The purpose of the present thesis was twofold. First, to study the role of emotional arousal in memory processes, and secondly, to relate this concept to empirical findings of amnesia. In both clinical and experimental settings it has been observed that remembering is impaired for events occurring prior to, and after a traumatic critical event. This memory impairment is also demonstrated for the traumatic event per se. In relation to these phenomena an interaction is commonly observed such that remembering of events aquired in a state of high emotionality, or arousal, is inferior to events aquired in neutral low arousal conditions at short test intervals, but superior at delayed test intervals. The general notion to be tested was how and to what extent these phenomena are mediated by an increase in emotional arousal. In order to test this hypothesis a series of experiments was designed so that retrograde and anterograde amnesia, and amnesia for the traumatic event, could be studied so as to evaluate the locus of the emotional arousal and amnesia effects with respect to encoding (attention), storage (consolidation), and retrieval (reconstruction). Emotional arousal was induced by sources associated with the to-be-remembered (TBR) material (traumatic pictures), and by sources not associated with the TBR-material (injections of adrenalin). Memory performance was measured by recall and recognition techniques. Amnesia was obtained only when the source of arousal was associated with the TBR-items. It was concluded that amnesia in connection to hightened emotional arousal depends on attention demanding characteristics of the traumatic event, rather than physiological properties of hightened arousal per se. An interaction between factors at encoding and retrieval was proposed as an explanation for the amnesia effects obtained. An interpretation in terms of consolidation has, throughout this thesis, been shown to be invalid in explaining the memory phenomena referred to. / digitalisering@umu.se

Posthypnotic amnesia has been systematically investigated in the past and subsequently alluded to as either role enacted behavior or evidence for an altered state of consciousness. Recall and recognition have been tested during posthypnotic amnesia and as in normal memory functioning, recognition performance has been found to be usually superior to recall performance. In order to gain further understanding of the circumstances which facilitate amnesic behavior, an experiment was carried out which was designed to vary the usual manner in which recall and recognition memory are observed during posthypnotic amnesia.

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This study aims to highlight patients´ experiences about and thoughts of side effects fromelectroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a therapeutic method commonly used when having severedepressions. The framing of questions were how the respondents of this study describe theirlife before, during and after ECT-treatment, how the treatment has affected their daily life andhow these experiences may contribute to the awareness of power in professional relations.The study is based on three semi-structured narrative interviews and the main result showedthat, according to my interpretation, ECT as a treatment obliterated memories, quality of lifeand daily structure for all participants. Unfortunately they have all become subjects ofpsychiatric power and have faced considerable difficulty in getting professional recognitionaccording to their severe memory issues. The respondents have lost the ability to relate totheir past which clearly makes them struggle in their present context. A point in commonamong them is that neither of them wanted ECT but, because of the lack of communicationbetween them as patients and the health care in general, they all ended up getting it.

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Denna uppsats utforskar hur elektroniska spel fungerar som medium för berättande genom att undersöka aspekter av debatten som ägde rum i början av 2000-talet mellan narratologer och ludologer, angående hur man bäst bör närma sig och studera spel. Med rötterna i en jämförelse av hur ludologer och spelteoretiker närmar sig ämnet försöker uppsatsen sedan bredda perspektiven genom att jämföra den narratologiska strukturen hos spelet med mer konventionella medier för berättande, såsom filmer och litteratur. Genom att jämföra de traditionella strukturerna med strukturen och den inneboende berättelsen i spelet Amnesia: The Bunker, blir det tydligt att spelet överensstämmer med narratologiska egenskaper. Spelet innehåller en välskriven berättelse och detta faktum bör inte avfärdas på grund av att den presenteras i det interaktiva formatet ett spel utgör. Syftet med denna uppsats är inte att avvisa ett ludologiskt tillvägagångssätt eller hävda att spelet är något annat än ett spel. Målet är snarare att belysa komplexiteten i formatet och – precis som debatten slutligen gjorde till viss del – komma fram till slutsatsen att en narratologisk angreppspunkt är möjlig vid studerandet av spel men den bör inte utesluta andra forskningsmetoder, och vice versa. / This essay explores the topic of video games as a storytelling medium by examining certain aspects of the debate that took place in the early 2000s between narratologists and ludologists, regarding how to best approach and study video games. Taking root in a comparison between how ludologists and game theorists approach the subject of video games, the essay then attempts to broaden the perspectives by comparing the narratological structure of the game to classical structures seen in more conventional forms of storytelling, such as movies and literature. By comparing such structures to the structure and inherent narrative in the game Amnesia: The Bunker, it becomes evident that the game aligns with narratological attributes. The game contains a well-written story, and this should not be dismissed by the fact that it is presented in the interactive format of a video game. The purpose of this essay is not to reject a ludological approach or to claim that the game is anything else but a game. The aim is rather to highlight the complexity of the format and – just like the debate eventually did to some degree – come to the conclusion that a narratological approach to video games is possible but it should not exclude other methods of research, and vice versa.

