Item recognition and lure discrimination in younger and older adults are supported by alpha/beta desynchronization

Our episodic memories vary in their specificity, ranging from a mere sense of familiarity to detailed recollection of the initial experience. Recent work suggests that alpha/beta desynchronization promotes information flow through the cortex, tracking the richness in detail of recovered memory representations. At the same time, as we age, memories become less vivid and detailed, which may be reflected in age-related reductions in alpha/beta desynchronization during retrieval. To understand age differences in the specificity of episodic memories, we investigated differences in alpha/beta desynchronization between younger (18–26 years, n = 31) and older (65–76 years, n = 27) adults during item recognition and lure discrimination.Alpha/beta desynchronization increased linearly with the demand for memory specificity, i.e., the requirement to retrieve details for an accurate response, across retrieval situations (correct rejections < item recognition < lure discrimination). Stronger alpha/beta desynchronization was related to memory success, as indicated by reliable activation differences between correct and incorrect memory responses. In line with the assumption of a loss of mnemonic detail in older age, older adults had more difficulties than younger adults to discriminate lures from targets. Importantly, they also showed a reduced modulation of alpha/beta desynchronization across retrieval demands. Together, these results extend previous findings by demonstrating that alpha/beta desynchronization dissociates between item recognition and the retrieval of highly detailed memories as required in lure discrimination, and that age-related impairments in episodic retrieval are accompanied by attenuated modulations in the alpha/beta band. Thus, we provide novel findings suggesting that alpha/beta desynchronization tracks mnemonic specificity and that changes in these oscillatory mechanisms may underlie age-related declines in episodic memory.

Hypnotism and Suggestion: A Historical Perspective

Franz Anton Mesmer’s theory of “animal magnetism” proposed that living organisms possess an invisible magnetic fluid, which can be influenced by a “magnetizer” and, by doing so, a variety of illnesses can be cured. Contemporaries, such as the Marquis de Puysegur, took a more psychological view, claiming that a state of “artificial somnambulism” could be induced, through which alternate states of consciousness, and clairvoyant powers, could be exhibited. Public demonstrations of mesmeric phenomena, from insensibility to pain to clairvoyance, convinced many that there was something to it, whether as a medical tool or, perhaps, as evidence of supernatural powers. The distinction between mesmerism and hypnotism, made explicit in the writings of James Braid, distinguished between such phenomena, attributing the latter to fraud, and the former to suggestion. With the decline of mesmerism, facilitated in part by Braid’s theory and the introduction of chemical anesthesia, the more extraordinary phenomena of mesmerism, and the concept of a mysterious force, became part of the spiritualist and mind-cure movements, and the basis of psychical research. In the last quarter of the 19th century, a revival of scientific interest in hypnotism in France led to a dispute between two schools of thought: in Paris, hypnosis was explained in terms of an inherited pathological disposition; in Nancy, it was regarded as a normal process, and the product of suggestion. Hypnosis was used to explore the “dissociation” of personality and “sub-conscious” processes, provoking various theories about alternate selves in the normal and abnormal mind. At the turn of the 20th century, while clinical interest continued, experimental interest turned to the concepts of suggestion and suggestibility, which had practical educational, political, legal, and commercial relevance. A new line of hypnosis research, based on experimental, quantitative methods with normal subjects, began in the United States in the 1920s, and concluded that hypnosis was nothing more than suggestion. In the second half of the century, renewed scientific interest led to competing theories that explained hypnosis either in terms of a hypnotic state or else in terms of social roles. The dispute between “state” and “no state” theories was accompanied by a debate over the existence of a stable individual trait that might explain individual differences in hypnotizability. Meanwhile, as the effects of social influence became a significant topic of study, the implications for psychology experiments were considered in terms of “demand characteristics” and “experimenter effects.” In the last quarter of the 20th century, there was significant interest in legal issues relating to hypnosis, particularly concerning “recovered memory,” and the accusation that false memories and multiple personalities were the product of suggestion. As debates about the nature of hypnosis continue, the descendants of mesmerism, from “anomalous cognition” to “social priming,” which provoked recent debates about the limits of psychological methods, demonstrate the ongoing relevance of studying the boundaries of the mind.

Postradzieckie wersje pamięci w najnowszej literaturze ukraińskiej

For the modern society it is very important to find some explanations of the historical events of the 20th century. The matter is that those events, which were so destructive with theirs totalitarian occupation, mass killing of the whole nations that they had a great influence on the behavior of people nowadays. It is extremely important that different cultural groups try to retrieve memory, which was lost in the result of different historical conditions. Literature has large contribution to this process by creating the artistic environment where the forgotten world can be remained with the help of memory. In the process of reflecting history modern literature very often creates the space of the retained and recovered memory. Arts also becomes the so-called therapy for societies, which have been injured as a result of genocide against the whole nations.

Reports of Recovered Memories in Therapy, Informed Consent, and Generalizability: Response to Commentaries

We respond to various comments on our article (this issue, p. 3), which reported prevalence percentages of reports of recovered memories in therapy. We consider arguments against informed consent in therapy and conclude that we are in favor of informed consent that includes information about research on the malleability of memory. We note some useful suggestions from commentators, such as future research investigating iatrogenic outcomes of those who report recovered memories and investigating whether therapy-induced recovered memories are also an issue in various other countries. We understand that there are questions as to whether our sample was representative of the adult population of the United States, but we maintain that such questions can be investigated empirically and we could not find much evidence of systematic divergence. We investigated representativeness on gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age and made adjustments where possible. Future research should investigate reports of recovered memory in other general public samples.

‘Waking in the dark’:1 Remembering incest in A Thousand Acres (1991), Exposure (1993) and Beautiful Kate (2009)

During the 1990s, such inherent difficulties in recalling and expressing abuse were heightened by the so-called ‘Memory Wars’, as the Recovered Memory Movement (which advocated the validity of women’s rediscovered recollections of trauma) conflicted with the theories of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (which maintained the tendency for (misguided) therapists to implant experiences in their (generally female) patients’ minds). Working within this often volatile critical context, Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres (1991) and Kathryn Harrison’s Exposure (1993), together with Rachel Ward’s film version of Newton Thornburg’s Beautiful Kate (2009), embody the tense interplay between the ‘real’ and the reconstructed that characterises debates about incest and memory. All three texts engage with the ambiguities associated with recounting incest, not least through their status as fictions-as fabrications. Recalling and reworking the very notion of False Memory Syndrome, Smiley and Harrison reclaim and rewrite male-authored stories, implanting them with the perspectives of subjugated daughters. However, over a decade later, Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate presents something of a turning point, as this critically-acclaimed film marries explicitness and artistry, and, in doing so, confronts openly the memory of incest.

Reflections on Recovered Memories: Comment on Patihis and Pendergrast (2019)

In this comment on Patihis and Pendergrast (this issue, p. 3), we challenge an assumption that underpins recovered memory therapies: that there exists a close link of traumatic experiences with dissociation. We further suggest that (a) researchers examine how therapists who believe in repressed memories instill this belief in clients and establish expectations that current problems can be interpreted in light of past traumatic experiences, (b) recovered memories could be classified and studied as a function of how events come to light and are interpreted, and (c) therapists routinely provide informed consent regarding recovered memories and suggestive techniques.