Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive process (8 marks)
Command term "EXPLAIN" - give a detailed account, including reasons or causes
INTRODUCTION
A number of different biological factors could affect memory, such as:
Viruses
Infections
psychological disorders - depression, schizophrenia
Alzheimers
Dementia
Brain damage
MAIN BODY
One of the most iconic cases of how biological factors can effect memory is that of Clive Wearing. His episodic and semantic memory was lost due to a severe viral infection of the brain (encephalitis). The virus destroyed much of his hippocampus and the frontal regions of his brain, areas which are in charge of memory, and as a result suffers from severe retrograde and anterograde amnesia.
Wearing can still play the piano, conduct music, and remember his wife, but has a memory span of approximately 7-30 seconds.
STUDY: Clive Wearing Brain Scan
AIM: To look at Clive Wearing’s brain and whether his retrograde and anterograde amnesia can be seen using scans
FINDINGS - Scans showed damage to Wearing’s hippocampus and frontal regions
These scans illustrate how the hippocampus is vital for encoding and transferring information from STM to LTM. It demonstrates how explicit (semantic and episodic) memories are linked to that area of the brain, but how implicit (procedural (piano playing) and emotional (memories of his wife)) memories are not.
Another case would be the study of HM, who suffered memory loss after a surgery to stop his epileptic seizures lead to accidental removal of tissue from the temporal lobe, hippocampus, and amygdala. As a result, HM cannot form new memories and cannot recognise people who visit him regularly, but can still have a normal conversation.