Abstract
Memory is very robust, usually reliable yet also fragile. Events occurring before the age of 3 years are rarely consciously remembered. There is a lower level of neurocognitive processing of memory traces in early childhood. As the hippocampus is not fully functional in the first 2 years, memories will be implicit and procedural. The very rapid increase in narratives occurring after age three is linked to the formation of new cognitive patterns and developmental achievements such as language and the establishment of an autobiographical self. Memories and fantasies influence our sense of time. Our self recognizes linear as well as nonlinear time. Events and intrapsychic experiences of the past are constantly recontextualized in what is called “retrospective attribution.”
Studies of memory have to take into account the incredible richness of human recollective experience, especially if one wants to study memory disorders in neurological or psychiatric diseases. Emotions can both enhance or disrupt memories. Emotional memories, especially of fear, depend to a large extent on the amygdala, which in turn engages the frontotemporal region. Negative or intrusive memories are a sign of anxiety disorders and depression.
Among temporary amnesias, transient global amnesia is a condition due to the selective vulnerability of hippocampal neurons to metabolic or hypoxic stress. Progressive amnesias, where dissolution of memory is continuous resulting from a progressive brain disorder, are discussed. Clinical studies in Korsakoff syndrome demonstrate the essential role of the diencephalic–hippocampal circuits in explicit learning. These circuits are relevant for explicit learning, while implicit learning relies on other structures including the basal ganglia. Memory impairment, a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease, shows a complex profile. The well-known retrograde memory temporal gradient impairment, with better memory for remote compared to recent events, is due to the particular pattern of neurodegeneration. The memory loss of recent events results from the hippocampal damage that occurs early in the disease, while remote event memory loss is related to the gradual damage of cortical areas.
Our memories are the fragile but powerful products of what we recall from the past, believe about the present and imagine about the future.(Schacter 1996: p. 308)
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- 1.
Kairos (ancient Greek: καιρός) signifies a moment of indeterminate time, a window of opportunity for change, whereas Chronos (ancient Greek: Χρόνος) “time” refers to chronological or sequential time.
- 2.
Nachträglichkeit is a term used by Freud from 1890 on, translated in English as deferred action, and in French as après-coup.
- 3.
Théodule Ribot (1839–1916) is a French neuropsychologist, known for his work on retrograde amnesia.
- 4.
Korsakoff syndrome can also occur as part of Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a manifestation of acute vitamin B1 deficiency in the context of alcoholism or malnutrition.
- 5.
Anosognosia is not restricted to Alzheimer’s disease. Denial of other kinds of deficits such as sensorimotor functions also occurs in other neurological disorders, such as stroke and brain tumors. This is seen in lesions of the right parietal lobe, in which there is unawareness of deficits on the left side of the body.
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Steck, A., Steck, B. (2016). Clinical View of Memory. In: Brain and Mind. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21287-6_4
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