Friday, January 20, 2023

 Friday, January 20, 2023 

    I got up around eight am and then took a three-hour nap in the early afternoon. Is this pattern because I'm old and have too little to do, or is it what I've always tired easily but couldn't indulge in? I just powered through. I remember thinking," I'm never tired."

   Adolescent D read well today but still showed problems with short-term memory. Since listening to the videos on memory, I am more convinced there is a problem with D's amygdala and hippocampal formation. Things get in through a different route, as with HM.

     HM had his temporal lobes surgically penetrated to get to the amygdala and hippocampus beneath. It was to stop his severe epileptic seizures that would have killed him if he didn't have the surgery. After the surgery, he had no explicit memory; he remembered nothing he experienced after the surgery. He remembered things from before the surgery clearly. This is called antegrade amnesia. If a doctor spoke to him, left the room, and returned two minutes later, HM would have no memory of ever meeting him. Sadly, he could never remember his wife's visits either.

     D's case is not that serious. He can remember events; his episodic memory works well. He needs help remembering the spoken word or words he has seen a line or two before.

   I don't know why he should have this problem. Assuming it is with his hippocampal formation, it can increase in size. London cabby drivers are required to memorize the London streets. (Or they used to before GPS systems) London expanded in a very haphazard way. Their hippocampal formations are all large.

  In 2011, Eleanor Mcquire led a team that published the results of a five-year study of London cab drivers. The question was, were the hippocampal formations of the successful cab drivers enlarged before they became cab drivers, or due to the grueling training, they had to pass the London cab driver's licensing test? McGuire took periodic MRI images of the participants' brains. She observed that the rear of the hippocampus grew in all cab drivers. The successful ones had the most significant enlargement. This means the brain changes in response to training. This means D. can expect some changes in his brain.

  I didn't make my ten thousand steps for the day. One missed day won't damage my streak.

  I've been watching a Japanese TV series on Netflix: Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House. It's hard to follow in spots. Why is this one woman on a sofa in a high-end apartment? Why does she wear her hair naturally when all the other maikos have to wear it in the traditional style? However, the tone is loving, kind, and caring.