Gender differences in memory explained at Slate

I just finished reading an article at Slate called Why Men Never Remember Anything, by Melissa Dahl. The idea is that without meaning to, parents educate boys and girls differently when it comes to remembering things.


It's funny, because in my life, I seem to have run across a lot of men and boys with excellent memory--much better memory than mine. But when I think about it, they possibly tend to remember more informational stuff than they do about experiences with friends and family.


It's apparently better for your memory to have lots of different points of access to experience. So boys, even if you're bored with what's going on with your girlfriend or sister, you should at least try to recall it. It's in your own best interest.

Transient Global Amnesia

Here's an interesting piece from the New York Times on the phenomenon of Transient Global Amnesia by a person who suddenly and luckily temporarily lost his memory at the age of 25. It's not often that we have the chance to hear someone tell what losing memory feels like, as usually they don't return to normalcy to tell us...

Sam Kean's memorial piece on an amnesia patient

Slate has a good article up about the late Kent Cochrane, who was a much studied amnesiac from Toronto. Studying what his memory could do after an accident that took out both of his hippocampi has been a great aid to science, though I doubt Cochrane had much say in the matter. Although all these memory studies can lead you to think that our sense of self is just what happens in the neurons, I found this article to have a surprising conclusion about identity. So go HERE and read through to the end. 

Dementia from the inside

I thought I'd post a link to a Slate article today. It's a rather long piece, reprinted from the Georgia Review, and I am only halfway through it, but I didn't think you should have to wait on me. It's written by Gerda Saunders, and is an account of her own decline, after witnessing a similar descent by her own mother. It is very well written and an excellent eyewitness report. Here is Dementia: Telling Who I am Before I Forget.

An Excerpt from The Guardian of All Things, by Michael S. Malone

I just found this featured at Delancey Place, which sends out a diverse selection of emails if you want to sign up. This piece talks about how much we know about the physical basis of memory and how much we don't. You can find it HERE . There is a pretty cool little video of movement inside the brain as well.

Alzheimer's related deaths have been underreported

They US Against Alzheimer's group has just pointed me to a new article published in the journal Neurology, which cites that deaths with Alzheimer's related components are far higher than previously established. Right up there with cancer and heart disease, US Against Alzheimer's say that the disease gets a tiny fraction of the funding.


Here's a link to their petition to Congress to get more funding for research.


And here's a layperson friendly article on the new research findings.

Warning: Memory Full

A study discussed in the New York Times contests the idea of more or less natural cognitive decline with age, and suggests it may have more to do with data storage...

What really helps memory?

According to Slate, simple arithmetic problems and reading aloud may be just as good as anything else, and even somewhat better...

Floyd Skloot's "Forgetting it All" piece in the New York Times

I just read an interesting column on line by Floyd Skloot on what it's like to live with a memory damaged mind. Very thoughtful. Check it out HERE if you have time.