Is there a hole in your mind?

[Daedalus12]

When the dentist put me under local anesthesia to have my wisdom teeth out, I'm told I was awake and responsive during the entire procedure, but I can't remember anything from the time I sat down in that chair until I was in the car on the way home.

This is, I'm told, a sign that the anesthesiologist did his job well. They're supposed to keep you below the memory threshold.

What this tells me is that there is such a threshold. If you're tired enough, you can technically be awake but be recording very little in the way of long-term memories.

I read the police report of my bicycle accident which occurred about 3 weeks ago. The officer wrote that I was awake and responsive during the transfer from the ground to the ambulance. However I don't remember anything from moments before the crash to when I was already being moved to the emergency room from the ambulance. It's a good 20 to 25 minutes that I have no recollection of anything. When I saw myself being carted into the emergency room all i remember was riding along the road at about 33 MPH (displayed on my bicycle computer).

 

[think]

I don't remember anything prior to October 26, 1983. Brain injury.

sorry to hear that - thinks back to October 26, 83... was at Rutgers but not going to classes and usually staying up all night smoking pot and drinking I lived at my fraternity that had a party every week end and was on tap with beer 24-7 so the party never ended - also around that time maybe a few days later I too had a black out where I danced with some hot babe *they said* and vomited off my loft into my bedroom *so they said* I drank over a pint of JD and smoked and tripped that week-end I still think it was my roommate who puked all over the side of my loft cause usually I make it to the porcelain alter usually. *to think he expected me to clean up the mess he did* I did not hang in my bedroom after that because there was the vomit/jd smell all over the place.. I remember that.

 

[Squiggy]

I don't remember anything prior to October 26, 1983. Brain injury.

I have photographic evidence. It's pretty incriminating.

I take all major credit cards & paypal.

From what I've already seen, I'd like to unsee it. Seems pretty lame.

 

[backstept]

my name isn't Sinclair, so nope, don't think there's a hole in my mind

 

[RJDiogenes]

I was just reading a Thread in SF&F that made me realize that I have no actual memory of Young Sherlock Holmes. So this phenomenon can actually be quite helpful.

 

[RoJoHen]

I tend to forget doing things that are a part of my normal routine. For example, I always turn my phone on Silent when I leave my house for work. But several moments later, I won't remember if I did that, so I'll check it again when I get in my car. Then I won't remember doing that, so I'll check it again when I pull into my work parking lot. Because I do it every single day, I have memories of doing it, but it's so routine that I can't be sure if my memories are from today or from last week.

I've always been that way about lots of little things. When I was in high school, I could never remember backing out the driveway. Obviously, I had to have backed out of the driveway because if I didn't, I wouldn't have been driving to school. But I honestly never remembered doing it.

Now I constantly forget whether or not I lock my apartment door whenever I leave, and I freak out about it, even though I have never once actually forgotten to do it.

 

[Crewman47]

Could be something similar to what seen in the movie The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. As a young boy he would have memory lapses only to realise that in the future they would be a result of his older self being sent back in time conscioulsy into his younger self.

Maybe at some point in the near future you'll develop a gift where you can send your conscious self back in time into your younger self.

 

[Arrqh]

I have a few memories that aren't really holes, but that could not possibly have happened the way that I remember them. The details are all wrong so when I try and reconstruct the events and locations surrounding the event I can clearly see some significant inconsistencies. I noticed it quite a few years ago (it's actually a pretty boring memory, just a random conversation with someone when I was in grade school) but it's interesting... it's as if my brain attempted to fill in gaps that weren't recorded but didn't do a rigorous enough job to stand up to any sort of scrutiny.

Of course, I'd probably have forgotten the entire thing by now (I have a pretty poor declarative memory in general ) if I hadn't noticed the inconsistency!

 

[RevdKathy]

I have an exceptional memory, but it still has holes in.

The stuff Rama describes is about 'tagging' the context for actions that we repeat over and over again. Almost everyone knows the experience of needing to check at some point that you have done some task you 'always' do, such as locking doors etc. The action is automatic, so the attention is elsewhere unless you deliberately focus it. This is not poor memory so much as poor attention skills. It is also related to how important the action is: if you deem an action insignificant it is less likely to register.

Then there are holes like the sort I have: I used to suffer occasional dissociative episodes under stress. During them I would operate on a sort of 'autopilot' while my conscious mind switched off. The scary thing is that I would usually go into 'flight' mode, and either walk or drive to escape the stress. On a number of occasions I recovered to find myself driving, with no idea of where I was or memory of driving there. I'd have to drive round to find out where I was.

Zion, given that you were quite young it sounds to me as if you hit a 'nap attack' (to quote Garfield) and your parents put you to bed.

 

[Holdfast]

I was just reading a Thread in SF&F that made me realize that I have no actual memory of Young Sherlock Holmes. So this phenomenon can actually be quite helpful.

It was a fun movie, dammit!

ZR, is there a hole in your mind where your neuroscience lectures should be?

