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Posts tagged memory
Revealing the Mystery of Dreams and Dreaming
What are dreams? What is this strange world that exists alongside to our own, inside and outside of it, occurring at the same time? Is this a world, which is the same with the one of awareness, with the only difference of being the “eye” of consciousness that makes the one the real-world and the other fantastic?
People of ancient times had different beliefs about the world of dreams and its importance. Today scientists, researching the secrets of the brain, believe that they have got even closer in solving the riddle of dreams.
Dreams are mental and emotional expressions that are displayed on the “screen” of our minds while we are sleeping. We dream about one to two hours every night, while we may experience four to seven dreams during our sleep. Every person dreams, but not everyone remembers his dreams. Dreams are colourful and often involve all of our senses, giving us impressions of smells, sounds, images, tastes and things we touch. Sometimes we often see the same dream over and over again and some other times we feel that we had seen this specific dream before, without being able to remember if this had actually happened. Also, sometimes we might dream about unfamiliar places and situations that seem to be oddly familiar. (more…)
Effect of Consciousness on Reality Seems to Be Proven
Dr. Joe Dispenza was one of the first researchers to study the effect of consciousness on reality from a scientific point of view. His theory on the relationship between matter and consciousness brought him worldwide fame after the release of the documentary “We Know What Makes a Signal.” A key discovery by Dispenza, was that the brain does not distinguish physical from emotional experiences. Roughly speaking, your brain cells do not distinguish between the real and the imaginary!
Few people know that the doctor’s research into neuroscience and consciousness began with a tragic experience. After Joe Dispenza was struck by a car, his doctors offered to rebuild his damaged vertebrae with the help of implants which subsequently could lead to life-long pain. This was the only way he would ever walk again, said the doctors. But Dispenza decided to skip the expediency of traditional medicine and regain his health through (more…)
Mysterious Phenomenon of Jamais-vu – the Opposite of Déjà vu
By the term “jamais vu” psychologists mean a phenomenon in which a person perceives a familiar situation as if he was confronted with it for the first time. Familiar objects and people become completely strange to him for a few minutes.
Quite often, the jamais vu phenomenon (from French jamais vu – “never seen”) is compared with short-term memory loss. Symptomatic effects are really similar, but if you delve into the neurophysiological subtleties of the issue, there are striking differences between these concepts.
First, the jamais vu condition happens to a person suddenly and without cause, while a loss of memory (even a brief one) always has physiological causes (trauma, shock).
Here is an example of a typical jamais vu: during a conversation with a close friend all information about him as if erased from memory for a few minutes in some inexplicable way. And a well-known person is perceived as a stranger. Some time later, everything comes back to normal. This is the essence of the phenomenon – it has neither obvious causes nor consequences. After the release of the film “The Matrix” even doctors jokingly started calling jamais vu (as well as deja vu) “error in matrix”. (more…)
Implanting False Memories, on the Brink of Reality?
Implanting false memories is one of the favorite themes for science fiction books and movies (such as Total Recall), operating according to different suspenses cenarios. Thriller movies do not ignore procedure either, keeping audiences breathless, but the reader (or viewer) contemplates the adventure detached because he knows that’s not something that can happen. It’s too sci-fi.
But it might be not that long before the implantation of false memories will become reality. Researchers claim to have managed to insert “hybrid memories” to some lab mice, forcing them to remember things while accumulating new ones by reactivation of specific neurons. It’s a step which may pave the way for implanting false memories.
Forming and using memories involves incredibly complex neurological processes some of which are still not fully understood. But if it is possible to track which neurons are involved in creating a specific memory and regulating their activities, retrieval of memories could be a very neat and flawless run. Dr Aleena Garner and her colleagues at the University of San Diego managed to achieve the same level of control neurons and memory. (more…)
New Method Makes It Possible To “Erase” Memories
In the science fiction movie Men in Black, agents K and J were able to “clear” the memory of the unfortunate witnesses, thanks to a flash produced by a small portable gadget, to protect the secrecy of alien activity on Earth.
Now, in a paper published in the journal Science, we learn that science fiction is not so far from reality. A team of researchers at the University of Uppsala in Sweden claims to have discovered a technique to erase past memories. The official explanation of the finding is the treatment of phobias and post-traumatic stress.
The results are a significant step forward in memory research. That is, the new findings could improve the intervention methods for millions of patients who suffer from problems such as phobias, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress, says psychologist Thomas Agren. (more…)
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