So can high blood pressure and strokes, thyroid problems, some medications, menopause, depression and poor diet. But the study's director, Dr. Roger Dixon, of the Dept. of Psychology, has identified a clear decline in certain kinds of memory as we age. It actually starts in our thirties, although it is much less rapid than many fear. Episodic memory is a class of memory that refers to the kinds of things you try to remember that you personally experience. So episodic memory is something that changes dramatically.
Memory is both fragile - and powerful.
What comes through is the fragmented nature of memory and how urgently the artists need to recreate it. Schacter learned from his memory art from artists groping for their life stories in memory's fragments that memories do fade, elude us, and lie to us. One example is a work by west coast artist Crystal Dilbuner. There are over two hundred such drugs in development. That makes neurologist Morris Freedman of the Rotman Institute very uneasy.