You made me snort my tea! I remember writing an alliterative poem about my friend Sonia as she kept nodding off during one of our neuroscience lectures:
Sleepy Sonia suddenly set sail aboard her silvery steel sloop
Sluggishly steering said silvery sloop southward,
She sat staring sweetly at soaring seagulls as they swooped
Slowly Sonia's sloop swerved and swayed,
A sloth of a sea-faring steed
So soon Sonia snoozed and swooned in her slumber
Over a sexy Sicilian named Steve.
Now whenever some one mentions Sicily I think of neural pruning.

Now THAT'S an unusual memory association...

 

[kustirider2]

I tend to forget doing things that are a part of my normal routine. For example, I always turn my phone on Silent when I leave my house for work. But several moments later, I won't remember if I did that, so I'll check it again when I get in my car. Then I won't remember doing that, so I'll check it again when I pull into my work parking lot. Because I do it every single day, I have memories of doing it, but it's so routine that I can't be sure if my memories are from today or from last week.

I've always been that way about lots of little things. When I was in high school, I could never remember backing out the driveway. Obviously, I had to have backed out of the driveway because if I didn't, I wouldn't have been driving to school. But I honestly never remembered doing it.

Now I constantly forget whether or not I lock my apartment door whenever I leave, and I freak out about it, even though I have never once actually forgotten to do it.

I do this a lot too. I walk out of the house, get halfway to my destination and think 'Oh no, I forgot to lock the backdoor!'. I get all the way back and remember that I have actually locked it.

Its horrible when you are sat at school worrying someone is going to get into your house and steal your beloved computer

 

[SicOne]

I think Mrs. SicOne has one. She can't remember what she had for lunch yesterday, but remembers with crystal clarity when I screwed up back in '91.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

my name isn't Sinclair, so nope, don't think there's a hole in my mind

Good to see someone here picked up the reference.

 

[RoJoHen]

my name isn't Sinclair, so nope, don't think there's a hole in my mind

Good to see someone here picked up the reference.

I did, too, but I didn't feel like showing off.

 

[archeryguy1701]

I've had a few cases like that. The most recent one was a couple weeks back where I was trying to remember what I did the previous Friday (it was a monday at the time), and I 100% could not remember Friday at all. I still haven't figured out what I spent that day doing. I do this fairly often.

 

[Michael Chris]

my name isn't Sinclair, so nope, don't think there's a hole in my mind

Good to see someone here picked up the reference.

I did, too, but I didn't feel like showing off.

Who didn't?

 

[RJDiogenes]

I was just reading a Thread in SF&F that made me realize that I have no actual memory of Young Sherlock Holmes. So this phenomenon can actually be quite helpful.

It was a fun movie, dammit!

I have a vague memory that seems to involve a stained-glass window shattering and that's it.

 

[plague]

If Zion is really concerned about such a tiny gap, it makes me wonder how bad my memory is. My gaps are the memories themselves, as I remember very little.

 

[Mr Awe]

I was just joking about this exact same topic with a friend the other day for a funny thing that happened.

Last week I took my 4 year old daughter over to get a haircut. I wasn't expecting it would be particularly fun. But, when I saw the gorgeous young woman who was going to cut her hair I realized it was going to be more fun than I first expected. So, as she was cutting my daughter's hair, I sat in the next chair over and we had a great, fun conversation. Lots of laughing, etc. Mostly innocent but fun. I'm flirty but she's about half my age (20) and I don't really push it with girls that young.

Anyway, so we're talking and I remember the ebb and flow of the conversation very well. Except for this part where I have no idea about. You see, she mentioned at one point about coming of the shower and her sister was teasing her. You combine "in the shower" with "sister" and "teasing" and that whole part of the conversation is a hole in my mind. I don't know how we got on that topic, what followed, what the teasing involved, etc. I just remember a mental picture of said situation!

I don't mind having that kind of hole in my mind!

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

I have an exceptional memory, but it still has holes in.

The stuff Rama describes is about 'tagging' the context for actions that we repeat over and over again. Almost everyone knows the experience of needing to check at some point that you have done some task you 'always' do, such as locking doors etc. The action is automatic, so the attention is elsewhere unless you deliberately focus it. This is not poor memory so much as poor attention skills. It is also related to how important the action is: if you deem an action insignificant it is less likely to register.

I totally agree with this. I used to forget the automatic things. And, more annoyingly, I'd forget where I set things which meant that I'd lose everyday objects. Wallet, keys, etc. I'd have to scramble around trying to find them before going out.

It's the same phenomenon. You forget what you did which includes where you put things. It's an attention thing which, if it's a problem you can improve. It's not something you have to live with.

So, I had this problem in high school. Literally decades ago now. But, I determined back then that it was getting too annoying losing things. I decided to pay more attention to everything in general but extra attention to where I put things. At first it was a conscious exercise but it quickly became automatic.

The end result? For the past couple of decades I hardly ever lose anything at all. As a side benefit, for the most part I don't forget the regular routine things either. And, it's totally automatic at this point.

I'm not saying that everyone should do this but if it's causing problems (like with me misplacing common things), it's worth it.

Mr Awe