According to the American Psychology Association memory is defined as the mental capacity to encode, store as well as retrieve information. A special type of memory that records daily events and contains memory that relate to personal experience is known as autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memory has been proposed to have three main functions, which include directive, social and self-functioning (Williams et al. 2008). The directive function of the memory serves to use past events to guild present as well as future behaviour. The social function of autobiographical memory is used to memory as material for social interaction. Finally the self-functioning aspect of autobiographical memory is to establish a relationship to the self,
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Several studies have shown that the hippocampus plays no role on memories that have existed for an extended period of time. For example, Bayley et al. (2003) analyzed patients who experienced damage to the medial temporal lobe by asking the patients to recall events regarding their early lives. Bayley et al. found the patients were able to recall memories regarding their early lives, which supported their hypothesis that remote autobiographical memories are independent of the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus. Damage to the hippocampus or other medial temporal lobe area typically affects more recent memories and leaves the more distant memories intact, which further supports the idea that the medial temporal lobe plays no role in the retention of remote memory (Bayley et al., 2005). However damage to the prefrontal cortex can lead to remote memory impairment, which is why the neocortex is supposedly responsible for remote memory (Wiltgen et al., 2004). Are remote memories truly independent from the hippocampus and the medial temporal …show more content…
Sparks, Spanswick, Lehmann and Sutherland (2013) presented information that supports the claim that the hippocampus plays a role in remote memory. The researchers created six independent groups of rats that received either three or twelve content sock pairing, and after a certain time period (one week, two months, or four months) the rats received either an extensive lesion to the hippocampus or a control surgery. Ten days after the surgery was conducted all the rats were tested to see if the memory of the shock was present. Sparks et al. (2013) found that the short and long training-surgery interval both produced robust retrograde amnesia while the rats that experienced the control surgery showed more response to the shock context after the surgery. The results does not support previously found research, which states that consolidation of memory will eventually lead to memories that are independent of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is required for autobiographical memory retrieval regardless of the age of the memory. Some may argue the fact that studies on rats may not be relevant to human and therefore question the external validity of the
Several studies have shown that the hippocampus plays no role on memories that have existed for an extended period of time. For example, Bayley et al. (2003) analyzed patients who experienced damage to the medial temporal lobe by asking the patients to recall events regarding their early lives. Bayley et al. found the patients were able to recall memories regarding their early lives, which supported their hypothesis that remote autobiographical memories are independent of the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus. Damage to the hippocampus or other medial temporal lobe area typically affects more recent memories and leaves the more distant memories intact, which further supports the idea that the medial temporal lobe plays no role in the retention of remote memory (Bayley et al., 2005). However damage to the prefrontal cortex can lead to remote memory impairment, which is why the neocortex is supposedly responsible for remote memory (Wiltgen et al., 2004). Are remote memories truly independent from the hippocampus and the medial temporal …show more content…
Sparks, Spanswick, Lehmann and Sutherland (2013) presented information that supports the claim that the hippocampus plays a role in remote memory. The researchers created six independent groups of rats that received either three or twelve content sock pairing, and after a certain time period (one week, two months, or four months) the rats received either an extensive lesion to the hippocampus or a control surgery. Ten days after the surgery was conducted all the rats were tested to see if the memory of the shock was present. Sparks et al. (2013) found that the short and long training-surgery interval both produced robust retrograde amnesia while the rats that experienced the control surgery showed more response to the shock context after the surgery. The results does not support previously found research, which states that consolidation of memory will eventually lead to memories that are independent of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is required for autobiographical memory retrieval regardless of the age of the memory. Some may argue the fact that studies on rats may not be relevant to human and therefore question the external validity of the