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By Kaylee Lawson and Sam Norton
Alzheimer's Disease (AD)
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Alzheimer’s Disease is a type of memory loss, that slowly gets worse over time.
There are two types of AD. The first type is “early onset AD” which is where symptoms
become visible before the age of 60. This type of AD seems to grow more quickly, and tends
to be more genetic.
Late onset AD is the second type. This type is where the symptoms become noticeable after the
age of 60. There is no clear evidence that this type of AD runs in the family.
AD effects the following: Language, Memory, Perception, Emotional behavior, personality, and
judgment. It also effects everyday skills, such as going to the bathroom and washing your
hands.
The disease is irreversible and there is currently no cure. About 5-6% of the US population has
AD. Amongst grown ups, Alzheimer's disease is the fourth leading cause of death.
"Alzheimer's Disease." 10/04/10. n. pag. Web. 10 Nov 2011.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001767/>.
Amnesia
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Unlike Alzheimer's Disease, Amnesia can be caused by a sudden injury or extreme damage to
the brain such as a stroke, brain inflammation, or oxygen deprivation in your brain.
Amnesia is a loss of memories, such as facts, experiences and information. It generally doesn’t
cause the loss of self-identity.
Effects of Amnesia can last a very long time. Some people say that their amnesia has changed
from different conditions, which makes them lose confidence in their own memory.
The two main types of Amnesia are Anterograde Amnesia and Retrograde Amnesia:
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“Anterograde Amnesia: the loss of short-term memory, and the loss or impairment of the ability to form
new memories. Forgetting people or events after a few seconds.” (Amnesia)
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“Retrograde Amnesia: loss of pre-existing memories to conscious memory, beyond an ordinary degree
of forgetfulness. Being able to memorize things after the incident but unable to recall incidences prior
to the onset.” (Amnesia)
"Amnesia." 10/04/10. n. pag. Web. 10 Nov 2011.
<http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/amnesia/DS01041>.
Repressed Memory
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Amnesia of childhood sexual abuse is a very significant condition. Repression is one explanation for
this condition.
People who are sexually abused when they are kids, often repress the memories. Many of these
people grow up believing that it never even happened. When these people become adults, they
sometimes start to vaguely remember the events.
Once people recover the memories of what happen in their childhood, they have to go through many
years of therapy. This is still a huge debate between many physiatrists.
In some cases, people remember the events so well, that they are actually able to accuse someone,
and put that person in jail for the sexual abuse.
“The core findings showed that controlling unwanted memories was associated with increased
activation of the left and right frontal cortex (the part of the brain used to repress memory), which in
turn led to reduced activation of the hippocampus (the part of the brain used to remember
experiences).” (Trei)
Trei, Lisa. "Psychologists offer proof of brain’s ability to suppress memories." 01/08/2004. n. pag.
Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://news.stanford.edu/news/2004/january14/memory-114.html>.
How Memory Works
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“Recalling memories re-starts many of the same neural paths we initially used to sense the
experience and almost re-creates the event that happened.” (Holladay)
Everybody stores sensory information in areas located throughout the cortex. Some of the
data gets stored in the short term memory and others are stored in the long term memory.
“Memories of concepts and ideas are related to sensed experiences because we extract the
essence from sensed experiences to form generalized concepts. “(Holladay)
The data that we need or catches our attention is stored in our short term memory, which is
held for usually half a minute.
Information that could help us in the future or life lessons are stored in our long term memory,
which are there our entire lives.
The long term memory has three processes which are
Encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Holladay, April. “How The Memory Works." 3/12/2007. n. pag. Web. 9 Nov
2011.<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-03-12-memory-first_N.htm>.
Sources!
"Alzheimer's Disease." 10/04/10. n. pag. Web. 10 Nov 2011.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001767/>.
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"Amnesia." 10/04/10. n. pag. Web. 10 Nov 2011.
<http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/amnesia/DS01041>.
Trei, Lisa. "Psychologists offer proof of brain’s ability to suppress memories."
01/08/2004. n. pag. Web. 9 Nov 2011.
<http://news.stanford.edu/news/2004/january14/memory-114.html>.
Holladay, April. “How The Memory Works." 3/12/2007. n. pag. Web. 9 Nov
2011.<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-03-12memory-first_N.htm>.