As a biology major and a future health practitioner, I was extremely interested in Dr. Aminoff’s presentation, which did not disappoint. I was surprised at both how much we know about the brain and how much we still have left to discover. Dr. Aminoff used a variety of examples and findings that helped me understand how memory and the brain work, and though I was aware of some of these ideas, her presentation was extremely helpful in explaining how memory works at all. I truly enjoyed her visit.

I think that Dr. Aminoff did a great job of walking us through the encoding, storage, and retrieval stages of memory. We thoroughly covered each stage in the memory process, and outlined influences and factors that impact how we remember things. I had never really given much thought to these stages as distinct processes before, nor did I realize the true importance of external factors influencing our memories. The facts about sleep, in the rat experiment that we covered, were of particular interest to me, since it is quite difficult to both sleep and meet deadlines in college. There have been days and even weeks in which I feel drained and not at my best due to late night study sessions and projects within these past few years, and I have experienced feeling slow to understand in these moments. It was good to hear how important sleep is, as our brains playback and “save” our memories better while we rest. 

Another fact I found to be interesting was how pliable our memories really are, and how easy it is to change or implant a false memory with suggestion from outside influences. The “rewriting” of memories almost scares me, as I know that I cannot truly rely on my own brain to recount experiences as they actually happened, especially the later I revisit them. Perhaps this is why it is good to refresh our memory on concepts we learn in classes, and to ensure we have an accurate understanding of them. The thought that individuals many be paying the price of faulty eye-witness testimony is also a sad thing, that was briefly touched upon in Dr. Aminoff’s presentation. I am interested in hearing more about that, and finding statistics for myself. I can recount many instances in which my girlfriend and I remember things differently, and I often wonder how much our personal perceptions have influenced these occurrences, and how far to the middle the truth actually lies.

Overall, I found the class to be very enjoyable, and listening to the process and methodology to all of the experiments that Dr. Aminoff explained to us was intriguing. I love research, and I am consistently impressed with the good work that scientists do. I hope many more breakthroughs are ahead of us in regard to the brain.