Happy Notes, Happy Memories: Musical Cues Trigger Different Autobiographical Memories

Originally shared by Neuroscience News

Happy Notes, Happy Memories: Musical Cues Trigger Different Autobiographical Memories

Happy memories spring to mind much faster than sad, scary or peaceful ones. Moreover, if you listen to happy or peaceful music, you recall positive memories, whereas if you listen to emotionally scary or sad music, you recall largely negative memories from your past. Those are two of the findings from an experiment in which study participants accessed autobiographical memories after listening to unknown pieces of music varying in intensity or emotional content.

The research is in Memory & Cognition. (full open access)

#music #memory
http://neurosciencenews.com/memories-music-6170/

Menstrual Cycle Affects Memory and Navigation Skills

Originally shared by Neuroscience News

Menstrual Cycle Affects Memory and Navigation Skills

“Women have sometimes reported to doctors that their memory works differently depending on which phase of the menstrual cycle they are in — even during and following pregnancy, or following menopause. This has led scientists to wonder whether estrogen and progesterone could affect memory and problem solving,” says psychology professor Wayne Brake, who co-authored the study.

The research is in Psychoneuroendocrinology. (full access paywall)

#memory #neuroscience
http://neurosciencenews.com/menstrual-cycle-navigation-memory-5101

A Back-Up Plan for Memory Storage

Originally shared by Neuroscience News

A Back-Up Plan for Memory Storage

A team of scientists has identified the existence of a back-up plan for memory storage, which comes into play when the molecular mechanism of primary long-term memory storage fails.

The research is in eLife. (full open access)

#memory #neuroscience
http://neurosciencenews.com/pkmzeta-memory-neuroscience-4241

How Does Memory Work?

Originally shared by Neuroscience News

How Does Memory Work?

We tend to think our memory works like a filing cabinet. We experience an event, generate a memory and then file it away for later use. However, according to medical research, the basic mechanisms behind memory are much more dynamic. In fact, making memories is similar to plugging your laptop into an Ethernet cable—the strength of the network determines how the event is translated within your brain.

#memory #neuroscience
http://neurosciencenews.com/ltp-memory-neuroscience-4243

Memories Lost to Alzheimer's Can Be Found

Originally shared by Neuroscience News

Memories Lost to Alzheimer's Can Be Found

In the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, patients are often unable to remember recent experiences. However, a new study from MIT suggests that those memories are still stored in the brain, they just can't be easily accessed.

The research is in Nature. (full access paywall)

#optogenetics #memory #alzheimers
http://neurosciencenews.com/optogenetics-alzheimers-memory-retrieval-3867

#google #memory

#google   #memory  

Originally shared by Rob Jongschaap

Are search engines and the Internet hurting human memory? - Slate Magazine

What’s really happening is that we’ve begun to fit the machines into an age-old technique we evolved thousands of years ago—“transactive memory.” That’s the art of storing information in the people around us. We have begun to treat search engines, Evernote, and smartphones the way we’ve long treated our spouses, friends, and workmates. They’re the handy devices we use to compensate for our crappy ability to remember details.

[...]

If there’s a big danger in using machines for transactive memory, it’s not about making us stupider or less memorious. It’s in the inscrutability of their mechanics. Transactive memory works best when you have a sense of how your partners' minds work—where they're strong, where they're weak, where their biases lie. I can judge that for people close to me. But it's harder with digital tools, particularly search engines. They’re for-profit firms that guard their algorithms like crown jewels. And this makes them different from previous forms of transactive machine memory. A public library—or your notebook or sheaf of papers—keeps no intentional secrets about its mechanisms. A search engine keeps many. We need to develop literacy in these tools the way we teach kids how to spell and write; we need to be skeptical about search firms’ claims of being “impartial” referees of information.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/09/are_search_engines_and_the_internet_hurting_human_memory.single.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/09/are_search_engines_and_the_internet_hurting_human_memory.single.html