Out of all the topics we have learned during this course, I have to say learning about false memories was one of my favorites.  “A false memory is when you create a memory inside your mind that actually never occurred in real life (Goldstein, 2011)”. This is completely relevant to my life and I am sure anyone else’s by the nature of it, but this is a subject that brings up a lot of arguments between my parents and I on how my childhood had really went.

Anytime my brother and I are talking about our childhood together, he really only remembers about two things and I would be able to remember a whole list of what was really going on. I realize that I have great long term memory but not so much as short term. Anyway going back to the arguments between my parents and I. There is this one scenario that we see differently. My parents had refinished our basement and put both my brother and I bedrooms. They decided to close off my bedroom and turn it into a one bedroom apartment because I apparently did not sleep in it, and from what I remember I had no choice but to move out of that bedroom because of their decision. As you can see I am still holding a grudge over it because we both have different memories of the situation.

Is it possible for me not to remember sleeping in that bedroom anymore and rather sleep upstairs in the bedroom that I originally slept in. Or did my parents just make that up so it would seem believable rather then looking like mean parents kicking me out of a bedroom.

According to our text, “Implanting memories are extremely easy (Goldstein, 2011)”. “Most of our memories can seem accurate, but are actually false (Goldstein, 2011)”. This news is mind blowing. So I guess I will never really know how I felt about that bedroom. Maybe I really didn’t like it because of the “ghosts” living down there in the dark.

References

Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Wadsworth, Inc.

Although we haven’t talked much about Multiple Sclerosis (MS), we have brushed up on MRI neural brain imaging, which is one of my favorite topics. A head MRI uses magnetic and radio waves to scan the brains nerve tissues Head MRI. Without the technology of MRI, my Father probably wouldn’t have found out about his disease and what causes his body to work the way it does.

About 10 years ago, my Father had a stroke. His whole left side of his face looked like it was melting and he was unable to speak properly. This was because he had lost control in his nerves on the left side of his body. The doctors had no idea what caused the stroke up until two years later when he had his head scanned in an MRI.

Multiple Sclerosis is the damage of the nervous system that disrupts the flow of information between the body and the brain. For more information on MS here is the link for National Multiple sclerosis Society webpage. Basically my Father was slowly losing control of moving certain parts of his body. MS usually effects people cognitively as well but my Father hasn’t dealt with that side of MS yet, only the physical part. What I mean by physically, he has trouble with fine motor skills, such as using a fork and a knife when he eats or using a cane to help him walk. From how my Father explained it to me it was like his bad nerves were attacking his good nerves which prevented him to have normal body movements.

Now going back to the use of MRI’s, his knowledge on his MS is very dependent on getting scans every 6 months. Thats a lot compared to the average person. To see the difference between a normal brain image compared to progressive or relapse image of MS click this Link. Since there is no cure for MS, only monthly medication to help slow the disease down, my Father is able to see every 6 months if his MS is progressing or not. Thankfully through the years of getting brain scans he and his doctors are able to see what his brain looks like and which medication helps more then others. Good news is that he has been in remission for a couple of years now! Which means the MS has not progressed!

I feel that a lot of people bash on technology advancing, when for my Father it has had some major benefits. With out MRI scans, we would not be able to have a clear cut image of whether his MS was worsening or not and if his medication was helping. Hopefully there will be further advancement in MRI brain images that could help find a cure to stop MS completely.