WEBVTT - How Amnesia Works 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.280 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.200 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry and uh, 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:21.680 it's Stuff you Should Know the Rodeo. Yeah. Ironically, I 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.160 asked if we've done a podcast on memory and either 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.440 one of us could remember, And I'm looking it up 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.560 on our site and I don't see it anywhere. I 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.839 gotta feel like it doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't any 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.240 It's tough now with six and thirty forty plus. Yeah, 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.919 I mean, we'll like delve into a subject, but it's 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.319 not necessarily what the whole podcast is about. And every 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.279 once while we come up with one of the stupid 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.519 non how X works titles, so that just throws it 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.040 off even further. Like we may have like named it 0:00:54.120 --> 0:01:01.080 like a a podcast to remember boom boom mnemonic device bitching. Yeah, 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.560 we totally did one on memory. Wow, good job, that 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.120 was real time. I just worked it out, all right. Well, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.319 we're definitely gonna go over memory some because you can't 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.520 talk about amnesia without talking about memory, so we'll just 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.759 you know, reinforce that knowledge. I'm excited about this one. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:24.119 I thought it was pretty good. Amnesia's uh sometimes it's 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:29.080 like TV and movies, but not usually. Uh it can 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.800 be yeah, but yeah, that's a very rare case. So 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.520 rare that, um, whoever has that kind of amnesia it 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:41.200 gets to be the intro for our podcasts. Who a 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.840 guy named Clive Wearing? Yeah? Man, this dude, Yeah, I 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:47.960 feel sorry for him. Did you see the cover of 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.520 the book. He has this look at his face like 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.279 what are you doing? That's because he wakes up again 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.680 every twenty seconds and goes, what just happened? Yeah, there's 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.000 a poor man named Clive Wearing here. He's a music 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.559 Asian and a musicologist, and he is the He is 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.200 the man with the world's poorest memory, which means Oliver 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.440 Sacks sleeps on his couch yeah you know, um, and 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:19.160 he has a memory that refreshes itself every few seconds. 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.920 He comes out and goes, who's that guy on my couch? Yeah, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.960 and he goes, I'm Oliver Sacks. And he goes, oh, hey, Oliver, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.600 tattooed on your forearm? And then he goes, Oliver, what 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.720 are you doing here? That's how it is. But it 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.880 refreshes like that, so um, this guy. Uh, there was 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.680 a New Yorker profile in him. That conger who wrote 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.840 this article um cites saying that eating an apple is 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.960 kind of like a magic trick to this guy. Like 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.639 one second, like he's got the apple in his hand 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.560 and it's intact, and then he'll look down again and 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.240 it's just the core. A few seconds later. He has 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.680 no memory whatsoever of eating the apple. Um, he may 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:02.000 not even he probably he doesn't remember getting the apple, right. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.880 He just knows there's an apple core in his hand now. Yeah, 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.720 so he must have eaten it. Yeah, his uh. And 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.040 we'll go over this later. He has a journaling system 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.560 because you kind of have to. Um, like in the 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.720 movie Memento, Uh, and it had some excerpts and it 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.760 was literally like nine o five woke up, feeling refreshed, 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:25.360 nine oh eight, completely awake, now feeling really good. Nine 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.400 tin I am fully awake at this point. And he 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.320 scratches through previous entries just to to keep track on 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.200 where he is in the day. And then it takes 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.240 like a really jarring turn once a while, I'll be 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.480 like I no longer trust my wife. Yeah, there's some 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.560 weird guy on my couch. She's out to get me. 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.160 She could really mess with this guy. Yeah, you know, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.120 she could be like Joey Pants and Memento. Yeah. I mean, 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:51.760 how many times in an argument do I say I 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.240 don't know what you're talking about? That would be so 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.080 great if that was actually affecting. I mean, an argument 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.920 would just stop after a few seconds, would be like, 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.000 but that would be one of the horrible side effects 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.440 of having amnesia, like Clive Wearing has. Um, imagine coming 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.440 to and you're a general is still pumping and you 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.040 feel the sensation of anger. You have no idea why. Yeah, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.840 that that is what happens to this guy. Yeah, so 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.880 we should say that. Um, he's not just like a 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:25.600 a walking noodle. Like he does have some memories. He 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.480 has Uh. He has the ability to still play the piano, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:33.160 which is amazing. He was an accomplished piano player. Um, 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.440 but he can. He can play the piano if you 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.440 ask him to, and he'll play it well. But then 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.640 when he finishes, you can say, oh, what is that piece? 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:45.360 And he will say what piece? And that's that. Yeah. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.880 He he has both retrograde and in tyro grade amnesia, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.920 which is pretty rare to have both of those at once, um, 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.359 and what we'll get to what all that means. But uh, 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.080 and we'll get to why as well that he and 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:01.760 go make a cup of coffee. We're going to get 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:07.200 to it. You know, we already have. Oh that's a 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.640 nice tease. Yeah, he Uh, he remembers his wife, which 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.440 is good. Apparently one of the symptoms that he first 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.520 exhibited was he couldn't remember his daughter's name though really 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.600 one of his earliest symptoms it was a headache, and 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.839 then all of a sudden, He's like, what's your name kid? Right? 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.560 And then he thought, maybe something's not right here. Well, 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.400 and this is one of the things about amnesia that 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.080 it's different for everyone, and it's all dependent on uh, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.520 what happened to you and the extent of whatever damage 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.039 you may have suffered. Right, And even two people who 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.800 have identical types of amnesia, it's going to be different 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.560 for them. And here's why memory is different for everybody. Exactly, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:51.919 we all four memories following similar um constructs. But for 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:57.480 each individual person, what we remember, what makes us remember something, um, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.880 all of that is highly individualized, highly personalized, so much 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.760 so that, Chuck, have you ever wondered if we all 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:11.200 see the color green the same. No, you've never wondered. 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.159 Now I've never wondered that, but now I am, and 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.240 it's fascinating. You haven't never wondered that really? Oh yeah, 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.280 like if like our visual cues are subjective, well, I mean, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.599 like I see green and you see green and it's similar. 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.200 But haven't you ever wondered if like the shade is 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.120 slightly different or I never wondered that just because of 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.680 our the information coming to our optic terms, our eyes 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.840 are slightly different, like all of those little nuances, like 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.280 what's green to me? It's not necessarily green to you, 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:44.120 even though it really is because we both say light's green. Yeah, 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:45.560 but there, if you think about there will be no 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.760 way to really describe that because if it's all subjective, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.120 what do you say green is like a combination of 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.200 these two colors? Like, but what are those two colors? Yeah, 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.120 it's easier to just pointing and be like that screen 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:57.680 you go, now it's not green. Yeah, we should do 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:59.400 one on color blindness. I have it on the list, 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:04.040 but it's um pretty tough, believe it or not. I did, Uh, 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.240 don't be dumb on color blindness. Dogs being color blind 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.440 they're not. They're not. No, No, they see how you 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.080 prove that they see a spectrum. I can't remember. You'll 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.120 have to watch. They don't be dumb on it. Um. Okay, 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.360 So let's talk about the memory process that humans typically follow, 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.800 even though it is highly individualized. Yeah, there's a couple 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.320 of types of memory we all know and love as 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:36.560 short term and long term. Um. If you long short 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:38.760 term is good because you remember what you want and 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:40.320 you get rid of what you don't if you if 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.160 you didn't, you would be like Mary leu Henner from Taxi. 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.400 Oh did she have like an amazing memory? She has 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.840 a condition that only another dozen people have in the 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:56.000 US called h SAM highly superior autobiographical memory. And they 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.280 just discovered it in two thousand six period, not just 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.640 in her. And it's only biographical though, but for these people, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.760 you say June one, n six and merely lou Hennerck 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.960 can go, oh, well that was an off day for taxi. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.560 We weren't shooting, and I went shopping at Sacks and 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.920 bought the scarf and had a cops salad. And uh, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.360 like I said, though it's only autobiographical, they can't necessarily 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:25.040 remember like everything just about details of their life. But 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.400 it's just nuts, Like she literally remembers everything that's ever 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.800 happened to her. So that's cool. Yeah, that she remembers 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.679 that cops salad because it was probably pretty good to 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:40.800 screw up a cops salad. Uh sacks trip. That's fun. Yeah, 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.720 So that's good. But if she were if she had 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:49.800 um a low Laighton inhibition, where all of the things 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:54.439 like the click of of UM, a light bulb turning on, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.440 the buzzing from somebody's electric razor next door, the sound 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.560 of water ushing, the look of everything, the feel of everything, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.240 all of the information was coming in and flooding her 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:09.040 memory and asking for her attention to crazy. Yeah. So 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.640 one of the roles of short term memory, specifically the hippocampus, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.040 is to say keep that, keep that, throw that away, 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.240 throw that away, throw that away. This one seems kind 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.400 of important. Oh, this one has an emotion attached. We 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.679 definitely need to keep that. That's what's going on with 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.760 short term memory. Apparently we keep about seven pieces of 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:31.320 information up to thirty seconds, which sounds to me like 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.040 a statement that is going to be utterly debunked as 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.640 ridiculous in ten years. We understand memory more for the 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:40.880 time being. That's our concept of short term memory. It 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.120 does seem sort of like a stab yeah at something. 