Page 64 - Biblical Counseling II

“Amnesia victims are in some ways like people with brain damage who cannot consciously recognize faces
but whose physiological responses to familiar faces reveal an implicit (unconscious) recognition. Their
behaviors challenge the idea that memory is a single, unified, conscious system. Instead, we seem to have
two memory systems operating at the same time. Whatever has destroyed conscious recall in these
individuals with amnesia has not destroyed their unconscious capacity for learning. They can learn how to do
something – called implicit memory, but they may not
know and declare they know – called explicit memory”
(Myers, p. 190, 2012).

Having read a story once, they will read it faster a second
time, showing implicit memory. But there will be no
explicit memory, for they cannot recall having seen the
story before. If repeatedly shown the word perfume, they
will not recall having seen it. But if asked the first word
that comes to mind in response to the letters per, they
say perfume, readily displaying their learning. Using such tasks, even Alzheimer’s patients, whose explicit
memories for people and events are lost, display an ability to form new and implicit memories” (Myers, p.
190, 2012). (photo from thepeakperformancecenter.com)

The Hippocampus
‘Damage to the hippocampus (a temporal lobe neural center that also forms part of the brain’s limbic
system) disrupts some types of memory. Chickadees and other birds can store food in hundreds of places
and return to these unmarked caches (collections) months later, but not if their hippocampus has been
removed. Like the cortex, the hippocampus is lateralized. (You have two of them, one just above each ear
and about an inch and a half straight in.) Damage to one or the other seems to produce different results.
With left-hippocampus damage, people have trouble remembering verbal information, but they have no
trouble recalling visual designs and locations. With right-hippocampus damage, the problem is reversed”
(Myers, 2009).

The Cerebellum
Although your hippocampus is a temporary processing site for your explicit memories, you could lose it and
still lay down memories for skills and conditioned associations. A doctor tells the story of a brain-damaged
patient whose amnesia left her unable to recognize her physician as, each day, he shook her hand and
introduced himself. One day, after reaching for his hand, she yanked hers back, for the physician had pricked
her with a tack in his palm. The next time he returned to introduce himself, she refused to shake his hand but
couldn’t explain why. Having been classically conditioned, she just wouldn’t do it (Myers, 2009).

The cerebellum, the brain region extending out from the rear of the brainstem, plays a key role in forming
and storing the implicit memories created by classical conditioning. With a damaged cerebellum, people
cannot develop certain conditioned reflexes, such as associating a tone with an impending puff of air, and
thus do not blink in anticipation of the puff. Implicit memory formation needs the cerebellum (Myers, 2009).

Reflection: A neighbor comes to you for counsel. She tells you her father has experienced brain damage in a
car accident. She wonders why he can still play chess very well but has a hard time holding a sensible
conversation. What can you tell her? What advice would you give her? Write your reflection below.

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