Memories, Dementia And Music
Robert Fettgather has taught at San Jose State University, National University and Mission College in Santa Clara. He has addressed State and National Conferences on a variety of topics. His latest article was published online with the International Network of Critical Gerontology.
It is still unclear exactly exactly how memories are physiologically stored in our brains. Conceptually, the physical change that takes place in the brain when memories are formed is referred to as the engram. It is worth noting that scientists have yet to precisely locate this phenomenon. In general, there is strong research evidence to support that long-term procedural memories may be stored in the cerebellum, while long-term declarative memories are kept in the frontal and temporal lobes. What about short term memories? Storage in this case has been linked to our prefrontal cortex and as well as the temporal lobe. The process of physically storing a memory in your brain is called consolidation. It consists of important physiological changes including an increase in receptor sites, an increased sensitivity at the synapse, changes along the dendrites, or changes in proteins in the neuron.
The hippocampus has been found to play an important role in the formation of new memories. The revelation of this fact was supported by observing patients with damage to the hippocampus while noting their loss of the ability to form any new memories. Out of tragedy emerged scientific understanding.
Alzheimer’s disease tragically afflicts many elderly people each year, resulting in a gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning ability, and personality. The memory loss would be most accurately considered as a kind of anterograde amnesia.
Perhaps, an even more disturbing fact is that the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s can only be determined accurately upon autopsy. That is when the plaques and tangles in the brain, characteristic of the disorder, can be confirmed. Recently, however, the results of an archival study have suggested that linguistic markers may predict Alzheimer’s with some degree of accuracy.
Music appears to allow people with dementia to connect with strong emotions and certain memories. Recommended is the film Alive Inside, a video account about the Music and Memory nonprofit project, by Michael Rossato-Bennett. Deeply moving, this documentary chronicles dementia patients who seemed to lighten up and come alive at the sound of music they enjoyed as young adults!
