Our Declarative memory is one of the dynamic and creative elements of our brain—and it is fully interactive with the Internet (as well as other human-embedded technologies—to which we will turn in future essays). Declarative memory is primarily housed in the medial temporal lobe of the brain (the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and perirhinal cortex). When this region is damaged then we are in deep trouble and can’t easily navigate in the real world. We might still be able to play a mean game of tennis (as is the case with a colleague suffering from Alzheimer’s) or even drive. However, we won’t know what we are playing the tennis game or why we are driving to work or the restaurant.
The Loss of Memory
There is a third building block that we want to introduce. It has to do with the process of forgetting. What a horrible thing it is to forget something. We are embarrassed, often distracted and wondering if we are finally becoming a bit senile. Perhaps we discover some memory tool to reduce our rate of forgetting or we take one of the memory-enhancing pills that are marketed on TV and the Internet.
Before we bemoan our loss of memory, it is important to realize that it is actually a very good thing that we can forget. Otherwise, our brains would be cluttered and filled with a substantial amount of useless information—as well as memories that we would like to forget (as exemplified in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and in a somewhat different way in “50 First Dates” (a movie starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler about a young woman who starts each day without recent memory, requiring Adam to court Drew anew every day).
We have recently discovered that forgetting is not a passive process. We don’t just lose the memory; rather, we actually wipe it out with specific neurotransmitters. Furthermore, we do a great deal of sorting and pruning during the night, dropping unessential material and keeping that with is important (and which can be assimilated with our existing memories – see that word “assimilation” again). There are people who do not have a sufficient amount of this neurotransmitter and do not sort out memories at night. These folks have been called “mnemonists” or more officially are labeled as HSAM.
One of the most famous ‘mnemonists” was Teddy Nadler—a successful contestant on the quiz show called “The 64,000 Question’ that led to the Van Doren scandal. Teddy was a world expert on the Opera and successfully answered all of the questions presented to him. The one problem is that Teddy was not an Opera expert. Rather, he was a “mnemonist.” A few weeks prior to his appearing on The $64,000 Question, Teddy was given several books on Opera to memorize—which he did. Teddy wasn’t interested in Opera—rather the producers thought this would be a wonderful way in which to create a narrative about a poor cobbler listening to opera every week. Nadler had no idea about nor appreciation of the powerful role played by Opera in the lives of many people – but he did have the ability to retain facts.
