Mind Over Memory

Of Mind Over . . . Matter

Mind over matter

As an invited speaker at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Manfred Eigen once stood by as his host ran through an impressive list of accolades: his work as a young researcher measuring the rates of ultrafast chemical reactions, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967; his directorship of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Chemistry in Göttingen; his contributi...

Is external memory memory? Biological memory and extended mind.

Clark and Chalmers (1998) claim that an external resource satisfying the following criteria counts as a memory: (1) the agent has constant access to the resource; (2) the information in the resource is directly available; (3) retrieved information is automatically endorsed; (4) information is stored as a consequence of past endorsement. Research on forgetting and metamemory shows that most of t...

Mind over Matter: Inside Hypnobirthing

In order to examine hypnotherapy, the psycho-physiological science underpinning the practice is an important issue and is significant for the use of hypnotherapy by women in labour and birth. Contemporary literature regarding hypnotherapy and its’ side effects and limitations focuses on the culture inherent in hypnotherapy ideology, whilst the pertinent ethical issues that arise and question it...

Working memory: Trouble in mind

Visual working memory has been found to depend on interactions between the prefrontal cortex and visual association areas; the neurons involved can be modulated by dopamine. These new findings have relevance for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.