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tl;dr: AG: Is there any way to distinguish a false memory from a real one? EL: Without independent corroboration, little can be done to tell a false memory fro
by ben0x539 13y ago
tl;dr:
AG: Is there any way to distinguish a false memory from a real one?
EL: Without independent corroboration, little can be done to tell a false memory from a true one.
AG: Could brain imaging one day be used to do this?
EL: I collaborated on a brain imaging study in 2010, and the overwhelming conclusion we reached is that the neural patterns were very similar for true and false memories. We are a long way away from being able to look at somebody's brain activity and reliably classify an authentic memory versus one that arose through some other process.
- M4v3R 13y agoI think the biggest giveaway from this article isn't how do you tell a false memory from the real one (because you can't), but the fact that you can have false memories at all. You can be 100% sure that something happened and at the same time be 100% wrong. This happened to me at least once and raises your humility - you never can be 100% right about something. Memory is malleable and it can play tricks on you.
- pessimizer 13y agoOne of my favorite facts is that you can be completely wrong about your current conscious experience, nevermind your memories. A few neat papers on this have been written by Eric Shwitzgebel ( http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/ http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/ ) such as Why Did We Think That We Dreamed in Black and White? and How Well Do We Know Our Own Conscious Experience? The Case of Human Echolocation, or even scarier: Knowing Your Own Beliefs.
- dchichkov 13y agoFunny, this brain imaging study from 2010 that she mentions, states in the abstract: ... Overall, true and false memories showed similar brain activation, but could be distinguished by this reactivation. This was true only in the early regions of the sensory cortex. ... ref: https://webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/StarkOkadoLoftus_FalseMemoryFMRI_LM10.pdf?uniq=6xmjf5 https://webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/StarkOkadoLoftus_FalseMemor...