Long-term memory is what allows the brain to store materials of information. There are several strategies to keeping important information in one's memory permanently. Maintenance rehearsal, or repeating material over repetitively aids in Long Term storage of desired information. Another method is using old material that has been previously learned to memorize new information long term. Two examples of this are Imagery, Acronyms, and Acrostics. There are four types of Long-Term Memories: Episodic, Semantic, Explicit, and Implicit, as discussed in class.
Long-term memory relates to Alzheimer's disease, a disease that causes neurons to slow and malfunction over time, as briefly discussed in class during Chapter 7. Alzheimer's generally starts …show more content…
Currently, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been trying to figure out how such brain disorders are “associated with memory loss” (). According to their findings, there is a gene called Npas4 that is “necessary to create long-term memories.” It is used in the CA3 subsection of the hippocampus. The discovery of this gene alone has helped researchers figure out memory truly works within the brain, in order to figure out why it could suddenly not work and cause memory problems. They conducted a study on lab mice, “knocking out the Npas4 gene,” () which resulted in the mice losing any “contextual memories” (). The new article in which this case was presented compared the lack of this gene to be like the movie ’50 First Dates’, where previously known environments and people would consistently vanish from an affected person’s memory. Researchers stated that “without the Npas4 gene, you can remember events that happen after an hour, but not after a day” (). While they still have many years of research ahead of them, these neuroscientists believe that one day they may be able to find a way to “restore” previously lost synapses within the brain to eliminate the loss of
Long-term memory relates to Alzheimer's disease, a disease that causes neurons to slow and malfunction over time, as briefly discussed in class during Chapter 7. Alzheimer's generally starts …show more content…
Currently, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been trying to figure out how such brain disorders are “associated with memory loss” (). According to their findings, there is a gene called Npas4 that is “necessary to create long-term memories.” It is used in the CA3 subsection of the hippocampus. The discovery of this gene alone has helped researchers figure out memory truly works within the brain, in order to figure out why it could suddenly not work and cause memory problems. They conducted a study on lab mice, “knocking out the Npas4 gene,” () which resulted in the mice losing any “contextual memories” (). The new article in which this case was presented compared the lack of this gene to be like the movie ’50 First Dates’, where previously known environments and people would consistently vanish from an affected person’s memory. Researchers stated that “without the Npas4 gene, you can remember events that happen after an hour, but not after a day” (). While they still have many years of research ahead of them, these neuroscientists believe that one day they may be able to find a way to “restore” previously lost synapses within the brain to eliminate the loss of