Memory

The November issue of Men's Journal magazine features a brief article by Laurel Berger titled Boost Your Memory. In the article Berger begins by sharing a memory trick used by Ron White, who is the winner of this year's USA Memory Championship. When remembering the names of people he just met, White focuses his attention on an outstanding feature of each individual and makes a violent or gory mental association between the person's name and that specific feature. This causes the amygdala, a structure in the brain, to send out an amplified response. According to Melina Uncapher, a scientist at the Stanford Memory Lab, "an excited amygdala increases the probablilty that the hippocampus, which presses the 'record' button in your brain, will pick up the signal and register the memory permanently." In 2002, British researchers, using MRI technology, came to the conclusion that "superior memory was not driven by structural brain differences" and that anyone has the ability to enhance their memory retention either through the use of memory-improving drugs which may have harmful side effects or through a lifestyle which includes eating healthy, regular exercise, and 7 hours of sleep each night.

According to Chapter 6 in our textbook, memory is "an active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable from, and organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage." Ron White's trick is to get the information stored in his long term memory which is where information is kept permanently. Information must be encoded in related meanings and concepts in order to store it in long term memory. The "gory" associations that Ron White makes mentally as he meets crowds of people help him store their names in his long term memory. White then uses the visual cues from their outstanding features to enable him to retrieve their names from his long term memory.

Sleep Disorders

In the television show Deadly Dreams which aired on MSNBC on Sunday, August 30, 2009, at 10:00 pm, Keith Morrison follows the story of Stephen Reitz who was accused of murdering his girlfriend Eva Weinfurtner in October of 2001. After Reitz woke up and found Eva dead, he went to the police on Catalina Island in California and told them that he must have killed her. He claimed to have been sleepwalking and stated that he had blurry images of a conflict with an intruder, but didn't remember killing Eva. Reitz told police that he must have been the killer because he had been a commercial fisherman and the stab wounds in Eva's spinal column which killed her was how he used to kill sharks. Reitz underwent an extensive sleep study at a sleep disorder clinic where doctors caught his sleepwalking and night terrors on tape. It also came to light that Reitz was on medication for Bipolar Disorder. Although the scientific evidence on sleepwalking was presented at the trial 3 years later, the jury found Stephen Reitz guilty of murdering Eva Weinfurtner.

This particular case is mentioned in Chapter 4 of the textbook. Although Reitz claimed to have been sleepwalking, he most likely suffered from REM behavior disorder. Sleepwalking is a Stage Four sleep disorder in which people may move around or walk around in their sleep. REM behavior disorder is a rare disorder in which people thrash around and even get up and act out their nightmares. While REM behavior disorder is a very real condition, some jurors are hesitant to acquit on this defense. Prosecuters in Deadly Dreams pointed out that a verdict of "Innocent" may have opened the door for a wave of sleepwalking defenses in future murder trials.

Work Related Stress

In the spring of 2008, I was interviewed by Shari Bramlett with Rejuvenate Magazine about how I cope with stress on the job. The article appeared in the April-May issue. The article discusses the different types of stress: cognitive, emotional, and physical. Dr. Gisele Girault of the Pure Wellness Pain Management and Medical Spa in Rock Hill who was also interviewed suggests maintaining a healthy lifestyle to reduce stress. In the article I shared the experience of my first day on the job as a firefighter/paramedic in El Dorado, Arkansas on February 3, 1993: There was a multiple shooting at a local business! I go on to state that over the years the stress hasn't gotten any better, but I have learned how to manage it. I've learned that experience on the job relieves a lot of my stress. In the interview I also shared some of my tricks for relieving stress during down time on my job. I do crossword puzzles, play games, watch movies, and read a lot. This helps me to separate myself from my job and keeps me relaxed. The article goes on to suggest that massage therapy may help some people reduce their stress level.

Stress and health is discussed in Chapter 11 of the textbook. Stress is the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events that are seen as threatening or challenging. Stress at work can result in symptoms such as headaches, high blood pressure, indigestion, anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, overeating, drug use, poor job performance, or changes in family relationships. Some coping strategies that people use to reduce the effects of stress are changing or eliminating the stressor, humor, meditation, religion, exercise, good sleep habits, eating healthy, and managing their time wisely. We all have stress in our lives and it is crucial that we find what best works for us as individuals to help alleviate our stress in order to live a longer and healthier life.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Hoarders, which comes on Saturdays at 4:00pm on A&E, is a television show that follows the lives of real people who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and can't stop their compulsive hoarding. The show states that "hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary." The episode that aired on Saturday, September 21st, focused on 48 year old Patty Osbern from Kansas. Over the years, Patty's compulsive shopping led to her house becoming literally filled with debris. She and her family had to climb over mounds of clothes, toys, and other items to get to the bathroom, the kitchen, and even their own beds. Patty's children were removed from the home due to hazardous and unsanitary living conditions. Not only was the house filled with trash, but with mice and mouse droppings as well. Patty was ordered to work with a specialist in compulsive hoarding to clean the house in order to regain custody of her children. Patty admitted to leading a double life and stated that issues within her marriage brought her to her current point. Although Patty worked with a compulsive hoarding specialist, a psychologist, and a crew of cleaners, she was unable to part with most of her clutter. In the end her husband left her and moved into an apartment so he could regain custody of their children.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is discussed in Chapter 14 Psychological Disorders. According to the book, a psychological disorder is"any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm others, or harms their ability to function in daily life." Patty certainly demonstrated many of these characteristics by harming her children in allowing them to live in an unsanitary home. The book describes OCD as a disorder in which "intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior." Patty's anxiety over her marital problems led to her compulsive shopping and to her obsessive hoarding. Scientists have found that biological factors can contribute to anxiety disorders and that they can be inherited.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

On the television series Grey's Anatomy, which comes on Thursday nights at 9:00pm on ABC, Dr. Owen Hunt suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. Hunt was a medic in Iraq when all of his company was killed in an ambush. Upon his discharge from active service, he retuned to the United States and began practicing medicine as an Emergency Room (trauma) doctor at Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He met and fell in love with Dr. Christina Yang who is a surgoen at Seattle Grace. One night while they were in bed, Owen was mesmerized by the blades on the ceiling fan and proceeded to choke Christina. In his mind the blades of the ceiling fan were helicopter blades, and he began reliving the nightmare of the attack in Iraq thinking that Christina was the enemy. Subsequently, Christina broke off her relationship with Owen and Owen started seeing a psychiatrist to help him deal with his problems. The doctor diagnosed him as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from his feelings about being the lone survivor of the ambush in Iraq.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is covered in chapter 11 on page 434. According to the textbook, PTSD is a "disorder resulting from exposure to a major stressor, with symptoms of anxiety, nightmares, poor sleep, reliving the event, and concentration problems, lasting for more than one month." Women, especially under the age of 15, are more vulnerable to this disorder than men although the rate of PTSD has tripled since 2001 among combat-exposed military personnel, hence the storyline involving Dr. Hunt in Grey's Anatomy. Severe PTSD in children has been linked to a decrease in the hippocampus which as we studied in chapter 6 is important in forming long term memory. This decrease may have a negative impact on learning.