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Switching It Up: How Memory Deals With A Change In Plans
sciencedaily.com — Adjusting our behavior to changing circumstances enables us to achieve our goals. But how, exactly, do our brains switch so elegantly and quickly from one well-entrenched plan to a newer one in reaction to a sudden change in circumstances?
joebloggs2k8- 395 diggs
- digg it
- antymatter, on 08/21/2008, -1/+7I forgot what I was going to say...*****...
- Scynet, on 08/21/2008, -1/+5If (!boobs)
Plan B
else
Plan A- Krissam, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1hmm, i think it's more like
:Girl
If (Score(Girl.Name)
cout
- Krissam, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1hmm, i think it's more like
- jonesyno, on 08/21/2008, -0/+0I had to adjust my goal-directed behavior to successfully read that busy 3-column page that the article was squeezed into.
- Synoptic, on 08/21/2008, -0/+2I hate changes in plans at the last minute...it makes me feel like somebody stole my cake. All of those brain cells I destroyed in high school must be located in the prefrontal cortex (or is it the parietal cortex???)
- AndrewMoyer, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1There is no cake! The cake is a lie!
- xbaz, on 08/21/2008, -1/+0forget how it works as long as its working, sometimes mine gets a syntax error
- zantos420, on 08/21/2008, -0/+3FTA: "Courtney and her team used mental math tasks (a good working example of "if-then" rules) and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate which areas of the brain are used for different functions."
The machine they use is insane looking! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4 - victorycig, on 08/21/2008, -0/+3Maybe your brain switches elegantly from one plan to another... I'm detrimentally stubborn.
- gummih, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1exactly - that sentence struck me as odd too :o)
Elegantly? Kicking and screaming more like it ... >:o8
- gummih, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1exactly - that sentence struck me as odd too :o)
- ddosterschill, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1potentially interesting information in a poorly written article
- RevEng, on 08/21/2008, -0/+1Is it just me or does this test sound like a strawman? For one, I don't see a direct relationship between adjusting driving routes based on new waypoints and solving a math problem using different numbers and rules. Perhaps they seem similar in some ways, but that's no guarantee that they are handled similarly in our brains.
Secondly, the evidence suggests only that different memories are stored in vastly different parts of the brain. How this "provides clues about how the human brain accomplishes complex, goal-directed behaviors that require remembering and changing abstract rules" isn't elaborated on.
Perhaps this is just a poorly written article, or maybe it's a poor study, but it sure sounds like they are making mountains out of molehills here.
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