Diencephalic amnesia is thought to be the result of damage to a single thalamic structure that is responsible for the memory impairment. However, an alternative view is that different thalamic structures contribute to the memory impairment in subtly different ways. Paired-associate learning is one important measure of learning and memory that is highly sensitive to disruption in people with amnesia or dementia. The current study will investigate the influence of lesions to two thalamic subregions, the anterior thalamic nuclei (AT) and the lateral thalamic nuclei (LT) in an object-odour paired associate learning task. Each of these subregions has been suggested by the literature as critical for amnesia after thalamus injury. The current study does not involve a place/ space component. Both AT and LT lesions caused impairments in the object-odour paired associate task, but not in the simple discrimination tasks. The results of this study provide new evidence to suggest that the anterior thalamic region may be responsible for more than spatial memory processing. This result is inconsistent with those of Aggleton & Brown (1999) that consider the AT to be part of an 'extended hippocampal system'. The deficits observed from LT lesions in this study provide new insight into the lateral thalamic region's role in pattern processing.

Memory impairment is common following traumatic brain injury (TBI). In recent years, researchers have demonstrated that the processes underlying memory formation (working memory, encoding, consolidation, and retrieval) are interrelated but dissociable events.The following study was designed to determine how these processes contribute to memory impairment following experimental TBI in the rat. Experiment 1 indicated thatTBI induces severe working memory deficits in a delayed non-matching-to-place task.Although all animals displayed intact acquisition, only injured animals displayed poor performance as the delay between the sample and choice phases was increased.Experiment 2 was designed to determine if TBI produces a transient period of posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) following TBI. During the early post-injury period, injured animals displayed intact short-term (3min) object recognition memory but impaired long-term (1 and 24hrs) memory. However, during the chronic post-injury period (days 14-17), no recognition memory deficits were observed in injured animals, indicating thatPTA resolves by 14 days post-injury. Experiment 3 was designed to determine the mechanism of anterograde memory impairment following TBI. Animals were injured and then trained to a pre-determined criterion in a 1 -day water maze procedure.Although injured animals required more trials to reach criterion, the rate of forgetting was identical among sham and injured groups up to 24hrs post-training. This suggests that the amount of information encoded into long-term memory, not more rapid forgetting, is the primary mechanism of anterograde memory impairment following TBI. InExperiment 4, animals were trained in the water maze and then injured 1 (recent memory) or 14 (recent memory) days post-training. Fourteen days post-injury, animals were given a retention probe trial followed by a reminding procedure and a second probe trial. Injured animals in both the recent and remote memory conditions displayed impaired performance on the first probe trial. However, injured animals benefited from the reminding procedure, and animals in the remote memory group were identical to shams during the second probe trial. These results indicate that retrograde memory impairment following TBI is mediated primarily by retrieval deficits at the time of testing, while the quality of the memory trace remains largely intact.

Thesis advisor: Roberto Goizueta / In the context of a globalized and postmodern world, there is a vector of thought in Mexican culture that remains fixated on the present, invested in the urgency of the moment, and content with hurried decisions in political and economic matters. Such a mindset makes little room for memories and, in fact, promotes rapid forgetfulness, especially of uncomfortable memories. Nevertheless, another vector of thought simultaneously persists, one that prizes memories, emphasizes traditions and ancestral anamnetic forms, and is quite richly expressed in small `campesinos' and indigenous communities, where men and particularly women - though otherwise lacking political influence - are actively engaged in preserving their memories. Not surprisingly, these two vectors of thought share an uneasy co-existence. In these pages I will argue that these memories are actually considered dangerous on two fronts: first, because they interrupt our productive present and the system we live in; and, second because they challenge us to imagine, and even to work toward, a more just future, one not characterized by easy amnesties or corporate forgetfulness. I will support the view that memories enable us to conduct an honest reconstruction and analysis of the past, in all of its complexity, and then oblige us to integrate lessons learned truthfully in the present. In Mexico, such memories need to be listened to and integrated as part of our identity as a society and a Church for, if we do not, we will always remain a broken society and an incomplete Church. This position, along with the questions that it raises, will be confronted and illuminated herein by a theological perspective on memory. After all, it was Israel's belief in being in the memory of God that gave that people their solid communitarian consistency. Later on, the Christian community inherited this anamnetic culture as the core of its liturgical life and Christian praxis: "Do this in memory of me". Johann Baptist Metz reflects theologically on the "cultural amnesia" that drags us towards a dehumanizing progress, emphasizing merely technological advancement. Societal adoption of such an attitude inevitably leaves victims in its wake, namely, those who do not - or cannot - achieve the standards of success established by the technocrats. Metz identifies the destruction of memory as a typical tool of totalitarian domination. The slavery of human beings begins when their memories are taken away; this is the principle and foundation of all colonization. Metz explains that we must remember the memories of these victims in order to interrupt our present situation and activate creative resistance. He suggests a mysticism characterized by suffering unto God while, at the same time, keeping our eyes open to reality. Consequently a praxis is realized wherein we act as subjects in freedom participating actively in the construction of history. It is important for the Mexican Church to recover these memories at both the social and ecclesial levels and to allow them to interrupt us, because they constitute a new way for us to look back at what we have been, and to construct what we want to be. In doing so, we can be a community of memory and hope. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Theology.