Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Dr. Neil Nedley
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL00241A
00:49 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:51 I'm your host, Don Mackintosh 00:52 and today we hope you will REMEMBER this program! 00:56 We're going to be talking about memory, 00:58 and here to help us remember what we should remember 01:00 is Dr. Nedley! 01:02 We're glad you're with us! 01:03 Thank you, it's good to be with you as always! 01:06 And for those of you who don't remember Dr. Nedley, 01:09 he is a physician from Ardmore, Oklahoma 01:11 and, also now you are the 01:13 president of "Weimar Center of Health and Education" 01:17 Yes, "Weimar Center of Health and Education" 01:19 and, you know, you've got the "NEWSTART Program" 01:21 there which deals with not only PHYSICAL new starts 01:26 but also mental... peak performance, 01:29 and coming back around, and gaining that optimal 01:33 performance of the brain. 01:35 Memory has a lot to do with that... 01:36 It does have a lot to do with it. 01:37 In fact, we run mental peak performance programs 01:41 where we have people come and live for 5 days 01:44 ...in a hotel, or at Weimar to actually implement 01:50 the principles that will significantly improve their 01:53 mental performance, and often their memory 01:55 will be significantly improved. 01:57 We've had attorneys who were losing recall in the court room 02:00 They'll come through the program, 02:02 and they'll talk about... "Wow, they're a lot sharper" 02:04 They can remember now when they're talking to the jury 02:07 And they can remember the important points without having 02:10 to shuffle and refer back to the notes, etc. 02:13 So it can make a profound difference. 02:15 So memory is, you know, it's not the highest function 02:19 of the brain, but it's a function of the brain that's 02:20 very important! That's right 02:22 The highest function of the brain is 02:23 the analytical portion of the brain, frontal lobe... 02:27 and that's where we accomplish advanced planning, 02:29 and advanced thinking. 02:30 But very important, our frontal lobes are of no use 02:34 unless we have memory 02:36 because that's what we're basing our analysis on 02:38 are things that are actually stored, either recently, 02:41 or in the past, in our memory 02:44 and putting it all together so that our frontal lobes 02:46 can function well. 02:48 So our filing cabinet has to be working well, 02:51 or in computer language, 02:52 we're going to have a short-term and long-term memory available 02:55 Yes, and I've heard some people overstate the importance 02:58 of the frontal lobe by saying... 02:59 "If I had a choice, I'd rather have Alzheimer disease 03:02 and still have a frontal lobe. 03:04 Well, there is no such thing. 03:06 Because, the frontal lobe... yes it primarily affects the memory 03:10 But your frontal lobe is of no use if you don't have memory. 03:15 That's a good point. 03:16 It's like having a car without wheels. 03:18 A good engine with no wheels won't help you. That's right! 03:20 Seven types of memory problems 03:23 you want to talk about to get us started! 03:26 Yes! The first one is transience 03:28 Transience... Yes, and that is a tendency 03:31 to forget facts or figures over time. 03:35 And, of course, the time when we tend to forget 03:38 facts and figures the most 03:40 is actually right after we're given them... sometimes. 03:44 But studies show the longer the time interval from the time we 03:48 have learned the facts, and figures, 03:50 the greater the chance that we're going to lose it. 03:53 So, like, do you know your phone number from when 03:54 you were in your first house growing up? 03:56 Actually, I do! 03:58 Because you lived there so LONG though... That's right! 04:00 I didn't live so long in the first house, 04:02 so I have no clue. Oh, is that right... 04:04 But I know some other numbers, and it's usually when I 04:06 lived there longer. Yeah, that's true. 04:08 And, of course, that means when you use facts and figures 04:12 repeatedly, you're much more likely to retain them over time 04:15 ...even years later. 04:16 You know, it's been... what, 34 years since I 04:20 lived in that home, but I can recite, to you, precisely 04:23 what my phone number was at age 15. 04:27 And I can precisely quote where the places I lived more than 04:30 10 years; which, growing up, I never lived anywhere more than 04:33 like 2-1/2, so... Yeah 04:34 So, transience... that's that type of problem 04:37 Yeah, and actually there is some beneficial aspects 04:39 to transience as well. 04:41 Clears out the brain. You're right! 04:44 It clears the brain. 04:46 And we don't need to brain cluttered with 04:48 unimportant facts and figures. 04:50 Like who cares about your phone number... Exactly! 