Memory By Conner McCormick and Riley Ritter

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  The human mind is extremely complex, but with recent studies on the mind and memory, we are getting extremely close to being able to target specific memories and erase them completely from your mind.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  Jeffrey Mitchell became very interested in the effects of memories after witnessing a terrible and fatal car crash. The experience haunted him for quite a while until he finally came out and talked to his brother about it. From his own experience he came up with a strategy to help patients that have suffered from scarring memories. He called this treatment critical incident stress debriefing (CISD).

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  The main idea behind CISD is that when a client is in a welcoming and peaceful environment and is asked to recall their memories, it will gradually help them cope with their terrible memories. CISD wasn’t invented solely on the thought that it was maybe a good idea, there was some science behind it.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  Although most Americans (63 percent based on a recent survey) believe that human memory functions exactly like a video camera, being able to recall events with exact detail in the way that it actually happened, but that is actually not the case.  Every time that a memory is accessed in the brain, the memory is actually distorted and changed based on the mood that you are in at the time. Different things are remembered or created every time that you recall the memory.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  This is exactly why Mitchell believed that CISD would be effective, but studies showed that CISD actually wasn’t effective due to the fact that the patients were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and were still very heavily affected by the experiences with fear.  The reason that it had worked for Mitchell is because he had given it a lot of time before he began to share and talk about his experience.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  Memories that are formed are actually physical in the brain, “it’s because a network of neurons has been altered, woven more tightly together within a vast electrical fabric.”

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  Karim Nader began researching memory in the late 1990s, and what he came up with was a major breakthrough. He knew that proteins were required for making memories, so he decided to start with stopping the protein synthesis to see if it would affect the way that a memory is recalled.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  He began with tests on rats, associating a specific sound with a shock, so that every time that the sound was made the rats would freeze in fear to await the shock.  After injecting chemicals that temporarily stop the proteins from doing what they should, he quickly found that he had discovered something great.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  They have yet to do any sort of tests similar to this on humans, because they still aren’t quite sure how the human body will react to something like this.  The problem that Nader runs into now, is that he is unable to ask the rats how they feel, if they feel like they are forgetting something, if they miss it or whatever else.

The forgetting pill Lehrer, Jonah. “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.” Wired. February 17,  The problems could be endless, but for now, it is a breakthrough in science and is thought to soon be easily accessible in the form of pills, so that humans will soon be able to control what they want to remember.

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's Association. “Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour”. alz.org. Alzheimer's Association and Spangler, Frederic. “Alzheimer's Disease.”csa. Fall  Alzheimer's disease is basically a form of dementia, that has to do with ones biochemistry changing. With old age it shrinks the brain and impairs ones functions but mainly affects memory. With the first signs of Alzheimer's the person suffers from short term memory loss but in the latter stages is more effected by long term memory loss. A brain without the disease A brain with advanced Alzheimer's Comparing the two

Amnesia "Amnesia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr Web. 11 Apr  Amnesia is a disease that deals with the loss of memory, mainly short term.  In most cases people know who they are, but just cannot preserve new information.  They disease can be caused by any type of injury to the brain such as stroke, inflammation of the brain or even certain medications.

What's the Secret to Stop Memory Loss? iq-50. April 12, Health Journal Today.  &feature=player_embedded &feature=player_embedded  Millions of people from around the world suffer from memory loss. Researchers have recently assembled a now substance that supposedly helps a great amount with memory loss, with the main ingredient being coline. Although some may not be able to handle the powerful antioxidants that are in this magical memory medicine. IQ-150 Memory Support

“recovered memory” controversy Pope, Dr. Kenneth. “Science as Careful Questioning: Are Claims of a False Memory Syndrome Epidemic Based on Empirical Evidence?” kspope  To sum it up, recovered memory in the patients eyes happens basically when they have something traumatic happen to them in their life. They then suppressed that memory because it was so awful the brain couldn’t bare to think of it. Next the person goes and sees a psychologist and then the memories suddenly come flooding back. The controversy comes into play when some think the doctor triggered the patient to make up these false memories in their brain, by asking leading questions and so on. That is why these memories are so controversial, are they really "recovered” or simply just a fake reality to the patient, some will never know.