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Those two kinds of memory mentioned must be concious memory and unconscious memory. I'd be interested to know about how memory affects ones sense of identity.

Those two kinds of memory mentioned must be concious memory and unconscious memory. I'd be interested to know about how memory affects ones sense of identity. I'd also like to know if there has been any work that pinpoints the part of the brain that might give insight into self-awareness / consciousness.

amirmc 12y ago
The types of memory you're referring to are (more formally) declarative and implicit [1]. Please be wary of 'pinpointing' any regions involved in higher-level functions. It borders on phrenology and despite the vast interest in consciousness, no-one had claimed to have identified regions. If you haven't come across it before, I'd recommend The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Following that, Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio might also be interesting (if you're interested in emotion and reason). [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory
Sharlin 12y ago
"Conscious memory" and "unconscious memory" aren't really well-defined concepts; the actual classification is as follows: Explicit (declarative) memory - Semantic memory: knowledge of facts and meanings - Episodic memory: autobiographic memory of past events Implicit memory - Procedural memory: motor skills, implicit attitudes
vacri 12y ago
Procedural memory isn't really best termed as 'unconscious' memory. It's memory laid down through practise of a task. There's a lot of different flavours of memory, though most people think of memory as 'recall of factoids'. In terms of 'unconscious' memory, there's a semantic but salient difference between reacting automatically/unconsciously to something (being fearful of dogs because you were bitten once), and voluntarily doing an action but performing it better because of practice (playing a musical instrument). Regarding anatomy, there's no one part of the brain that is responsible for self-awareness or consciousness (both of which a philosophically difficult to define in the first place), though the frontal lobes (just behind the forehead) are usually implicated in complex thought, concentration, or expressions of personality. There's a lot of overlap in functionality in the brain, when you look at it from a viewpoint of "what bit does this task?" - broken down into its constituent bits, most tasks require a variety of functions to be handled. "What bit of the brain is involved in waving hello to a friend when we meet them?" would touch on most of the parts, for example - pure perception, pattern recognition, emotion, motor control, decision making, and a few others. The task sounds simple, but it's really quite complex once it's broken down.
ekianjo 12y ago
> I'd be interested to know about how memory affects ones sense of identity. I'd also like to know if there has been any work that pinpoints the part of the brain that might give insight into self-awareness / consciousness. Not exactly answering your question, but one neuroscientist (who got a Nobel Prize... if I remember correctly) who worked on phantom limbs, did a lot of work on damaged brains and one of his patients could not recognize his mother when meeting her face to face, but instantly recognized her when talking with her over the phone. The "wiring" between different parts of the brains was involved to link the memory of the person with the sensory signals, and for that patient the "link" between the visual stimulus and memory was somehow broken while the auditory one was intact. Very interesting.
- vacri 12y ago
  A colleague of mine had a grandmother who was affected by Alzheimer's. One time she was out and about with her husband and had an episode and couldn't recognise him. She ran off to get police because she felt lost. He found her and was trying to convince her to come with him, but she claimed to the police that he was a stranger and she was frightened. At this point her husband sang his own name in the manner in which she had during their entire name - this 'got through' and she recognised him again, simply because he sang his name her way, instead of just saying it.
  - vacri 12y ago
    'entire name' -> 'entire time (married)'. too late to edit directly.
- Kronopath 12y ago
  I'm almost positive you're talking about Vilayanur Ramachandran[0], though he never won a Nobel Prize. He is, however, one of the best lecturers in neuroscience, especially for a layman audience. He's done a few TED talks[1], which I think is what you're recalling. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran [1] http://www.ted.com/speakers/vilayanur_ramachandran http://www.ted.com/speakers/vilayanur_ramachandran

amirmc 12y ago

The types of memory you're referring to are (more formally) declarative and implicit [1]. Please be wary of 'pinpointing' any regions involved in higher-level functions. It borders on phrenology and despite the vast interest in consciousness, no-one had claimed to have identified regions. If you haven't come across it before, I'd recommend The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Following that, Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio might also be interesting (if you're interested in emotion and reason). [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory

Sharlin 12y ago

"Conscious memory" and "unconscious memory" aren't really well-defined concepts; the actual classification is as follows: Explicit (declarative) memory - Semantic memory: knowledge of facts and meanings - Episodic memory: autobiographic memory of past events Implicit memory - Procedural memory: motor skills, implicit attitudes

vacri 12y ago

Procedural memory isn't really best termed as 'unconscious' memory. It's memory laid down through practise of a task. There's a lot of different flavours of memory, though most people think of memory as 'recall of factoids'. In terms of 'unconscious' memory, there's a semantic but salient difference between reacting automatically/unconsciously to something (being fearful of dogs because you were bitten once), and voluntarily doing an action but performing it better because of practice (playing a musical instrument). Regarding anatomy, there's no one part of the brain that is responsible for self-awareness or consciousness (both of which a philosophically difficult to define in the first place), though the frontal lobes (just behind the forehead) are usually implicated in complex thought, concentration, or expressions of personality. There's a lot of overlap in functionality in the brain, when you look at it from a viewpoint of "what bit does this task?" - broken down into its constituent bits, most tasks require a variety of functions to be handled. "What bit of the brain is involved in waving hello to a friend when we meet them?" would touch on most of the parts, for example - pure perception, pattern recognition, emotion, motor control, decision making, and a few others. The task sounds simple, but it's really quite complex once it's broken down.

ekianjo 12y ago

> I'd be interested to know about how memory affects ones sense of identity. I'd also like to know if there has been any work that pinpoints the part of the brain that might give insight into self-awareness / consciousness. Not exactly answering your question, but one neuroscientist (who got a Nobel Prize... if I remember correctly) who worked on phantom limbs, did a lot of work on damaged brains and one of his patients could not recognize his mother when meeting her face to face, but instantly recognized her when talking with her over the phone. The "wiring" between different parts of the brains was involved to link the memory of the person with the sensory signals, and for that patient the "link" between the visual stimulus and memory was somehow broken while the auditory one was intact. Very interesting.

vacri 12y ago
A colleague of mine had a grandmother who was affected by Alzheimer's. One time she was out and about with her husband and had an episode and couldn't recognise him. She ran off to get police because she felt lost. He found her and was trying to convince her to come with him, but she claimed to the police that he was a stranger and she was frightened. At this point her husband sang his own name in the manner in which she had during their entire name - this 'got through' and she recognised him again, simply because he sang his name her way, instead of just saying it.
- vacri 12y ago
  'entire name' -> 'entire time (married)'. too late to edit directly.
Kronopath 12y ago
I'm almost positive you're talking about Vilayanur Ramachandran[0], though he never won a Nobel Prize. He is, however, one of the best lecturers in neuroscience, especially for a layman audience. He's done a few TED talks[1], which I think is what you're recalling. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran [1] http://www.ted.com/speakers/vilayanur_ramachandran http://www.ted.com/speakers/vilayanur_ramachandran