04:52 It's of no use now. 04:54 And it would be nice if that were, you know, uncluttered 04:57 and we could put something else there of importance 05:01 And so transience does have an important role to play 05:04 but we just need to be able to utilize our memories in such 05:08 a way where we remember the 05:10 important things that we're going to need to recall. 05:12 Absentmindedness! 05:13 Absentmindedness if the second problem with memory loss 05:19 And absentmindedness occurs as a result of lack of 05:23 close enough attention to what needs to be remembered. 05:26 What was that? ha, ha, ha Sort of like that, right? 05:29 Exactly... you were not paying attention... ha, ha, ha 05:33 And that's what causes absentmindedness. 05:36 And so when people lose keys, the problem is absentmindedness 05:41 They just weren't paying attention to 05:43 where they put it down. 05:44 And the brain doesn't get a chance to encode 05:48 the information securely. 05:51 It also involves in forgetting a time... 05:55 maybe forgetting when medicine should be taken. 06:01 Keeping an appointment... all of those things 06:03 not taking even your daily 06:06 vitamin like you're supposed to... 06:07 All of those are due to absentmindedness problems. 06:11 And the solution to that is fairly simple 06:13 in addition to lifestyle measures that we're 06:15 going to mention later on in the program... 06:17 the solution is focus... 06:19 AND if you're going to be repeatedly doing things, 06:22 do them the same way every time 06:24 In other words, put your keys in the same place 06:27 every time... You sound like my wife! 06:29 Ha, ha, ha... Because I have been known 06:31 to lose my keys once in a while. 06:33 But then, didn't Einstein get lost... 06:35 You know, he was a brilliant guy 06:37 but he couldn't find his way home sometimes... 06:38 Yeah, that's true. 06:39 I mean, he would not be able to find his way home... 06:41 and that's due to absentmindedness 06:43 OR, what often happens is you're paying attention to 06:46 something that you thing is more important... 06:48 and so the little details of life kind of go by you 06:53 ...and then occasionally, they bite you. 06:55 My wife doesn't buy the Einstein thing anymore 06:57 because she goes... "You're no Einstein" Ha, ha, ha, ha 07:00 BLOCKING! 07:02 Yes, blocking is where you 07:05 already have it in your memory... 07:06 So in other words, you've had focus... 07:08 it's not absentmindedness anymore. 07:11 The focus has produced a permanent memory of this item 07:14 It's in your hippocampus. 07:16 Your hippocampus is there, and working... 07:18 That section of... it's not a hippo actually camping 07:20 in your place, but that's the... 07:22 That's the section of the brain that actually is 07:24 behind the ear there in what we call the 07:26 temporal lobe of the brain. 07:27 That's where memories are stored. 07:29 And, in this particular instance the problem is being able to 07:32 RETRIEVE that memory. 07:34 And, to be able to bring it forward... 07:37 It's on the tip-of-my-tongue type thing? EXACTLY! 07:39 It's on the tip-of-my-tongue but I can't say it. 07:42 Well what does that mean? 07:43 That means you're "blocking" 07:45 The memory is there, but you can't bring it forward. 07:48 So when you say, "You're blocking" 07:49 that's something you're actually DOING? 07:50 Or is that something that's actually being done? 07:52 Well, it's actually something your brain is doing. 07:54 Your brain is blocking it from actually coming forward. 07:57 It's there... you just can't retrieve it 07:59 when you want to. Hmm 08:01 Now, studies show that when that happens 08:03 50% of the time, you WILL 08:05 be able to bring it forward within 1 minute... Okay 08:08 And so, it's just a matter of getting those neurons refreshed 08:12 and getting that portion of the memory logged 08:15 and bringing it forward 50% of the time. 08:18 The other 50% of the time is a problem 08:21 and that's one that we'll talk about solutions to 08:24 in the later half of the program. 08:26 MISATTRIBUTION! 08:27 Yeah, misattribution is where you DO have a memory 08:32 that is correct, but there's a WRONG SOURCE 08:37 Or, you don't remember things accurately, 08:41 or you remember them in part. 08:43 And this occurs when you believe a thought 08:47 was totally original with you but in reality, it's not... 08:52 And that's misattribution... that can occur frequently. 08:57 Or plagiarism, you might call it that... That's right 09:00 Unexplainable, or unintentional plagiarism which a writer 09:05 passes off some information as original. 09:07 And the criminal justice system ... this is important 09:10 because misattribution, on the part of an eyewitness 09:14 can lead to the arrest and conviction of 09:16 innocent individuals. 09:17 And, this tends to occur more commonly with aging 09:21 and it is something that can be serious particularly 09:26 when someone... there are many people in prison wrongly, 09:29 due to a memory problem of misattribution. 