Trauma and total recall article

by **tigger** 26.06.15 10:10

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Brain scans of passengers who believed they were about to die when their [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are helping researchers better understand traumatic memories.

Air Transat Flight 236, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], crash-landed in the Azores after gliding powerless over the ocean for 30 minutes. Some of the 306 passengers and crew on board developed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a result of the terrifying scare.

Brain imaging of eight of those passengers, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], shows the memories of that harrowing experience retained a rich vividness that “lit up” areas of the brain related to memory, emotion and visual processing.

The Canadian study, led by researchers at Baycrest Health Sciences’ Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, will be published online this week in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

“This traumatic incident still haunts passengers regardless of whether they have PTSD or not,” said lead researcher Daniela Palombo, now a post-doctoral researcher at the Boston University School of Medicine.

“They remember the event as though it happened yesterday, when in fact it happened almost a decade ago (at the time of the scans).”
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This is a very interesting article on recall - what it totally fails to explain imo is the ever changing testimony of those closely involved when discovering their daughter had been abducted on the 3rd May 2007.

I can recall at least two events of a life-changing nature or potential life-changing nature. One was a car accident and I can recall the dashboard, the feeling of time slowed down, but the point is, it is not so much a memory as being there again. Another was when I 'mislaid' two little girls of 5 and 7 when watching the Mayor's Show in the city of London. I still know the colour of the coat of the woman behind me, the panic and the float that was just passing.
I'm sure others have equally vivid memories. The point I'm making is that it isn't even a question of recall, the two stories above remain the same, I am back in the situation, it is more reporting than remembering.

by woodbine 26.06.15 11:16

Yeah some things you just don't forget. Whilst packing my car to leave centreparcs, my toddler just stepped out towards the road (a quiet one in the centreparcs village). Both myself and the wife screamed at her to stop which thankfully she did because a car raced past at just that moment. I still feel the sense of terror everytime I think about that and remember every detail.