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.760 It's overly concise. Yeah, you know, I agreed. So that's 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.959 short term memory and short term memories basically just holding 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:57.280 immediate information in the front of your mind um figure 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:03.560 tatively in literally uh. And and if it's sorted, it's 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:08.720 sorted into long term memory. That's right. How we store memories, 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.440 how we make memories. The first thing that happens is 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.720 we have something called sensory memories. So you see a uh, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.240 you hear josh past gas, and you hear a sound. 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.280 You might smell something you would not hear that. That's 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.840 true you're an sp D guy. Or let's say you 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.080 see a strawberry and you taste the strawberry and you 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:31.600 see what it looks like, that it's red, and you 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:36.200 taste it and you know it's tart. Those are sensory memories, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.720 and our nerve cells detect that. They send that as 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.040 an electrical electrical impulse along to the end of a 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:47.720 nerve um. It turns on the little neurotransmitter, which sends 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.840 a chemical message that hops. We've talked about synapses, those 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:55.920 gaps between nerve cells. The neurotransmitter sends it across that 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.559 little great divide to the neuron, which is your brain cell, 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.440 and immediately your brain registers that as a short term memory. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:06.760 Uh And whether or not it becomes a long term 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.199 memory is whether or not you need to remember that 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.600 and encode it, right, And that encoding process is what 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.679 moves it to the deep freeze. You know what I'm 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.959 curious about. I wish I thought to look this up. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.840 How does science quantify the present? Like? Can you as 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:28.000 the present? You know? Point eight nanoseconds? Is it the 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.280 thirty seconds that you're you're working memories, chewing on something? 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.400 I mean, how quickly does a sensation or an experience 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:41.040 become the past? That's nano second after it happens, I guess. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.040 But why a nano second? Why not a micro second? 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.800 Why not five seconds? Whatever? The smallest amount of time 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.520 is technically probably I guess. So that's pretty deep sought 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:56.040 though after that green, it's like I took acid earlier? Sweet? 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.280 Uh so um encoding for long term memories? Where we 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.560 were right, All of this stuff is coming to the 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.440 hippocampus and the hippocampus works in concert with some other 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.640 parts of the brain, the amygdala, the thalamus. The amygdella 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.559 is big on emotion, the thalamus is big on um 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.720 routing sensory stuff impairing it with emotion. Emotions play a 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.600 big role in memory, Yes, because if you pair an 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.360 experience with an emotion, it's going to have that much 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.240 more of a an impact on our neural pathways that 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.960 are formed. Yeah, that's what encoding is. Like the things 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.160 you remember most, you're you're you're basically leaving a trail 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.040 of bread crumbs along this pathway. If you want to 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.800 retrieve a memory, and the stronger, like you said, if 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.160 it's tied to emotion, it might be stronger and more reinforced. 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.280 Or if it's something you have to remember a lot, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.840 that bread crumb trail is gonna be with larger pieces 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.240 of bread. Yeah, the more spot the more times it's traversed, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.920 the the more well worn the path grows, the stronger 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.000 that memory is UM. And that's that's a UM A 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.360 mechanism called long term potential ation where an initial sensory 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:13.040 experience becomes a hard encoded memory in our long term memory. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.160 And you could crack open like one of our brains 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.079 and say, see this this neural circuit right here, that's 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.920 my memory of my last birthday. See that donut that's 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.440 just there. It just started growing a few years ago. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.320 I'm waiting for it to fully mature before I harvest it. 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.240 That was always a one of the early Simpsons had that. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.400 I think it showed people's like thought bubbles at point 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.960 and Homer's is just a donut. Yeah, that was pretty good. 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.240 I can see that. Uh So, like you said this, 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.160 this is all part of the limbic system. I don't 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.400 think we said that. No we didn't, which which is, uh, 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.720 you know your reward system. You experience emotions through it. Yeah, 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.760 learning memory all that is tied to the limbic system. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:59.480 And um, are our thoughts are being stored in the 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:05.960 crebral cortex? Are i should say, are episode or is 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.400 it our episodic well short term that's in this in 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.480 the cerebral cortex. Yeah, okay, um so if a yeah, 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.320 that's right. Because if you take a specific type of memory, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.760 which we'll get to in a second, it usually gets 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.000 stored in the region that's responsible for processing it as 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.760 it happens in the first place. So like broke A's 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.479 area responsible for processing language. There's also your your language 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.280 related memories are stored there. You know that time that 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.840 guy shouted at you in Spanish you didn't know what 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.000 he was saying. You can crack open the Broker's area 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.480 and there it is. Yeah. So the cortex is where 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.400 you temporarily put it. It works with the hippocampus to 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.440 send it to Like you said, whatever part of the brain. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.280 I didn't know that. That's interesting though, it lives where 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:56.440 it was originated. Total sense. Yeah again, I really just 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:00.160 I have a feeling that are understanding of memory is 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.960 tenuous enough that like a lot of this stuff is 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.920 going to change in ten years, five years, fifteen years, 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.360 But for the time being, this is our understanding. Well, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.440 like with anything in the brain, it's just like there's 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.400 still so much mystery, you know, shrouded in it the 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.960 gray area. Uh. All right, So there's many types of 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.440 long term memory. Uh. They are as follows, and these 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.960 will come up throughout the show. Your explicit or episodic 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.840 memory is what we do when we study for a podcast. Basically, 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.760 it's like facts and information specific stuff, right, we read it, 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.680 we learn it, we know it. Yeah, cramming for an exam. 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.520 That's how you do it. You've got procedural or implicit Uh, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.280 these are sensory and motor memories. That's how you know 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.800 how to make a cup of coffee. And it's it's 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.160 like muscle memory. Yeah, it becomes less of memory and 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.920 more something that you've done by repetition over and over. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:56.000 That's why, uh, Clive make that cup of coffee, or 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.120 can play the piano. Still, Yeah, he doesn't remember how 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.120 to play the piano fingers, just do it from muscle memory. Right, 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:09.040 he doesn't consciously remember. He does have procedural memories exactly. Um, 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:13.080 you've got semantic memory, which is organized and categorized memories. 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.000 So it's kind of like a meta version of type 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.440 of memory. Right where like you, um, if you're thinking 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.520 about what your favorite bands are, something, you have a 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.120 file of all the bands you ever listened to that 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:29.880 maybe there's a subfolder in that file of the ones 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.040 that you've ever heard that you like, right, and all 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.880 of those are based on your experiences of listening to 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:41.480 led Zeppelin or you know, um Boogie Down Productions or 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.280 the Carpenters. I can go on. So when someone asks 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.680 you what your favorite band is you're scrolling through that folder, right, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.840 and what you're doing is accessing your semantic memory, right, 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.200 Or you could just you could be like, look at 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.240 the T shirt, but you just default and say Pavement, 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.920 then you're good to go. Pixies for you probably how 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.560 uh Yeah, I would say these days, I would go 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.439 more with Morrissey. Oh yeah, yeah, whoa. Oh He's always 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.439 been up there, yeah, nipping at the Pixies heels. But 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.200 I would say Morrissey may have taken the lead recently. Yeah. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.120 I remember we're hearing the Smiths for the first time 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.800 in like ninth grade. I was like, man, who are 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.399 these guys? They still hold up? But if you and 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.880 if you listen though, it's like, well, no, you mean 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.199 the Smiths. No, I love the Smiths. But if you 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.560 listen to Morrissey's career, like all it was was the 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.040 evolution of Morrisey started with the Smiths, and he just 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.480 kept going and he just hit his stride even more 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.800 after the Smiths. I like Morrissey even more than the Smiths. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.560 Man all right, and I felt good to get off 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:51.920 my chest. You won't find me dissing Mars under any circumstances. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.600 He's the man. So you've got emotional long term memory 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.760 that those are um well, emotional like superintense memories about 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.960 something that may have happened to you. Uh, and then 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.720 spatial which are just the spacing of an area. I 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.119 remember that in the dark when I go to the 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.640 bathroom that I have to walk around my nightstand. Oh yeah, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.720 that's a good one. Running right into it. Man, that 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.320 will break your toe. Although that happens, and I kind 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.080 of I don't necessarily take issue with emotional memories being 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.920 broken out as their own thing, But it seems like 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:28.040 emotion is one of the drivers of memory formation, even 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.920 if it's just the slightest feeling. It seems like emotions 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.480 attached to all memories. Like it's a it's a signal 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.800 like remember this, and it's also a way it's it's 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.640 an aspect of memory as well, like when you recall 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.880 a memory strawberry. Um, if you have your first strawberry 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.119 after somebody mashes it in your face and like twist 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.919 your nipples and walks away, right, you're probably going to 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:58.720 associate that bad feeling with strawberries for a while. There's 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:04.040 nothing worse than strawberry. So so all all memories have 