There
is something important here that everyone needs to understand about
memory. You absorb what your brain allows and you then have to allow
this memory to consolidate before you disturb your brain's processor
with a new task. There is a necessary break or pause or cycle of
memory refreshing that formally secures the memory in the brain for
latter use.
It
is actually counter productive to attempt cramming unless this cycle
is adhered to. Before actual 'cramming' it is necessary to organize
the material into bites to process this way. One has to presume
photographic memory achieves this also by taking grabs in the form of
a page which the individual has learned to read closely and trained
himself to actually retain.
My
own approach has been to search text for key words and jump ahead to
the next page. This is naturally a chaotic process that actually
avoids retaining a huge amount of non relevant material and sets me
up to recall key linkages. Thus on been presented with new data, I
typically recall linkages going back as far a fifty years ago.
This
work has focused on the the creation of a fear response and what
works to eliminate the effect. This is welcome and will again lead
to serious protocols for trauma rehabilitation. In the future, the
trauma ward will both tackle actual damage but also tackle the
memories themselves to prevent them from been ever debilitating.
Scientists erase
fear from the brain September 20, 2012 in Neuroscience
Newly formed emotional
memories can be erased from the human brain. This is shown by
researchers from Uppsala University in a new study now being
published by the academic journal Science. The findings may represent
a breakthrough in research on memory and fear.
Thomas Ågren, a
doctoral candidate at the Department of Psychology under the
supervision of Professors Mats Fredrikson and Tomas Furmark, has
shown, that it is possible to erase newly formed emotional memories
from the human brain.
When a person learns
something, a lasting long-term memory is created with the aid of a
process of consolidation, which is based on the formation of
proteins.
When we remember
something, the memory becomes unstable for a while and is then
restabilized by another consolidation process.
In other words, it
can be said that we are not remembering what originally happened, but
rather what we remembered the last time we thought about what
happened.
By disrupting the
reconsolidation process that follows upon remembering, we can affect
the content of memory. In the study the researchers showed subjects a
neutral picture and simultaneously administered an electric shock.
In this way the picture
came to elicit fear in the subjects which meant a fear memory had
been formed. In order to activate this fear memory, the picture was
then shown without any accompanying shock.
For one experimental
group the reconsolidation process was disrupted with the aid of
repeated presentations of the picture.
For a control group, the
reconsolidation process was allowed to complete before the subjects
were shown the same repeated presentations of the picture.
In that the experimental
group was not allowed to reconsolidate the fear memory, the fear they
previously associated with the picture dissipated.
In other words, by
disrupting the reconsolidation process, the memory was rendered
neutral and no longer incited fear.
At the same time, using a
MR-scanner, the researchers were able to show that the traces of that
memory also disappeared from the part of the brain that normally
stores fearful memories, the nuclear group of amygdala in the
temporal lobe.
"These findings may
be a breakthrough in research on memory and fear. Ultimately the new
findings may lead to improved treatment methods for the millions of
people in the world who suffer from anxiety issues like phobias,
post-traumatic stress, and panic attacks," says Thomas Ågren.
More information: Thomas
Ågren et al. (2012) Disruption of recons
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