lieb0196: December 2011 Archives

The Amygdala plays a key role in fear, excitement, and arousal; being located in the Limbic System. Under this description, it is the Amygdala that is activated in fight or flight situations as well as any other emotionally arousing experience.

Is there a direct relationship between the amygdala and long term memory storage?"

Recently, I found a study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in Irvine, CA Within this study, researches set out to find an answer to this exact question. (Link on bottom of post.) In this study, the results were positive in that there is a direct relationship between amygdala activation and Long Term Memory storage. 



"The findings of our studies using human subjects are consistent with those of dour other studies using animal subjects in indicating that memory storage is influenced by activation of B-adrenergic systems and the amygdala. Considered together, these findings provide strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that the amygdala, especially the baso-lateral nucleus, plays a central role in modulating the consolidation of long-term memory of emotionally arousing experiences," (McGaugh, Cahill, Roozendaal 6).

Do You have distinct and vivid memories in which you were emotionally aroused from childhood?

http://www.pnas.org/content/93/24/13508.full.pdf

After our most recent subject of learning, I now know what the bystander effect is and some of the possible reasons for why humans act as such; but I didn't always have this knowledge.

When I was about 9 years of age, I witnessed two elderly individuals take a fall on an escalator, in an airport in California. As I approached from a distance with my Mom, I noticed many if not all people proceeding by without any giving any aid or attention to these obviously in need people.

This threw me off because in no way could I decipher why such a large group of people acted this way. This made me believe that each of these people would act this way in any situation, but this was also wrong. I now know that it was in fact the size of the group that enabled them to act in such a socially unacceptable fashion. Despite my non-understanding of the psychology, one thing that was still apparent was that it was wrong. Do you have powerful memories of experiences with the Bystander Effect?

http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/bystandereffect.htm