The Many Flavors of Memories We recall events in a multisensory way— and we distort those recollections just as creatively. Chemistry causes those errors, ut chemistry might fix them too By Micuagz D. LeMonick {IKEJUST ABOUT EVERY ONE OF MY contemporaries, I still remember exactly where I was and what Las doing when John F. Kennedy was shot. I's so vivid, it’s almost like ‘watching a movie. Iwas home sick from fifth grade, lyingon the couch in the living room. My mother had a talicradio station playing. Sud- denly a newscaster broke in with the news that shots had been fired in Dallas and the President had been rushed to ahospital. Then a few min- tutes later came these precise words, spoken in just the tone you would imagine: “Ladies and gentlemen, the President is dead,” followed immediately by funereal music, My mother burst into tears, and I, profoundly embarrassed, fled the room. “That scene, which I have replayed in my mind many times since 1965, perfectly illustrates two crucial facts that neurologists have come to understand in the past few years about the workings of human memory. The first is that, despite its movie ike clarity, my memory of [K's assassination is almost certainly wrong in Soine details. That's because Fm not simply calling up the original memory laid down in November 1963, = recalling the last rime I thought about it. Bach time we retrieve and re-store a memory it can be subtly altered 8 ‘What goes back into our brainsislike the new version of 4 text document, overwriting the od. The second fact: memory and emotion are intimately linked biochemically, with hormones like adrenaline actively involved in both. "Any kind ofemotional experi tence will create astronger memory than otherwise would ‘recreated, says James McGaugh, a neurobiologistat the University of California at Irvine, “We remember our embarrassments, ou failures, our fender benders.” ‘On the face oft, that doesn't seem especially surpris ing: we fel strong emotion at important events, which are obviously more memorable. But the connection is such deeper than that and dates back to our evolution~ ry past. "The major purpose of memory,” observes ‘MeGaugh, “is to predict the future.” An animal that can remember the significance ofthat large, nasty-looking thing with the big teeth and sharp claws will survive longer and produce more offspring. ‘What happens biochemically, says MeGaugh, is that when faced with an emotionally changed situation, our bodies release the stess hormones adrenaline and cor- tisol, Among other things, these signal the amygdala, a tiny neuron-rich structure nestled inside the brain'sme: dial eemporal lobes, which responds by leasing another hormone, norepinephrine. Norepinephrine does two important things. First, it kicks the body's autonomic nervous system into overdrive: the heart beats fas‘YoUR BRAIN: MEMORY respiration quickens, and the muscles tense in anticipa- tion ofa buss of physical exertion. Second, even ast’ kick-starting the body, the amyg- dala sends out acracke of signalsto the rest ofthe brain. ‘Among other things, these signals tell the neurons that any memories recorded in the next few minutes need to be especially robust. One piece of evidence for this, scenario: Lawrence Cahill, a colleague of MeGaugh’s at Irvine, showed subjects emotionally arousing film clips, simultaneously gaug- ing the activity of their amygdalae using positron- emission tomography (PET) scans, Three weeks later, he gave the subjects a surprise memory quiz. The amount of amygdala activity predicted with unexpected accuracy hhow well they remembered the film cps Imaging studies also make cléar that it isnt just dangers or tragic events that cement memory formation. Positive emotions, which are also mediated through the amygdala, have the same ef fect. Again, that’s a perfectly reasonable evolutionary de- velopment. If eating or ha. ing sex makes you happy, youll remember that and do ic again, keeping yourself healthy and passing on your genes as wel This is an oversimplifica- tion, of course, Other neuro transmitters and even plain tlucose—the sugar the brain uses for energy—may also play a part Al ofthese things work in tandem, which neans their complexity multiplies, And then there's the peculiar case ofthe woman who contacted MeGaugh be fause she remembers absolutely everything, The stress- hormone model does not seem to apply in her case. Says MeGaugh: “At some point, asked ifshe knew whe Bing Crosby was. She's 40,30 Bing Crosby doesn’tloom large inher life, but she knew he died on a golfcoursein Spain, and she gave me the date justike tha.” Researchers are ‘Working to determine ifthe woman's brain is structur- ally different from everyone else's. ‘Butaside from such odd cases, virtually no one doubts 80 Positive emotions cement memories, and that makes sense. If eating and having sex make you happy, you'll remember to do them again, keeping yourself: fed and passing on your genes the connection between emotions and memories—and nobody doubts that memory could be enhanced artifi- Cially, That's not likely to work out too well, however. Give someone a shot of adrenaline, and memory may temporarily improve. But the chemical also drives up the heart rate dangerously. Other memory enbancers, like Ritalin or amphetamines, which are used by college students to cram for exams, are highly addictive For people who want to modify bad memories, there ‘may be hope. Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is working fo understand post-traumatic stress disor der (PTSD). The syndrome, he believes, is the result of brain chemicals reinforc ing themselves in cerebral vicious circle, “In the afte rath of a traumatic event, ‘you tend to think rmore about it, and the more you think about it, the more likely you are to release fur er stress hormones, and the more likely they are to act to make the memory of * thar event even stronge! ‘That's consistent with McGaugh's ideas, but there are only a few bits of evi dence so far to support it. One bit comes from Isa, where researchers found that of people who showed up at emergency rooms af ter traumatic events, those admitted with the fastest heartbeats had the high- est risk of later developing PTSD. Additionally, investigators have discovered the surprising fact that after a paralyzing accident, there's 4 much higher rate of PTSD in people suffering from paraplegia (paralysis ofthe lower body) chan in those ‘eho suffer quadriplegia (paralysis of al four limbs), at Jeast partly because quadriplegia severs the ink benween the brain and the adrenal glands. ‘To test his theory, Pitman went to the emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and jnntercepted patients who had suffered serious traumas. He gave some ofthem propranolol, a igthatinterferes ‘with adrenaline uptake, The test got placebos. He alsohhad them tape-record accounts of the traumas. When he played back the tapes eight months later, eight of 14 placebo patients developed higher heart rates, sweaty ‘palms and other signs of PTSD. None ofthe patients on propranolol had such responses. Encouraged by his findings, Pitman undertook a much larger trial of the same technique for erasing ‘memories of traumatic events, but the study stirred some controversy. The President's Council on Bioethics condemned the work as unethical, saying that tinker- ing with memories risks undermining a person's true identity. Pitman rejects such notions as showing bias against psychiatry. Afterall, he argues, no one suggests that doctors should withhold morphine from people in acute pain on the grounds that it may erase part of their experience (Other researchers arelookingat PTSD aswell. Michael Davis, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, has studied soldiers returning from Iraq to see whether a drug called D-cycloserine could help prevent PTSD. This compound activates a protein that helps the mind form new, less emotional associations with the original trauma. Studies in rats and humans have - shown thatt can workand, says Davis, “psychologists are very excited by it” ‘That's because the theory behind D-cyeloserine’s ac tion is consistent with old-fashioned talk therapy and especially with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cur rently the most effective nondrug technique for dealing with phobias, PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorder. ‘Theidea behind CBT is that the patient examines upset ting ideas and consciously assigns new, more positive associations to them. Even traditional Freudian ther- apy might achieve something similar, by unearthing ‘ld memories and exposing them to the daylight of the doctor’ office. D-cycloserine may simply streamline thetalk-driven, process Indeed, says Davis, at least one study showed p- tients on D-cyeloserine getting as much benefit from two sessions as atypical patient would from eight. “That's ex actly what they're finding in obsessive-compulsive trials 100," he says, There are, moreover, a number of other brain receptors and chemicals that show promise in ac- celerating the formation of new associations. Says Davis: “What we have now could be the tip ofthe iceberg ‘That's hardly surprising. Even without anything approaching a complete understanding of the human ‘brain, neurologists and psychopharmacologists have come up with dozens of medications to treat schizophre- nia, depression and other illnesses, The next batch of psychoactive drugs could provide ammunition against the even more mysterious disorders of memory. BEEN HERE BEFORE? MAYBE IT’S JUST DEJA VU has had: you walk into @ room or find yourself In [2 conversation, and suddenly you have the over whelming sense that you've lived this moment al reody, Psychologists call it aij vw—"aready seen.” in Frenon-—but despite the phenomenon's familiar, no one had offered a carwincng explanation fori ‘The mystery may have been solved, thanks to @ team of neuroscientists at MIT's Pcower Institute for Learning and Memory, Neuroscientsts already know memories are actualy groups of brain cels linked by Strong chemical connections, h's important for the I 's an eerie experience that just about everyone brain to know that same memories are similar to each other, out i's alg important to distinguish memories that are simiar but not identical. This ability is known 185 patter separation. Researcher Thomas McHugh and senior colleague ssusumy Tonegawa engineered a type of mouse thet lacked what thay believed was the gone responsible for pattern separation and devised an experiment to test the theory, Mice were guided inte @ box where they would get mild foot shock; they would react by freezing. Then they were guided into a similar box but not shocked. The altered mice would treeze there too. Normal mice figured tings out pretty quickly. | “Tis seme circuit and this same gene may explain 46ja vu, Every s0 often, the scientists lieve, the pattern-separation system misfires, and anew experi tence that's similar to an olcer one seems identical. "it ‘doesn't happen very often to most people," Tonegawa says. But when foes, fs unmistakable, Mat &‘The Many Flavors of Memory 1, Why did the author think the memory of JFK is certainly wrong in some detail, especially over time? 2. How are memory and emotion linked? 3. Therefore what are we more likely to remember? 4. According to the author, what is the major purpose of memory? 5. What does the amount of amygdala activity have to do with memory? 6. What 2 types of emotional things are you most likely to remember? 7. How does the author suggest memories can be enhanced artificially? 8. Which patients at emergency rooms had the highest risk of developing PTSD? 9, What effect did propranolol haye on PTSD. 10. How do some researchers believe D-cycloserine could help prevent PTSD? 11, How can CBT help with Phobias and other disorders, in relation to memory? 12.Explain how the author suggests Déj yu works.