In the article, “Scientists Explain How Memories Stick Together,” I found out that recently Scientists at the Salk Institute have been looking into how people’s memories form and what causes you to lose memories. Scientists have been looking at the proteins and cells in the brain to try and figure it out. What they are continuing to research right now is why people only remember certain parts of memories that would otherwise last one to two hours. They have looked into dreaming and what causes certain things to happen in dreams. So far they have figured out that memories from that day trigger some parts of dreams, but there are also made up parts of a person’s dream. Cian O'Donnell and Terry Sejnowski have been working on models of memories, Sejnowski a Howard Hughes Medical Institue Investigator said: "Our new model of memory makes it possible to integrate experiences over hours rather than moments."
With this new information scientists hope to find ways to attack disorders like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, post-traumatic stress, and learning disabilities. That is why this research is so important. Many of these disorders and diseases cause death, and they don’t allow people to live to their full potential. If they can look into these diseases and come up with a cure for them, they could extend lives and make them better.
Cian O'Donnel and Terry Sejnowski
NOS Themes:
Science is Collaborative: A group of scientists at Salk Institute have worked together to find this information.
Role of Motivation and Curiosity: Scientists want to be able to trigger memories and find ways to cure disorders and diseases.Article Link:
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2014/04/16/scientists_explain_how_memories_stick_together.html
This is such a cool topic, and I think the human brain is amazing. I have done more research on the science behind memories, and I have found some interesting facts about it. Scientists are starting to prove that memories are mostly, if not completely, inaccurate. Nadar, a neuroscientists and McGill University in Montreal, believes that memory is something that is not always reliable. He believes that "flashbulb memory", a memory of a short event, is more susceptible to alteration because a person is more likely to replay that kind of event over and over again in their minds. There are more cool facts about memory and Nadar's research in this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/?no-ist