Memories and lying
May. 24th, 2008 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bananacosmicgirlAfter studying forensic medicine last semester, I've been taking a course in forensic psychology this semester (as well as my usual law courses), and it's been highly interesting. How do we remember? How does amnesia work?
In "House's Head", House first uses hypnosis to start remembering. This brings him back to the bar with a great deal of detail. Hypnosis doesn't work this way - if it had, it'd be used by the police, in courts, and by a multitude of other professionals. This epidsode does, however, show a bit of the danger with hypnosis - Chase tells House to ignore Amber in the hypnosis, which could be part of the reason why he doesn't remember her for the rest of the episode. Really, if it was that easy, there would hardly be a need for research on how people remember traumas, considering everyone could just be hypnotized to remember. (I know House didn't remember all that much, but still...)
Later on, House uses physostigmine to jog his memory. This is an Alzheimer's drug, and it would be really fantastic if it worked as showed on House. Because I'm not a doctor, I'll quote from Polite Dissent:
Then in Wilson's Heart, House uses deep brain stimulation to get to the memories he needs. Now, as I said, I'm no doctor but for God's sakes, what is the likelihood that an electric pulse will bring forth the exact memory that is needed? Again with the above stated about hypnosis: had this been possible, not much research on trauma victims would have been needed, because they could all just remember with electricity shot through their brains...
There's lots of fascinating studies on how people remember, from the 7+/-2 rule about short term memory, to what kind of details we remember and how we "fill in" information about things that we haven't seen. (For example, when a ship called Estonia sank, there were no pictures taken from the sinking, but several stories from the survivors. Despite the fact that no picture had been taken, a surprising amount of people in the study said they had seen pictures; they had filled in the information and created mental pictures of the sinking).
House isn't the only show saying things that aren't true as far as psychology goes... In a recent episode of Bones, Brennan says there is evidence for certain signs that tell you another person is lying. This isn't true: the studies are often inconclusive, and contradict each other. People in general suck at telling when other people are lying to them (few studies give results that are far above the chance level of 50%), and professionals such as policemen and judges are equally bad at telling who lies and who doesn't.
Rant over. :)
ETA: Oh, and in your comments, please don't post anything about the latest episodes of NCIS. I don't want to be more spoiled than I already am...
ETA2: Another interesting thing to note from Polite Dissent:
In "House's Head", House first uses hypnosis to start remembering. This brings him back to the bar with a great deal of detail. Hypnosis doesn't work this way - if it had, it'd be used by the police, in courts, and by a multitude of other professionals. This epidsode does, however, show a bit of the danger with hypnosis - Chase tells House to ignore Amber in the hypnosis, which could be part of the reason why he doesn't remember her for the rest of the episode. Really, if it was that easy, there would hardly be a need for research on how people remember traumas, considering everyone could just be hypnotized to remember. (I know House didn't remember all that much, but still...)
Later on, House uses physostigmine to jog his memory. This is an Alzheimer's drug, and it would be really fantastic if it worked as showed on House. Because I'm not a doctor, I'll quote from Polite Dissent:
While physostigmine has been used in cases of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, it has shown at best only minimal improvement. Several decades ago it was tested as a memory aid, but with lackluster results. It is also not available commercially in the U.S. as an oral formulation, unless House has access to a researcher’s stash.
Then in Wilson's Heart, House uses deep brain stimulation to get to the memories he needs. Now, as I said, I'm no doctor but for God's sakes, what is the likelihood that an electric pulse will bring forth the exact memory that is needed? Again with the above stated about hypnosis: had this been possible, not much research on trauma victims would have been needed, because they could all just remember with electricity shot through their brains...
There's lots of fascinating studies on how people remember, from the 7+/-2 rule about short term memory, to what kind of details we remember and how we "fill in" information about things that we haven't seen. (For example, when a ship called Estonia sank, there were no pictures taken from the sinking, but several stories from the survivors. Despite the fact that no picture had been taken, a surprising amount of people in the study said they had seen pictures; they had filled in the information and created mental pictures of the sinking).
House isn't the only show saying things that aren't true as far as psychology goes... In a recent episode of Bones, Brennan says there is evidence for certain signs that tell you another person is lying. This isn't true: the studies are often inconclusive, and contradict each other. People in general suck at telling when other people are lying to them (few studies give results that are far above the chance level of 50%), and professionals such as policemen and judges are equally bad at telling who lies and who doesn't.
Rant over. :)
ETA: Oh, and in your comments, please don't post anything about the latest episodes of NCIS. I don't want to be more spoiled than I already am...
ETA2: Another interesting thing to note from Polite Dissent:
The writers are correct in that Amantadine is poorly cleared by dialysis, and there have been deaths reported on the medication. The dose for the flu is 100MG twice a day. The only size pill Amantadine comes in is 100MG, so Amber taking two means that she was overdosing herself on it, so she bears some of the blame for this.