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.720 some amount of emotion to him, which means all memories 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.720 are emotional. But Chuck, that doesn't mean that for the 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.240 rest of your life you're gonna have kind of a 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.719 sour taste in your mouth when you're eating a sweet 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:20.560 strawberry because of that initial experience, because memories are subject 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.280 to change because of neural plasticity. That's right, although you 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.000 may as well like you might remember it, but I'll 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.800 bet you don't have the emotional experience of it over 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.480 and over again if you eat enough strawberries and experience 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.240 them in different situations and settings. Right, I guess you're right. Like, 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.800 if something has made me sick in the past, I 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.560 have an aversion to it, but but I don't power 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.240 through it, Like I just leave it there. I won't 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.080 drink Milwaukee's best beer anymore. Really get sick off that 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.960 man like years ago, and just the smell of it 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:57.399 now immediately, I'm just like, that's funny. Um, if you 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.679 wanted to, you could power through it and after enough times, 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.240 what you would be doing is activating that neural circuit, 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.320 that long term potential action and refreshing it a little bit, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.080 changing your idea of what Milwaukee's Best is all about. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.840 That's a commercial. They should send us some beer and 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.000 I'll get over it. There you, but I won't get 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.760 so drunk that I passed out and forget because we'll 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.680 get to that. That's a real thing. Yeah, that's a 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.600 kind of amnesia. It is literally, you can get amnesia 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.760 tonight if you want, no thanks, I'm going to see 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.120 Stephen Mountains tonight. Full circle. You want to remember that. 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.280 And then the third type of memory is where you 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.000 combine short term memory with long term memory and you 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.200 come up with working memory. UM. One example I saw 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.800 during research is when you're looking at a menu. You're 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:48.760 going down a menu to decide what you want to eat. 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.639 You're taking in that information from that menu, UM, and 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.760 you're creating a little bit of an episodic stimulus in 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.359 your short term memory and then your acts seeing your 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.800 long term memories, maybe from having pork chops before, um, 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.480 and you're comparing the two. That's your working memory. Okay, 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.000 So that's a that's a huge aspect of memory as well. 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.800 And they think as it stands right now, that it's 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.399 basically a combination of short term memory and long term memory, 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:21.600 mixing them together. And there you have your menu choice. 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:25.399 And that's just your day to day kind of deciding things. 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.040 That's what your working memory is. That's a very dumb 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:30.080 way to say it, but you know what I mean, 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:34.320 your day to day all right, So I guess we 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.640 can talk about an amnesia a little bit now, right. Uh, 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:42.360 forgetfulness is good, it's not a bad thing to forget. Um, 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:44.920 you should remember the important things. But like we said, 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.080 it frees up your brain of the the stuff we 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.040 don't need. And amnigia is nothing more than a really 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:56.400 bad case of the forgets brought on by It can 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:57.639 be brought on by a lot of things, but a 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:01.480 lot of time it's literally an injury to your brain. Yeah, 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:05.199 well that's neurological amnesia, which is the first kind that 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.680 we're talking about here. It can come on from a stroke. Yeah, 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.840 it can come on from your you're just not having 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.120 enough oxygen for a little while. Drugs. Drugs can bring 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:21.280 it on. Drugs can bring in alcohol. Yeah. What else? Uh? 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:26.119 Any like blunt force trauma, electro convulsive therapy. That was 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:29.560 another good episode we did. Yeah. In the case of 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.160 Clyde Wearing, he had a he had herpes and cephalitis, 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.000 a viral infection that can do it. It It destroyed his 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.800 basically cut the cord of the hippocampus and the cortex. 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.840 Well give him that analogy. That's a great analogy, the 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:48.119 telephone cord. Uh yeah, then this is thanks to Kristen 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:52.000 Kongner who wrote this. I don't know if we mentioned that. Um, 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:55.560 if your memories a telephone, the hippocampus is the phone 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.240 cord and the synapsis that we talked about are the 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.719 in the cortex. Those are the voicemail messages. So in 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.080 his case, he had damaged to his cortex I believe, 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.159 and the hippocampus, right, Yeah, he has one of the 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.640 more severe versions of amnesia. So because the phone cord 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.400 was cut in the hippocampus, that's why he has no 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.320 ability to form any long term memory because there's just 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:24.400 no pathway and the voice messages are erased essentially because 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:26.440 of the damage to the cortex, and there's no way 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:28.720 that they may be there still, but there's no way 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:32.199 for him to access his voicemail account any longer. So 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.760 he is a really bad case of neurological amnesia. And analogy. 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:39.560