New Understanding Of How We Remember Traumatic Events Summary

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081028103111.htm

          Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland were the ones who conducted this experiment and discovered why very poignant events can cause some traumatic effect on your long term memory.
          It states that for a long time, the ability of the brain to remember fear or trauma had been crucial to our long term survival, but some of those memories causes a negative reaction rather than one that will help us. It is said that in the amygdala (located at the back part of the brain) that when it encounters situations like the traumatic ones we had before, it releases a stress hormone.
          The Journal of Neuroscience published a paper by QBI's Dr Louise Faber and her collegues have shown how the brain's "adrenaline" called the noradrenaline affects the amygdala  by influencing chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for the formation of memory.
          This discovery can help in real life because it teaches us more about the effects a traumatic event can have on you and maybe understand more on how to treat patients with post-traumatic stress or anxiety disorders. It gives us a clearly understanding of how these emotions and memories are formed.