Dr Steve
01-11-2010, 10:21 AM
I am sitting here on my couch listing to Ron & Fez on my lovely vacation and they brought up memory loss. You called in and explained it, but I still have a question.
I was doing some heavy drinking one night with some buddies and we decided to leave the party. We got in my car and I started to drive away. Very quickly I let my passenger tire hit the curb. We decided that I was in no shape to drive. I thought my buddy how to drive stick really quick and he drove us back. While he was driving, I blackout.
I spend about two hours at his house and I convince him I'm good to drive. All this time I'm still blacked out. I "wake up" driving my car. The best way to explain it is being possessed. (I know I wasn't, but it works for explaining)
What is that? I was awake the entire time, but snapped back to awareness, confused and not knowing my location.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
yeah it's crazy.
imagine it this way (and this is a FUNCTIONAL explanation, not necessarily an explanation based on scientific knowledge of how the brain works on the neuronal level):
during the day, you form tons of potential memories and discard them. you don't remember every single time you picked up the phone, or picked your nose, or whatever, but if someone had yelled at you on the phone, or if you picked your nose and blood gushed out, you'd store those memories in a "long term data bank" for later use.
So this means there is short term memory, some kind of processor that flags some memories as "important", and long term memory. If it doesn't make it into long term memory it didn't happen. (and there are long LONG term memories, like kindergarten memories 50 years later and SHORT long term memories like what happened yesterday, but that's another layer of complicated that we can ignore for now).
If I could do something to your brain to switch off the processor that flags memories and files them, you'd walk around with the memories you already had, and would simply live in the present with no recollection of anything that happened past 30 minutes ago. This is what happens in Alzheimer's, and this is what happens when you have a "Blackout", like you did. The active part of your brain is still working, so you can function, but later you have no recollection of it, so you can get the impression that you were possessed. In fact you were possessed...by your own functioning mind.
I've experienced this myself, most recently when I had my endoscopy; they gave me versed and told me I talked and was awake during the procedure but after it was over it was as if I'd been asleep the whole time. Versed caused my brain to discard the "scratchpad" memories I formed when I was having the procedure and to me it never happened.
does that make sense?
steve
I was doing some heavy drinking one night with some buddies and we decided to leave the party. We got in my car and I started to drive away. Very quickly I let my passenger tire hit the curb. We decided that I was in no shape to drive. I thought my buddy how to drive stick really quick and he drove us back. While he was driving, I blackout.
I spend about two hours at his house and I convince him I'm good to drive. All this time I'm still blacked out. I "wake up" driving my car. The best way to explain it is being possessed. (I know I wasn't, but it works for explaining)
What is that? I was awake the entire time, but snapped back to awareness, confused and not knowing my location.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
yeah it's crazy.
imagine it this way (and this is a FUNCTIONAL explanation, not necessarily an explanation based on scientific knowledge of how the brain works on the neuronal level):
during the day, you form tons of potential memories and discard them. you don't remember every single time you picked up the phone, or picked your nose, or whatever, but if someone had yelled at you on the phone, or if you picked your nose and blood gushed out, you'd store those memories in a "long term data bank" for later use.
So this means there is short term memory, some kind of processor that flags some memories as "important", and long term memory. If it doesn't make it into long term memory it didn't happen. (and there are long LONG term memories, like kindergarten memories 50 years later and SHORT long term memories like what happened yesterday, but that's another layer of complicated that we can ignore for now).
If I could do something to your brain to switch off the processor that flags memories and files them, you'd walk around with the memories you already had, and would simply live in the present with no recollection of anything that happened past 30 minutes ago. This is what happens in Alzheimer's, and this is what happens when you have a "Blackout", like you did. The active part of your brain is still working, so you can function, but later you have no recollection of it, so you can get the impression that you were possessed. In fact you were possessed...by your own functioning mind.
I've experienced this myself, most recently when I had my endoscopy; they gave me versed and told me I talked and was awake during the procedure but after it was over it was as if I'd been asleep the whole time. Versed caused my brain to discard the "scratchpad" memories I formed when I was having the procedure and to me it never happened.
does that make sense?
steve