learning strategies. What I am most curious though, are strategies that can improve memory in high stress situations, such as crime scenes, when the most unexpected things can happen. All in all, Cahill and LePort’s study opens up the field of supermemory and approaches the topic in a new way.
Article can be read at: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336082/title/Exceptional_memory_linked_to_bulked-up_parts_of_brain
I think that taking control of our memories is one of the most necessary but difficult things to do. Experiments like the one that you have written about give a glimpse of the intricacy of our memories and how we are able to use them. I agree that supermemory seems like it is really just based on an individual's ability to organize their thoughts properly. If you are able to pay attention to a situation, no matter how stressful,then you will remember it better. I find myself in these types of situations all the time. For example, for me, one hour of focused studying pays off a thousand times more then four hours of constantly distracted studying. I think really zoning in on how to control this attention/focus will gives a better grasp on our memories and possibly help us improve them.
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