FALSE MEMORY AFFECT OUR MEMORY

False Memory

False Memory

Introduction

This paper reviews recent research into the false memory in pop culture of God father as revealed by studies of individuals who have suffered lesions to the frontal lobes. It is shown that frontal lobe damage gives rise to confabulation along with a number of laboratory-based demonstrations of memory error including source amnesia and impaired Meta memory.

The frontal lobe is an area in the brain of mammals. It is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere and positioned anterior to (in front of) the parietal lobes and above and anterior to the temporal lobes. It is separated from the parietal lobe by the primary motor cortex, which controls voluntary movements of specific body parts associated with the precentral gyrus.

The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-sensitive neurons in the cerebral cortex. The dopamine system is associated with reward, attention, long-term memory, planning, and drive. Dopamine tends to limit and select sensory information arriving from the thalamus to the fore-brain. A report from the National Institute of Mental Health says a gene variant that reduces dopamine activity in the prefrontal cortex is related to poorer performance and inefficient functioning of that brain region during working memory tasks, and to slightly increased risk for schizophrenia.

Damage to the frontal lobes can lead to a variety of results:

Mental flexibility and spontaneity are impaired, but IQ is not reduced.

Talking may increase or decrease dramatically.

Perceptions regarding risk-taking and rule-abiding are impaired.

Socialization can diminish or increase.

Orbital frontal lobe damage can result in peculiar sexual habits.

Dorsolateral frontal lobe damage reduces sexual interest.

Creativity is diminished or increased as well as problem solving skills.

Distraction occurs more frequently.

Loss of smell and/or taste.

It is further shown that frontal lobe damage gives rise to a disorder known as pathological false recognition in which patients produce large numbers of false alarms during recognition testing. It is argued that the most plausible account of these various findings is that frontal lobe damage serves to prevent the creation of an appropriate and properly focused retrieval context which may arise because either retrieval or encoding factors have been compromised.

Research scientists have distinguished three phases of memory. First, registering or encoding an event into a memory trace; next, storing and retaining it over a period of time; and finally, retrieving and using it to guide actions. Memory for a particular episode may fail due to errors in any of these three phases. Research is also uncovering many types of memory, each with distinctive characteristics and functions.

To study memory in humans, researchers have devised simple laboratory tasks that permit memory reports to be compared with what actually happened. Subjects may be asked to study a list of words or view a set of pictures or novel shapes; in some cases, they may be presented with more complex material, such as a written narrative, a staged episode, or a film clip. Although such situations seem far removed from everyday remembering, these research have yielded surprising insights into how memory ...