I remember reading a very good article on how memory works. It related how short term memory is related to long term memory, and how problems with short term memory do not allow long term memories to be created.

I may have read it here or in a link from here, or in a book.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a good article about the same I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

And yes I do see the humor in not remembering where I saw the article about memory

Don't know if this is the one you're looking for or not. Its long, but I'm sure I remember reading the memory stuff you were talking about in here.
http://www.alzheimer.guelph.or...tia%20Experience.pdf

Thank you. That is not the one I was looking for but it will help in explaining to my husband how memory works in people with dementia. Of course I found a good article yesterday that had a diagram and thought I saved it but it was not saved so now I am looking for that one also.

I swear there is some computer file somewhere full of all the stuff I thought I'd saved. If I find a better shorter one, I'll post the link.

teadrinkr,
I don't believe I know the article that you are referring to but have you ordered Coach Broyles book from alz assoc. It is free and he does a great job of explaining this disease in a orderly fashion.
Coach Broyles Gamebook...good for family to read.
On the home page of this site is a "brain tour" and it shows you what is happening to a pt's brain with alz. Very helpful.
Hope you find what you need, but if you don't, please post again. but you will get more responses soon. There are so many members here that have a great store of knowledge and links that they so wonderfully share.
Sheryl

teadrinkr -

The Ghent-Fuller article is very good but in my (minority) opinion, a little one-sided. She tries to describe all of Alzheimer's in terms of memory failure, and I don't think that's the whole story. There are also more basic failures of cognition - in particular the ability to take basic sensory information and process it into complete understanding. My father, for example, went through a long phase where he could look at bright sunlight outside the window, identify it as bright sunlight, and then tell you that it was the middle of the night. That wasn't because he'd "forgotten" that night was supposed to be dark. It was because he was unable to connect the sight of bright sunlight with the cognition that sunlight means day. His perception of time of day was happening elsewhere and had become disconnected from visual information.

The best insight I ever got into this was from a book by Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle called "The Majesty of Your Loving." It's a memoir of her husband's Alzheimer's that's unusually perceptive. You can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Majesty-...id=1256321494&sr=1-1

Her website is here:

http://www.majestyofyourloving.com/

This helped me understand what was going on with my father and realize that memory is only one dimension of what goes on in Alzheimer's.

Hope this is helpful.

Best,
Alan

quote:

Originally posted by Alan. A:
teadrinkr -
The best insight I ever got into this was from a book by Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle called "The Majesty of Your Loving." It's a memoir of her husband's Alzheimer's that's unusually perceptive.

Thanks, Alan. There's something about this book that I'm not ready to deal with, but I put it on my Amazon wish list and know I'll read it eventually.

LittleRed,

Thanks for the link to the Ghent Fuller article. I hadn't read that before and thought it was very good.