The Man with the 7 Second Memory (Year 2 Sun.)
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Without memories we wouldn’t know who we are. His illnes changed his life drastically. He couldn’t even recognize his flat or remember his wife visiting him.
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Hi Weronika. One of his sons said that there was a tiny fraction of him left. Do you agree with it? What do you think about the quality of his life in general?
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I can agree with it. His ability to play music was unaffected but his intelect was reduced. His wife said that without consciousness he’s in many senses dead.
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And do you believe that he is in many respects dead? What did you find the most interesting/enexpected while watching the video?
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He doesn’t have a sense of being fully alive. He can’t go out by himself, watch a movie, read a bok and do many things he did before. I find it very interesting that he didn’t have any memories of his wife but he knew what
wasshe was like and he sill feels the same way about her. -
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After watching the film about Clive Wearing’s history, I agree completely. Without our memories, our awareness of our experiences, we would not be who we are. Our memories and experiences make us different.
Because of amnesia, Clive lost a lot. For example, he knows he is married, but he does not remember his wedding, the happy moments of his marriage or the time he fell in love. He has knowledge on some subjects, but no memories.-
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I think so. Clive has no memories, he can’t formulate thoughts, read, watch movies, so he’s not fully himself.
As he says, being him in his present state is not difficult, because being dead does not require any work.
I think he was saved by the fact that his procedural memory remained undamaged, so he still has music that was the meaning of his life before the amnesia.-
What an avatar, Joanna or rather your majesty 😉
Good point about procedural memory. Could you explain why he preserved this type of memory?-
Thank you, I recently watched a few episodes of the Crown series, hence the inspiration 🙂
The virus that caused Clive to have amnesia (herpes brain inflammation if I remember correctly) mainly damaged the hippocampus, the part responsible for short and long term memory.
Clive is still able to perform the motor tasks he learned before amnesia, such as reading music and conducting a choir, which indicates that that procedural memory has not been damaged.
I read several articles about him and found information that he has problems with learning new procedures (obviously), but it turns out he can acquire new procedural memories through repetition.
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I think that most of you did 🙂 By the way, it’s a great series.
Yes, he can acquire new procedural/implicit memories. Fort instance, just like Jimmie G., he knows how to navigate his apartment in the institution.Herpes virus caused the inflammation of his brain, a disease called encephalitis /enˌsefəˈlaɪtɪs/ or /enˌkefəˈlaɪtɪs/.
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I was moved by this film. I can’t even imagine
, like this man would felthow he feels after losing almost everything. Hewasn’tisn’t able to read books, watch movies, what is most important, he can’t even think, but he prevent?? his music skills, and it’s very interesting. -
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Yes, I agree with this statement. Our memories, which are also our experiences, build us as people. They are close to our worldview. I think they also affect
onourcharacterpersonality. Clive, unable to use all his memories, lost himself. Without the support of people who love him, he would be lost. The fact that he doesn’t remember the facts of his lifecaused he couldn’tmakes it impossible for him to learn from his mistakes. It also seems to me that if you don’t remember events, suchlikeas a wedding, can cause frustration. You can’t check?? your future, so in the statement above, the most striking is the fragment “who we become”, Clive has now become a bit of a puppet in the hands of the people who care for him.-
Karolina, I think he doesn’t need to learn from mistakes not because he’s beyond mistakes, but because he would need some time to do something wrong. As we know he forgets everything with a blink of his eye.
Don’t you think that “puppet” sounds a bit derogatory?-
Maybe, but it seems to me that he had to be controlled somehow
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Maybe supervised or assited. But then it’s understood – he can’t go out by himself because he would get lost.
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Hello everybody 🙂
I don’t strictly agree with that statement. Of course without memory it’s impossible to learn something. That’s true. But I think our worldview depends basically on our conclusion, reflection(which we have to remember of course). For instance I did a lot of the same mistakes which I was doing in the past. And I perfect remember all of it! 🙂-
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Yes, you are right. I try to show that it’s possible to meet “siamese twins” who remember exactly the same things and they have different worldview.
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The ability to use/transform personal experience – I think. Like mindfulness(focus on now)intelligence, imagination, ect.
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I couldn’t agree more. I would also add kindness and sensitivity.
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Mostly. I think we are not able to function without memories. Obviously in Clive’s extend??. That severe case of an
amnesia as we sawunablesmakes people unable to function properly in society. It doesn’t mean they cannot funcion at all or are not worthy of enjoing life though. Other types of amnesia do not have that impact on one’s life. Then not having all of your memories is not that detremental. On the other hand we saw in the film that Clive still has feeling, he recognizes his sons and his wife. In my opinion both memories and feelings are extremly important in our lives.-
Indeed, he kept his feelings. Do you remember the case of Jimmie G.? His amnesia, even if debiliating, was different and yet he had some precious moments/experiences in the institution.
