Recently in a sexual abuse case in Arizona’s Coconino County, a lawyer opened her defense for a 72-year-old man on trial with claims that interview protocols were not followed during the victim’s interviews, giving way to “suggestiveness” in the interviews (McManimon, 2014). This implication of false memories being created in victims is, from what Goldstein (2011) teaches about false memory, likely. However, I think it is sickening that a lawyer would use this as part of her defense in a case with multiple victim’s testimonies and DNA evidence.

There have been hundreds of wrongful convictions in the US, most due to false memories in witnesses (Goldstein, 2011). Thankfully, DNA evidence has been able to exonerate many of the people who were wrongly convicted, but there may still be people serving sentences for crimes they were wrongly convicted for. Modern technological and scientific advances have been able to create more reliable evidence in court cases, but witness accounts are still used in court.

While there are studies that show how easy it is to plant false memories (Hyman and colleagues, 1995) and how improper questioning can influence witness reports (Wells and Bradfield, 1998; Chan and colleagues, 2009), how much weight do claims of possible false memories actually have in court? Goldstein suggests that “trauma-memory oriented therapists” can pollute their patient’s memories and cause them to falsely recall a traumatic event by using visualization therapy, pictures, and suggestions that a traumatic event actually occured (2011). One researcher from The University of Sydney has shown how simply talking about events with a fellow witness can contaminate memories, even when witnesses are told that a co-witness has given them false information (The University of Syndey, 2010). So is research on false memories enough for some people to completely disregard a witness’ or victim’s testimony?

Luckily, we have methods such as DNA testing that can create more reliable evidence, but I don’t think that the possible unreliability of memory should lead to testimonies being completely thrown out the window. It is definitely helpful to be aware of the constructive nature of memory, but it is also important to recognize that memory is what it is, a “process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present” (Goldstein, 2011). Just because we know how susceptible it is to contamination does not mean we should disregard it. Victim and witness accounts, whether presented as accurate or false, should never be used as the cornerstone of a case, as the defense lawyer in Arizona seems to be doing.

Goldstein, E.B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

McManimon, Michelle. (2014). Flagstaff man’s child molestation trial begins. AZ Daily Sun. Retrieved from http://azdailysun.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/flagstaff-man-s-child-molestation-trial-begins/article_9bb826b0-c5ed-11e3-a8aa-001a4bcf887a.htm

The University of Sydney. (2010). Sydney study finds false memories are common. Retrieved from lhttp://sydney.edu.au/news/science/397.html?newsstoryid=5366

My trip to the grocery store last week took longer than usual. By the time I had placed an item into my cart and looked back up to my grocery list to cross it off, I’d forgotten what the item was. Apparently, I even forgot putting some items in my cart completely and added another one later. I came home with two different brands of air freshener and a bottle of Benadryl instead of Tums (I was not happy with myself later that night when the heartburn set in). I used to just smile sympathetically when pregnant women would tell me about their “mommy brain” while secretly thinking they were actually experiencing placebo symptoms of a myth that their moms, sisters, and neighbor’s-cousin’s-daughter’s told them they would experience. But at 20 week pregnant, I’m eating my words- and forgetting where I keep my spoons.

Short-term memory loss is a common symptom during pregnancy, but one that isn’t very well researched or understood, and the existence and degree of it is not consistently agreed upon (babycenter.com). One study found that pregnant women’s ability to recall lists of words was significantly worse compared to women who were not pregnant, with both explicit and incidental learning tasks, and that the impairment existed throughout the length of pregnancy (Sharp, Brindle, Brown, & Turner, 1993). Another team of researchers found that pregnant women’s spatial memory progressively worsened throughout pregnancy; the researchers suggested that this was due to altered hormone levels interfering with the hippocampus (Society for Endocrinology, 2010). Other research supports the idea that hormone changes during pregnancy affect brain function, but also that the unpleasant effects on short term memory that these hormone changes cause are actually beneficial in the long run and make mothers more sensitive to their baby’s needs (Association for Psychological Science, 2011.)  Yet, some claim that cognitive functioning, including memory, is not affected during pregnancy and that research that has found otherwise was possibly influenced by biased sampling (Christensen & Leach, 2010).

