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Scientists believe cognitive memories are controlled through the brain’s hippocampus. There, elements of an event — smells, sights, sounds, etc. — are processed and then stored separately in the outer, cerebral cortex.How memory works | Location of hippocampusScientists are just beginning to understand the extraordinary process that creates memory in the brain. Evidence suggests that memory is Neocortexcreated by establishing new brain circuits or altering existing circuits. The changes come at the synapses — the points where impulses pass from one neuron to another.Scientists are almost certain that the creation of new memories involves both changes in the nerve cells of the brain and changes in their physical structure. The physical and chemical changes appear to occur in a tiny part of the brain called the hippocampus. It is part of a large structure called the cerebral cortex, which controls most higher brain functions like problem-solving and language. Scientists have found that memory is acquired through a series of solidifying events in the brain but more research is being done to explain precisely how it happens.Unusual memory conditionsAmnesia: Amnesia can occur from emotional shock, injury or disease. Many cases are temporary. A person who suffers a brain injury may forget events that occurred just before the injury. The more severe the injury, the greater the memory loss. Someone hurt during a sporting event might forget a few minutes of their lives; the victim of a serious accident could forget years. Some brain-injured people have difficulty remembering events that occur after the injury. Both types of amnesia can be caused by emotional shock.Photographic memory: No one has the ability to look at a page of a book and capture the image in their mind, memorizing it. But some people have an extraordinary ability called eidetic imagery — a picture that remains in mind for a few seconds after a scene has disappeared.People who have eidetic imagery can give a thorough description of a scene based on a mental image. But the image fades quickly. Eidetic imagery is rare — perhaps 5 percent of children have it and most lose it as they grow.Bln the neocortex, an image from the event might be stored in one place, while the smell might be stored in another.Neural storage areasM Signals from an event pass into the hippocampus. The hippocampus then lays down neural paths to record the event to the neocortex — the outer part of the brain.PerirhinalcortexPara-hippocampalgyrusEntorhinalcortexHippo-gampusMotor manThe brain can physically change over time and grow in response to increased learning. As test monkeys’ motor skills increased, the corresponding parts of their brains enlarged.SOURCE: The New Am York Times, Atlas of unrHuman Anatomy uutNeurons: Brain's building blocksThe brain is made up of roughly 14 billion neurons, or nerve cells. Alterations to these cells and their interconnections form our memories.If your body parts were sized proportionally to the part of the brain devoted to them, you would be built like this person:“Explicit” (learned) memories form from changes in chemicals in the synaptic clefts. Chemical agents like drugs or alcohol can alter or destroy this chemistry of memory.End ofaxon A“Implicit” (involuntary) memories are formed by structural changes in the dendrites.DendritesAxon terminals end of axonsThe motor cortex:The outer part of the brain is responsible for deliberate (not reflex) motor memories.Axons: connect cellsSOURCE: AM A Encyclopedia of Medicine, How Things Work: The BrainSOURCE: The Physiology Coloring BookThe Miami Herald, Knight-Ridder Tribune / DAN CLIFFORDTormented parents dealing with incest, abuse chargesBy STEPHANIE SALTER San Francisco Examinere all have read or heard compelling stories about women— and a few men — whohave come forward to speak publicly of the incest or abuse they suffered as children but only remembered as adults.Until these people went into therapy or a support group, they say, they had no memory at all of the abuse. We wonder what might be buried among our own gauzy childhood recollections.They say, “To everybody else, we looked like a happy family.” We wonder about the people next door.Almost never do we wonder: What if it didn’t happen?This is a series about people who say it didn’t happen, people whose grown children entered psychotherapy or counseling and ended up accusing their parents of incest or even satanic ritual abuse. Speaking in the past tense of families that once were- but now areThese parents believe their pain is because of a type of treatment gone awry: Recovered memory therapy.close and loving -ripped to shredsthese parents believe their pain is because of a type of treatment gone awry: Recovered memory therapy.These mothers and fathers say they know incest and child abuse occur, but they are innocent. Many have taken polygraph and psychological tests, hoping to prove it.The “lucky” ones are accused of ritual torture, infanticide and cannibalism. When charges have escalated to that degree and police have investigated, people find it easier to consider they might be innocent.Less fortunate are those accused only of multiple rape and sodomy, incest that allegedly took place 10, 20 or 30 years ago.Three elements are common in their stories:• The accusations usually came after a period of unexplained and untypical remoteness from their child, in which the daughter or son reported only, “I’m working on someSee MEMORIES, Page 36Local support group aids adult survivors of abuseBy RUTH ANN BUTTERS Tri-County Sunday WriterThe harrowing effects of child abuse can play a devastating role in the lives of those who were once victims, but a local support group is offering help and understanding to adult survivors of abuse.The Adult Survivors of Abuse Support Group meets on the first Monday of each month at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Clearfield. The group is sponsored by the Clearfield County chapter of Parents Anonymous, an international or-vent child abuse by helping parents cope.PA spokesman Jane Kinkead said the Adult Survivors group offers any adult who has suffered abuse either as a child or as a mature individual help with the healing process, which she said is essential to putting the abuse in the past.“It’s a self-help group, but we do have a facilitator who can help the group if they get stalled. The participants come to the group and discuss their problems. They lay it all out on the table, and that’s an impor-ganization designed to help pre- Sve LOCAL, Page 36
Newspaper Details
DuBois Tri County Sunday
DuBois, Pennsylvania, US
Sun, May 30, 1993
Page 35
Full Page
Clipped by
Curtis B.
CA 05 Jun 2021
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