09:33 Well that's kind of like some of them being reversed 09:34 now with DNA and different things, 09:36 but you hear that that happens every once in a while. Exactly 09:40 SUGGESTIBILITY! 09:42 Yes, suggestibility refers to false memories... 09:46 And this tends to develop because someone gave 09:51 you key information, or a suggestion at the same time 09:54 that you're trying to retrieve a memory... 09:56 with the suggestion fooling your mind into thinking 10:00 it's a real memory. 10:01 And so, this also can occur in the criminal justice system 10:06 because you might have seen someone flee from your car 10:12 that might have been stealing something from your car 10:15 but you didn't get a good look at the thief, 10:16 and another person on the street insisted that this person 10:20 was wearing a green plaid jacket 10:22 And then when the policeman comes to you, 10:25 and gives you a mockup of individuals that may have 10:29 committed this crime, you choose the one with the 10:32 green plaid jacket. 10:34 You didn't see it, but because someone else suggested it 10:36 you THINK that's the person that's there. 10:39 You know, I read a study once that said this happens a lot in 10:42 cases of alleged ABUSE! 10:44 And that's very true. 10:46 Often when a person from the criminal justice system 10:50 is asking a child about sexual abuse, 10:53 they'll actually conjure up just the suggestion 10:57 will make them often conjure up accusations of sexual abuse 11:01 even among family members that never occurred. 11:05 And this can even occur in adults... 11:08 And, in fact, it's well studied out; it's a culprit 11:13 that IS a serious problem. 11:16 And several studies with preschoolers indicate 11:19 that suggestion questioning by the police or other adults 11:21 can lead children to assert that certain events occurred 11:24 when, in fact, they didn't. 11:26 And, you can do this even in a real study-type module 11:32 where you're having someone pose as that 11:34 questioning kids, and they can come up with all sorts of stuff. 11:38 BIAS! 11:39 Bias is the 6th problem... 11:42 and this is a belief that the memory works like a camera 11:46 recording what you learn with complete accuracy 11:49 Of course, that's a myth; we all have biases 11:52 Memory is filtered by personal biases, 11:54 including experiences, beliefs, prior knowledge 11:57 And these factors can influence what information is 12:00 actually called up when an individual attempts to 12:02 recall a memory. 12:04 The most interesting examples are people's recollections 12:08 of their romantic relationships... 12:11 and often bias is involved. 12:13 There was a very neat study where someone interviewed 12:16 couples about their romantic relationship 12:18 when they were starting this relationship, 12:21 and then interviewed them 2 months later. 12:23 Then they asked them to recall what they said 2 months before. 12:28 And what they said, if their relationship was 12:31 starting to turn negative, 12:33 they actually thought that they viewed the relationship 12:36 more negatively 2 months earlier 12:38 And so they said, "Yes, I kind of knew this. I knew that. " 12:41 And if their romantic relationship was 12:44 becoming positive, they actually asserted that 12:47 they believed their romantic relationship was more 12:50 positive and they stated that... 12:51 when, in fact, they didn't. 12:53 And so, in other words, we can even re-write the history 12:56 of how we had viewed things 12:58 based to our developed bias over time. 13:03 Persistence... the last one. 13:05 PERSISTENCE! 13:06 This is memories of traumatic events and negative feelings. 13:11 This can occur with posttraumatic stress disorder 13:15 for instance... where you have a flashback 13:18 You will actually SEE things in your mind's eye 13:22 exactly how they happen. 13:24 You might even smell the smell that occurred at that time 13:27 And, these flashbacks can be traumatic. 13:31 They can be problematic. 13:32 That's not the way we're supposed to store memories 13:35 We're actually supposed to 13:36 store it more in the verbal sense... 13:39 logging it like a journalist 13:40 That's how the hippocampus does it. 13:42 But when the occipital lobe, the back portion of the brain 13:45 gets involved in memory, we can have these flashbacks 13:48 that can be problematic. 13:51 Okay, so just to help us remember before we come back 13:54 to the second half, let's look at them all at once... 13:56 We have transience... up on our graphic all together 14:07 Those are the problems! 14:08 What about some solutions? 14:09 We're going to talk to Dr. Nedley when we come back 14:11 about how to address memory issues 14:14 Join us... if you can remember when we come back! |
Revised 2014-12-17