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I was thinking the same thing. Their cases are so different yet they are very similar in their moments of joy
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I agree with this statement. We can forget about certain things, matters and people, but most of our memories make us who we are. In fact, we would still be able to exist without key memories, but what would be the quality of this life if we did not recognize our loved ones around us and were not aware of the events that we experienced together?
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The second Elisabeth II. I’m wondering who is the impostor 🙂
Do you remember why he lost his memory?-
He Lost his memory becouse of the virus which infected his brain a destroyed hipocampus and the area responsible for memory.
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The queen needs her clones to take care of her safety and image in these difficult and dangerous times 😉
Memory loss is a result of herpetic infection of the brain. Survivors of this disease usually suffer from serious complications resulting from brain neurological damage and this is what happened to Clive
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But Clive still recognizes his wife. Well, partly, because he is always glad when she is around but I think that some feels are more important than just vision memories themselves.
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Yes, the man recognizes his wife and has great affection for her, but at the same time he does not remember that he just talked to her and has the impression that he has not seen her for a long time. It can equally well be said that the world we imagine that we experience in our head (hello, quarantine!) is as real as the actual events that happened to us in life.
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Iza, what do you think about Clive’s relationship with his wife? Why does she visit him if he has no recollection of meeting her once she goes out of the door?
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She loves him. Love is stronger than just memory, especially if she feels the love he is able to give her in his state. The fact she spent with him a lot of time and she is having their memories. Probably it is painful for her that he has no recollection of their wedding or life but she sees the man she fell in love with some time ago.
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OK, but he also loves his children and sister and yet he doesn’t even know their names.
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An interesting fact is that this woman eventually filed for divorce, because all this experience was too overwhelming for her. She also tried relationships with other men, although later she actually returned to Clive because he was still her husband.
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I really feel for her. They had been married only for a year and a half before he lost memory. We don’t know how much she could rely on her and his family, but I’m pretty sure that eventually she was left alone – even Clive’s children from his previous relationship stopped visiting him.
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Is there any evidence in the video that
– his short-term memory (STM) is still functioning?
– he has any implicit long-term memory (LTM)?
– he has any semantic memory?
– he has any episodic memory?-
Yes, he is able to carry on the conversation so his STM is working.
Im not sure about the third but it doesn’t seem like he has episodic memory or LTM -
Clive Wearing has lost his episodic memory, but he still has semantic memory.
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Do you have any evidence for it?
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Semantic memory is, among others, the memory of relationships.
When his wife Deborah enters the room he greets her joyously and reacts to her with unchanging devotion and adoration. He has no episodic memories of Deborah, but he has semantic knowledge of her: he clearly remembers that he loves her.
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Its STM works in part because it can store information for 7 to 30 seconds but then disappears completely.
I think he has a partially functional episodic memory because he remembers important events in life like his childhood, his wedding or his children (up to a certain age). Interestingly, he also remembers the phone number of his family home.
Semantic seems to work. He remembers what he is used for and what things are – he knows what a pen is and what it is used for.
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I’m not sure, Joanna, if he remembers his wedding, although he remembers that he got married.
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Right, I mistook the wedding for knowledge of being married.
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Is there any explanation why his explicit LTM memory was affected and his implicit LTM wasn’t?
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I don’t remember if it was explained in the film, but it seems to me that maybe because explicit memory requires awareness and an effortful recall of information. Whereas automatic memory does not require our consciousness to be used, nor does it need to remember to store it. But this is only my hypothesis.
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Indeed, explicit memory requires conscious recall, whereas implicit doesn’t.
But that’s not the point here. Consolidation of information from STM to LTM takes place in the hippocampus. Implicit memory is stored in a completely different brain structure – the basal ganglia. Have a look.
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He may has some part of the implicit memory, becouse he has remember how to play the piano without any recollection or concious thoughts.
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His implicit memory is OK. He remembers not only how to play the piano, but also how to get dressed or how to brush his teeth.
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Clive still can read and he knows words – I think that it’s evidence that his semantic memory works.
I think that his words “… no dreams… no thoughts at all .. day and night the same..” it’s can be some kind of episodic memory.
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” … no dreams, no thoughts at all – I think it’s some kind of reflection. Could this be an example of episodic memory? I’m not sure, Michael.
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I’m not sure
tooeither 🙂 It’sdubiousa complex issue for me.
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He knew that his wife was his wife and his son was his son but didn’t have any memories of them. So I would say that he has a small part of LTM left.
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Definitely, as you Elisabeths, said he preserved semantic memory and procedural memory. His episodic memory exclusively concerns his boyhood and it’s more than fragmentary.
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very nice avatar, ma’am 🙂
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Thank you 😉
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Thank you all for the discussion. If you’d like to add something later, you’re very welcome.
Have a Happy Easter despite the pandemic and see you all after the holidays.
Later today, I will send you the activity report from both sessions, including your test grades.Have a good Sunday!
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