The human brain is a big, intricateyet delicate, structure in the human body.

It is the key structure in

cognitive function. Any damage to the brain does not only erase memories but also may deceive the
brain to erroneously remember a new object as being familiar (2010). The innovative researchers at
Cambridge University investigated this phenomenon in their research on The Paradoxial False Memory
for Objects after Brain Damage.

The publication began by stating the widely acceptable premise that medial temporal lobe damage
results in the inability to remember new experiences soon after they are learned. They indicated that
the general belief is that this occurs because the ability to remember such information becomes
compromised after a short period of time. They therefore deduced based on this premise that such
information or experiences are either lost or become inaccessible to the extent that when such
experiences are presented and re-experienced, they appear as if they are new or never have been
learned. They therefore set out to explore this premise by using the generally used model of memory
impairment, the the standard object recognition memory model.

According to James Hampton, a well-renowned Professor of Cognitive Psychology at City University
London, recognition is the process of matching a perceptual representation of the stimulus item *into+
stored representations of previously *exposed+ stimuli (2003). This stored information is known as
structural representations based on the visual-spatial nature of the retained information (Moss and
Hampton, 2003). Object recognition memory is the ability to discriminate the familiarity of previously
encountered objects (Gaskins et al., 2009). The standard object recognition memory required the use
and exposure of participants (humans and animals) to a study object. This is followed by a testing phase
in which the object is presented simultaneously with a new distinctive object. In this experiment the
participant is then required to distinguish between the repeated object and the new object. The finding
was that participants with temporal lobe damage have impairment in making the distinction between
the repeated experience and the novel experience when both are presented side by side especially after
a long delay between study and test. The indication was that the delay presents interferences which
affect the perception of the experiences. It was concluded therefore that the inability to distinguish the
repeated object and novel object is a factor of how one object affects the other and how it is perceived.

The researchers went further to test this hypothesis by using a method of assessing object recognition
by decoupling the objects of exploration. The finding was that participants with intact brain explored
the novel object more than the repeated object and those with temporal lobe injury explored both
equally. Furthermore they introduced another factor by placing the participants in a holding area or
visually restricted environment. The study showed that the longer the delay, the more intense the
impairment. The researchers concluded that object recognition is not only a function of the delay but a
function of the complexity of the task or performance.

Researchers suggest that the anatomy and the patho-physiology of the functional nature of the brain
gives credence to the paradoxical memory impairment noted in those with temporal lobe damage
(McTighe et al., 2010). The cognitive skills of the brain are arranged in hierarchical increase in
complexity. The higher cognitive functions are performed by the temporal lobe of the brain in
comparison with the posterior occipital lobe. It follows therefore that any damage to the lobe will
present impairment heightened by not only the length of delay, the length of exposure but also the
complexity of the task to be accomplished. Paradoxically the memory impairment is bound to exist
when there is a peri-rhinal lesions but however the length of exposure and the delay heightens the
inability to execute complex task. This hypothesis was confirmed consistently on the above mentioned
studies with a P value of <0.005.

The temporal lobe of the brain is the primary region for visual, memory, and speech skills. Any alteration
to this area of the brain creates disturbances of auditory perception, speech alteration, disturbances of
visual perception and disturbances of cognitive reasons and rationalization. For instance, researchers at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigns Beckman Institute in collaboration with neurologists at
the University of Iowa, state that medial temporal lobe damage leads to cognitive impairment in the
acquisition of novel memories and as well as the retention deficits in short term memory (Warren et al.,
2010). Warren and his colleagues evaluated the retention deficits of medial temporal lobe amnesiacs by
categorizing their memory impairments as either representational drift or outright loss of
representation over time (2010). Their research discovery suggests that MTL, or medial temporal lobe,
damage can inhibit the retention short-term memory of even simple stimuli such as visual search task of
shapes and dimensions (2010). Performance of such task amongst individuals with MLT damage reflects
not the complete loss of the maintained representation but rather a degradation or progressive drift of
the representation over time (Warren et al, 2010).

Similarly, the Paradoxical False Memory research investigated how the midbrain, particularly the peri-
rhinal cortex or temporal lobe, functions in relation to the task of visual, cognitive reasoning, and
rational abilities. McTighe and her research associates utilized the

Credit: Science/AAAS

representational-hierarchical model where visual stimulus components are organized based on levels of
increased complexity conjunctions, as information diffuses from the anterior and posterior regions of
the visual ventral stream in perirhinal cortex (2010). In other words, the representational hierarchy
theory of cognition proposes that visual information is structured into intricate representations of
realistic objects. This model suggests that any exposure of stimulus throughout the ventral-visual-
perirhinal-hippocampal stream *in the temporal lobe+ is utilized in all cognitive, mnemonic, and
perceptual functions (2010).

Although the representational-hierarchical model was attested in their paradoxical discovery, McTighe
and her associates also used computerized environmental simulation of non-experimental visual
material. This material has some features that are similar to the novel object, therefore, interference
may arise based on the consequences of this exposure, *where+ features in the novel object will now be
*deemed as+ familiar (2010). From this theoretical conception, the scientists counter intuitively
predicted that brain damage can generate impairments in visual recognition memory task based on the
fact that the new object looks familiar, rather than continuous exposure to an object as novel (McTighe
et al., 2010).

Undoubtedly the findings from the simulation were valid because animals that suffered damage to the
perirhinal cortex saw novel objects as familiar. Based on the support of these simulations and their
laboratory findings, I agree with the notion that object recognition memory impairments does not
result from damage to the memory system. Rather brain damage that results in such impairments only
compromises only a *precise+ type of complex stimulus representation (McTighe et al., 2010). Such may
be the case of individuals with cortical brain damage such amnesia and Alzheimers disease based the
combination of perirhinal lesions and object recognition impairments similar to the findings in this
research. However in order to evaluation between and the paradoxical phenomenon, more research is
needed and further representation-hierarchical simulation testing must be performed on humans.