So, pregnant women may be experiencing real changes in their brain activity and cognitive functioning that interfere with their memory (but also make them better mothers) or they may be succumbing to their own biased beliefs of a myth. Personally, I don’t feel like my memory lapses are in my imagination, but I’m not convinced they’re entirely due to interference with areas in the brain associated with memory. I could just be distracted by the fact that I still have to organize my home to make room for a tiny person, and remember to take my prenatal horse-sized vitamins, and- did I just feel a kick? Whatever the causes, research on how short-term memory processes are affected during pregnancy is a worthwhile venture and greater understanding of this topic would greatly benefit women.

Association for Psychological Science. (2011). How pregnancy changes a woman’s brain. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/how-pregnancy-changes-a-womans-brain.html

Babycenter. (2014). Forgetfulness during pregnancy. Retrieved from http://www.babycenter.com/0_forgetfulness-during-pregnancy_236.bc

Christensen, H. & Leach, L. (2010). Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood: prospective cohort study. The British Journal of Psychiatry. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.109.068635

Sharp, K., Brindle, P., Brown, M., & Turner, G. (1993). Memory loss during pregnancy. US National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8476824

Society for Endocrinology. (2010). Pregnancy may cause impairments in ability to recall previously seen locations. Retrieved from http://www.endocrinology.org/press/pressreleases/2010-03-18_Pregnancy%20Memory.pdf

During President Obama’s State of the Union Address on January 28^th, the crowd gave an unusually long standing ovation when they heard the story of Sgt. 1^st Class Cory Remsburg. Remsburg, an Army Ranger, suffered severe brain damage after shrapnel from a road side bomb in Afghanistan penetrated his brain in 2009 (De Wind, 2014). Since then, his recovery seems to have progressed remarkably. The story has gained a lot of attention and watching him get to his feet during the applause was touching; I encourage those of you who have not actually watched it to do so. My husband suffered a traumatic brain injury the same year, though a very mild one compared to Remsburg. Watching the clip of Remsburg and remembering my husband’s injury got me thinking about the brain. It is so susceptible to damage, but yet so capable of recovery.

In “Cognitive Psychology”, Goldstein talks about how specific parts of the brain serve a variety of functions and how damage to these areas from trauma or illness can interrupt cognitive processes (2011). Even minor damage from a mild concussion can cause nerve damage and disturb these processes. Minor traumatic brain injuries can interrupt cognitive functions like memory and reasoning, sensation, language functioning, and a long list of emotional problems ranging from irritability to personality changes (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 2010). These would be rather short-term for mild TBI, but severe TBI from blunt force or physical tissue severing, like in Remsburg’s case, would result in more serious and long-term or permanent problems (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2014).

As vulnerable as the brain is and for all the functions that can be interrupted or halted completely when nerve damage occurs, the brain also has a remarkable ability to repair itself. The brain’s plasticity allows it to generate new neural pathways to make up for those that were lost. Existing pathways can even change their connections to perform different functions, changing the localization of functions. Some individuals who suffer severe injuries that result in detrimental brain damage can still make remarkable steps on the road to recovery and literally re-teach their brain how to perform certain functions (Hammond, 2002).

I enjoy studying the brain and its functions and I think it’s interesting to learn about how we process things. But the vast amount of research that has been done specifically on TBI serves more than a just scholarly or medical purpose; it has created so many resources for people who experience a TBI. I think it’s important for people to understand how trauma affects the brain, especially if they are in a career where they are at risk for TBI, or even if their kid plays sports. I think we should be out of the “how many fingers am I holding up?” period and into the stage where we take head injuries seriously and take advantage of the knowledge and treatment options available.

Bibliography

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2014). Traumatic brain injury. Brainline.org. Retrieved from http://www.brainline.org/content/2010/06/traumatic-brain-injury.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Injury prevention and control: Traumatic brain injury. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/index.html

De Wind, Dorian. (2014). SOTU address: A speech and an evening that ‘belonged to the purple heart recipient in the first lady’s box’. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dorian-de-wind/sotu-address-a-speech-and_b_4688698.html

Goldstein, E.B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3^rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Hammond, K. (2002). Neuroplasticity. Huntington’s Outreach Program for Education, at Stanford. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/group/hopes/cgi-bin/wordpress/2010/06/neuroplasticity/