It’s a Boy!

Where does the dissociation between structures involved in LTM come from (in humans)? Long-term Memory

Patient H.M. “Loss of Recent Memory After Bilateral Hippocampal Lesions”, Scoville and Milner (1957) onset of epilepsy at age ten, perhaps due to bike accident (wear a helmet!) underwent temporal lobectomy to reduce seizure activity

severe anterograde amnesia temporally graded retrograde amnesia Patient H.M.

1.Memory and perceptual skills are dissociable. 2.Lesions of the MTL produce amnesia for recent but not remote events. 3.There are multiple long-term memory systems in the brain. Patient H.M.

Long-term Memory What’s the one thing that all of these people have in common? Lesions!

Long-term Memory What about normal memory? That is, memory in the “normal” brain

Long-term Memory The theory is that the MTL is temporally involved in declarative memory in normal humans…

Long-term Memory

functional imaging data from “normal” subjects confirms lesion studies be skeptical!

Long-term Memory What would it be like to possess the ability to remember everything?

Long-term Memory Case study of S. (Solomon Shereshevskii) Russian journalist never took any notes, recalled everything verbatim thought this was “normal”

Long-term Memory Alexander Luria - Soviet neuropsychologist

Long-term Memory Shereshevskii suffered from synaesthesia stimulation of one sense leads to automatic stimulation of another hearing a sound produces a visual experience “I can see the music…”

Long-term Memory random number table

Long-term Memory 1 this is a proud, well-built man 2 is a high-spirited woman 3 is a gloomy person 6 is a man with a swollen foot 7 is a man with a moustache 8 is a very stout woman - a sack within a sack. “As for the number 87, what I see is a fat woman and a man twirling his moustache”

Long-term Memory memory consists of associative networks perhaps mnemonists can create better networks To Kill A Mockingbird

Long-term Memory memory consists of associative networks perhaps mnemonists can create better networks To Kill A Mockingbird highschool Mr. Lacey English

Long-term Memory memory consists of associative networks perhaps mnemonists can create better networks bird canary chicken mockingbird To Kill A Mockingbird racism highschool Martin Luther King skiing Mr. Lacey English

What do you think the brain of someone that has this “super memory” would look like? Long-term Memory

What if I told you it looked like this? Long-term Memory Kim Peek

Long-term Memory macroencephaly no corpus callosum no anterior/posterior commisure degenerated cerebellum

Autism? Motor disturbances Overall I.Q. of 87 despite this, he displays some amazing abilities… Long-term Memory

Long-term Memory 98% retention rate for reading material reads on average 8 books a day (has approximately 9000 memorized!) one page every 8-10 seconds also has incredible memory for music, often remembering compositions only experienced once

Long-term Memory What could support this ability? “Does brain damage stimulate compensatory development in some other area of the brain, or does it simply allow otherwise latent abilities to emerge?”

Long-term Memory