Ramona’s Reviews > Where Did I Leave My Glasses?: The What, When, and Why of Normal Memory Loss > Status Update

A famous case in literature, "Funes, the Memorious" by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges. Thrown by a horse, paralyzed but now with total recall - everything said, seen, learned, and that happened to him. "My memory, sir, is like a garbage heap." A nightmare of a life! He has Eidetic memory - a photographic memory.

Total recall- - a gift or a curse? Holmes didn't know that the Earth revolved around the sun - it was a useless bit of info that he didn't retain! Mistakenly, he said our brains can only hold so much information - wrong- our brains are wonderfully made and can hold much more than we realize. "Memory feeds on the emotion, and the emotion on the memory." Must we forget, in order to function? PTSD - heartbreaking.

Absorption affects our remembering ability. The songs I sing over and over, I remember better. I grew up with my Mom's music, and that is what I remember. I have been taking notes for years, writing for years, and this helps my memory. Chapter 3: The upside of forgetting. Ahhh, using Sherlock Holmes as an illustration! He was "the immortal maestro of memory, preaching the virtues of forgetfulness"!

I am a failure on these 4 counts: Eat healthily, avoid stress, get lots of sleep, exercise regularly, including mental exercise. I love her "normal" day of started deeds, which are all left unfinished! We must compensate for skills that are declining, accept that our cognitive capacities are changing too. If we aren't paying attention to whatever it is we are doing or hearing, it may not get stored or remembered.

Visual imagery is harder yet, and I won't remember that at all! Ramona - think the painting Mona Lisa, or Pamona, CA. Now, I just apologize and tell the person I have forgotten their name, and could they please remind me again! Chapter two: Multitasking, anyone? I find this more and more difficult now that I am in my mid-60s. I have to write down everything-groceries lists, my day's activities. Where's the list?

I wonder if I could have written this book, albeit a shorter version without all the specialists. I have the same issues with memory, say the same things to others, have researched the whys and hows! I use phonemic cueing -can't remember a word - go through the alphabet. Semantic cueing is more involved but I have used it. Associate things you know that remind you of the name - Jane- Fonda, plain Jane, etc.

The hippocampus and surrounding areas have to do with putting in new and storing memory, and the front part of the brain is important for retrieving said memories, which is the part that ages first, and has trouble booting up! Semantic memory-we know what a chair, bird, and map are. These are ingrained in a different way. I use mnemonics to remember names - word association and visual imagery.

Lear poses the question, why is it vital to be able to forget. Why do we remember emotional pain but not physical pain? Why do we forget names we know we should know? I search for words when writing a letter, and can't believe I don't what the next word is. Personal names don't trigger an association, except for our own name. This occurs at the same time as our ability to multitask decreases-except in rare birds!

We are all on overload-too much on our minds - media, work, family, and entertainment. We are forcing ourselves to remember too many things, in our day. There is an actual syndrome - Tip of the tongue-TOT-for not remembering things we believe we should. I am enjoying her style of writing! A balanced mix of terminology, humor, experiences, and professional wisdom!