Health for a Lifetime

Types Of Memory Loss

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Dr. Neil Nedley

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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!


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Revised 2014-12-17