Subject: memory Re: (urth) Heracles lesson

From: sheila miguez <albizia at feafaroth.org>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:04:24 +0000

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 08:33:52 -0700, "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes"
<katbarx at hotmail.com> said:
> In short: The injury to Latro's head seems to have created an inability
> to
> recall informaiton from long-term stores at some cognitive levels -- some
> fairly abstract cognitive levels; this is clearly an injury in the
> "higher"
> centers of the brain.

It's been a while since I've taken the classes, but in some of my psyc
classes
we discussed the case study of a patient who had epilepsy so severe that
they
resorted to surgery on his hippocampus. I managed to pull up some info
from google:

http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/limbic.html

<cite>
The significance of the hippocampus is driven home by a famous patient
named H.M. As part of an epilepsy surgery, doctors removed most of his
medial temporal lobes. Since that surgery, in 1953, he has formed no new
memories. He can remember his childhood and everything before the
surgery, and he still has working memory and the ability to form
procedural memories. You can have a normal, lucid conversation with him,
but if you leave the room for a moment, when you return he will not
remember you or the conversation. He has completely lost the ability to
lay down declarative memory.
</cite>

We discussed other patients in the class and studies done on them and how
their
learning had changed. I vaguely remember that they would do exercises
where they
wouldn't retain the memory of the exercise, but on latter trials their
learning
curves were improved.

A condition that mimics this is Korsakoff's Syndrome which arises from
extreme
alcoholism. It produces lesions in that region of the brain. One of
Oliver Sacks'
books has a case study on it.

If you want to read about memory, but the flip side, Luria has a case
study about
a man with eidetic memory _The Mind of a Mnemonist_. Luria has some
interesting
case studies.

mimosa

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <katbarx at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:13:52 +0000

Mimosa,

Thanks; I've been meaning to read Luria for years.

And I hadn't thought about the possibility of a hippocampus injury. Duh. But 
that
would make the question about dreams all the more interesting, wouldn't it?

>From: "sheila miguez" <albizia at feafaroth.org>
>Reply-To: urth at urth.net
>To: urth at urth.net
>Subject: memory Re: (urth) Heracles lesson
>Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 11:04:24 -0500
>

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From: gordon meuse <gordanus at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 13:30:16 +0000

>If you want to read about memory, but the flip side, Luria has a case study 
>about a man with eidetic >memory _The Mind of a Mnemonist_. Luria has some 
>interesting case studies.

_The Mind of a Mnemonist_ is quite good, but probably more apropos to these 
discussions is _The Man With the Shattered World_ also by Luria. It is based 
on the journals of a Russian officer who suffered severe trauma to the head. 
He realized that he had lost his ability to create new memories so he starts 
to keep a journal. The book has commentary and analysis by Luria as well.

Incidentally, I think Korsakov's syndrome can be caused by any organic 
damage to the brain, including, but not limited to alcoholism.

Gordon Meuse

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