Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Glenn Sogge on October 18, 2009 at 9:23pm

I find both happening. I'm 59 now and for the last year or two have noticed that it is harder for short-term memory to work correctly. Where are the keys? What was I going to do? It feels like my memory is more easily distracted, or rather, my mind is more easily distracted, with the next thing and remembering the last thing slips by the board.

Part of my blogging is to put down some memories for my kids to have so I have been more consciously plumbing the depths. I've also connected with high school classmates on Facebook and that is probably triggering things even though we don't ever discuss anything from the olden days.

Permalink Reply by Rick Burnett on October 28, 2009 at 12:42pm

I went to my 35th last summer and one of the girls from the beautiful crowd was reflecting on a party at her house at the lake and saying wasn't that a blast Rick we had so much fun there junior and senior year. The funny thing was I never hung out with them, I had a job as a short order cook after school and weekends my junior year and a machinist helper my senior year I was never invited so I know my memory was good for those years, but damn I couldn't for the life of me remember where I put my airline tickets for the return trip home. LOL

Permalink Reply by Mike Kleinman on October 20, 2009 at 4:06pm

I fell on my head, had a traumatic brain injury, and had a number of memory issues for a while. I did a number of "brain exercises" which included deductive reasoning and learning things by rote (putting my keys in the same place, etc). This was obviously a bigger problem than what you're discussing, but it really helped me. Interestingly enough, while I would forget things as soon as I left the room ( ... where was I going?), I would remember things from High School and Middle School like they were yesterday. Getting on Facebook and Classmates.com also helped. I really think the "Use it or lose it" rule is true.

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on October 20, 2009 at 4:08pm

Seems to be. I find a week or so spent hanging around the Nexus is helping me enormously: although not with memory - rather in honing my intellect which is another thing I've found slipping from my grasp.

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on October 23, 2009 at 5:09am

Not yet. I'm seeing other effects. One of the more amusing ones is the tendency for my pattern match systems grab onto the wrong thing. Mel's current avatar, for example, looked like a hard rocking man - when it was actually a Sarah Connor from Terminator II; Felix's reminded me instantly of Douglas Adams. The larger versions of both instantly cleared up the discrepancy, but it's easy to see how religious people see Jebus in doors and Mary in pastries.

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on October 23, 2009 at 8:23am

Yeah. That's a classic version of the effect.

Permalink Reply by Rick Burnett on October 28, 2009 at 12:56pm

It looks more like the Mona Lisa.

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on October 23, 2009 at 9:16am

I have thought that Synesthesia (which takes many forms) might explain why some people see auras; of course, they could also be lying or deluded.

I love the one about the guy who said the Thanksgiving didn't sound right: because his synethesia connected sounds and smell.

Permalink Reply by Rick Burnett on October 28, 2009 at 12:54pm

My wife said to me the other night, "use a calculator" and I said I have one it's called a pencil.

Permalink Reply by Mike Hein on October 21, 2009 at 6:57am

Marc, along the lines of reading and doing crossword puzzles, I've found competitive Scrabble helps immensely with memory. Or something like Word Twist on Facebook. These games force you to remember long lists of words AND more importantly, be able to recall them on demand. These games, and similarly crossword puzzles, are not like reading because you are memorizing patterns. For example, there about 1540 legal letter words in Scrabble and I might know the definitions of 3/4 of them. The other 350 or so words are merely patterns of letters.

The other question I have for the group is whether the various ginsengs, omega-this, lycine-that drinks have any clinical benefit. I've never investigated any of those claims but it seems pertinent to the discussion.

Cheers,

Permalink Reply by Mike Hein on October 21, 2009 at 9:34am

I figured it was crap but never took the time to look into it myself. Thanks for the links and such, I'll do a bit of reading on the state of the snake oil industry. ;)

Cheers,

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on October 23, 2009 at 5:04am

Just be careful what you write about them... Simon Singh is having a hell of a time.

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