These are 3 discussion post from other students that need a response. Please need to be at least 100 words. If you use and references please list them. You don’t have to do a cover page!!

1^st post- Michael’s Post

Part I: Using examples from your own experience, compare implicit and explicit memory. How have case studies played an important role in the study of memory? Describe how case studies have been used to learn about the effects of damage to specific areas of the brain involved in memory acquisition and storage. Explain the effects of damage to specific areas of the brain involved in memory acquisition and storage, and illustrate this with some examples.

Implicit memory is information that is remembered unconsciously or effortlessly. Usually you recall this information Explicit memory is information that you consciously have to work for to remember. Being in the military, there are many things that have been instilled in us as far back as basic training. Sixteen years later, when asked to perform these tasks or site a regulation on certain things, it comes to me easily (implicit). It is just stored in my mind somewhere. Now that I am running a station for the Recruiting Battalion, in order for me to remember a new requirement for enlistment, I have to read new regulations or operational messages (explicit). Memory issues are very common in people that have moderate or severe brain injuries. The parts of the brain that deal with learning and remembering can be effected with a brain injury. In many cases, brain injuries affect short-term memory more than long-term memory. Examples of effects could be forgetting details of a conversation, where things were left, losing track of time, or even being unable to remember what you did a few hours ago. Each case of memory loss is treated individually. It can be a frustrating and tiring trial, but if you surround yourself with people that understand, it can make the experience easier.

Part II: Why do you think infantile amnesia exists? Do you think that, perhaps, it is adaptive in some way? Explain your rationale using personal experiences and supporting with scientific evidence. As part of your writing, you should define infantile amneisa and properly reference/cite at least two experiments that investigated whether infantile amnesia extends to implicit memories.

Childhood amnesia is the inability in adults to recollect early episodic memories and is associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in childhood. I believe it exist because the infant brain is underdeveloped and it cannot associate memory like the adult brain. In 1983, a study done by Caroline Miles based his psychoanalytic theory suggesting that early life events are blocked due to their inappropriately sexual nature. The lack of recall of infantile experiences by adults cannot be described simply by the passage of time or difference in encoding ability, suggesting that processing and retention of hippocampus-dependent memories differ over the course of development. In 2014 an experiment proposed that episodic memories are associated and stored over the long term if the experience is prominent. In other words, according to this view, expression of the infantile experience is state-dependent.

2^nd Post- Mackenzie’s Post

Part I: Using examples from your own experience, compare implicit and explicit memory. How have case studies played an important role in the study of memory? Describe how case studies have been used to learn about the effects of damage to specific areas of the brain involved in memory acquisition and storage. Explain the effects of damage to specific areas of the brain involved in memory acquisition and storage, and illustrate this with some examples.

Memories are processed, recalled, and stored throughout separate, but distinct areas of the brain. Explicit memories are those which are coded as long term and are typically affected by amnesia. Implicit memories are short term and typically denote rote memorization (Pinel 2014). Case studies have proven beneficial in the understanding of memory. Memory was once believed to occur simultaneously across the entire cerebral structure with little to no distinction between explicit and implicit memories. However, the brain can compartmentalize memories and later consolidate them for memory recall at a later time (Pinel 2014). Deficits in memory consolidation can be seen in individuals who suffer from amnesia.

Amnesia is defined as a pathological loss of the memory which affects the medial temporal lobe, specifically the amygdala, and/or hippocampus. Amnesia can be separated by retrograde amnesia which affects memory prior to the trauma, and anterograde which affects memory acquisition and storage after. (Pinel 2014). Research conducted on patients post temporal lobectomy or related surgeries revealed these patients experienced amnesic occurrences. The study further explored the areas of the brain affected by the surgery and found hippocampal abnormalities (Baxendale 1998). Thus, these patients experienced anterograde amnesia after the associated brain structures were surgically altered.

Part II: Why do you think infantile amnesia exists? Do you think that, perhaps, it is adaptive in some way? Explain your rationale using personal experiences and supporting with scientific evidence. As part of your writing, you should define infantile amneisa and properly reference/cite at least two experiments that investigated whether infantile amnesia extends to implicit memories.

Infantile amnesia may exist due to the absence of development in certain brain structures. The prefrontal cortex in human brains takes the longest to develop during infancy. The prefrontal cortex is attributable to active memory (Pinel 2014). Since these structures are not fully developed processes like memory consolidation into explicit memories are not completely established. During human growth during infancy and childhood, memory development can become maladaptive. A study conducted in 2000 revealed chronic exposure to stress can create deficits in Adult’s abilities to produce memories relating to spatial and memories of recognition. Conversely, learning that engages hippocampal memory from childhood creates stronger hippocampal functioning throughout the human lifespan (Alberini 2017). While infantile amnesia impacts the formation of explicit memories, it seems to have no effect on implicit memories. For example, implicit memory is demonstrated when a breastfed infant is able to locate and latch onto the mother’s breast for sustenance. This demonstrates the sensorimotor aspect of implicit memory (Landers 1999). Another study noted implicit memories are formed and processed in the amygdala, striatum, and cerebellum (Vöhringer 2018). These associated brain structures develop foremost during postnatal years. Therefore, infantile amnesia is a result of developing cerebral structures.

3^rd Post- Melissa Post

Part I:

Last summer I traveled back to Newark, New York a place that I had spent a lot of time as a child. During this trip I was overtaken with explicit (autobiographical/ episodic) memories of the bus route to school, the snow on the ground, and the smell of warm cider. I am exercising my implicit memory as I am currently typing this paper. Every key stroke, even the unconscious thought to place a period at the end if this sentence.

Case studies have allowed us to compared affected brains to a non-affected brains. In affected brains researchers can measure relevant data to assess the trauma or disease. For example, (1) “In 1957, Brenda Milner reported the profound effect on memory of bilateral medial temporal lobe resection, carried out to relieve epilepsy in a patient who became known as H.M. (1926–2008)”. This case study is often seen as a signature case it addresses many areas including forgetfulness, forming new memories, and cognitive abilities.

(2) ”Patients with damaged frontal lobes show lower working memory and, therefore, a lessened ability to retrieve information from their secondary memory^{[6] (Links to an external site.)”}. An exampled would be if someone hit their head and damaged their frontal cortex during a motor vehicle accident. The amygdala, hippocampus, cerebellum, and prefrontal cortex are part of memory acquisitions and storage process They will likely display some personality and behavior changes as well as memory issues post-accident.