False Memory Syndrome And The Brain Essay -- Neurological Biology Essa

False Memory Syndrome And The Brain In the mid-nineties, a sniper's hammering shots echoed through an American playground. Several children were killed and many injured. A 1998 study of the 133 children who attended the school by psychologists Dr. Robert Pynoos and Dr. Karim Nader, experts on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among children, yielded a very bizarre discovery. Some of the children who were not on the schools grounds that day obstinately swore they had very vivid personal recollections of the attack happening (1). The children were not exaggerating, or playing make-believe. They were adamant about the fact that they were indeed there, and that they saw the attack as it was occuring. Why would these children remember something so harrowing if they didn't actually experience it? What kind of trick was their brain playing on them? Why did it happen? False Memory Syndrome (FMS) is a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are centered on a memory of traumatic experience which is actually false, but in which the person is strongly convinced (2). When considering FMS, it's best to remember that all individuals are prone to creating false memories. A common experiment in Introduction to Psychology courses include a test similar to this one: Look at this list of words and try to memorize them: sharp thread sting eye pinch sew thin mend After a few seconds, the students will be asked to recall these words, and are asked the following questions: Was the word "needle" on the list? Was it near the top? The majority of the class will vehemently agree that needle was, in fact, on the list. And not only that, it was actually quite close to being the first word. Some will attest to havin... ... memories", implant unhealthy and false ideas into the brains of their patients that havoc ensues. References 1)Recovered Memory Therapy and False Memory Syndrome, Recent Legal and Investigative Trends by Dr. John Hochman, M.D. http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.memory.html 2) Memory and Reality: Website of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation http://www.fmsfonline.org/ 3) BodytalkMagazine.com How Memory Works http://www.bodytalkmagazine.com/how%20memory%20works.htm 4) The Skeptic's Dictionary False Memory http://skepdic.com/falsememory.html 5) Salon.com Health and Body - The Story of Valerie Jenks http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999/12/22/false_memory/ 6) How Memory Really Works Freud's Notion of Repressed Memory http://www.skeptic.com/memory/ 7) FAQ for the False Memory Syndrome Foundation http://www.fmsfonline.org/fmsffaq.html