CRAFTING FUTURE MEMORIES PROJECT

Echoic Memory -- Echoic memory is one type of sensory memory process. Specifically, echoic memory is sensory memory associated with auditory information received from the environment. The term echoic stems from the word echo, which is in reference to the brief echo, or the reverberation of sound that is transmitted neurologically via this type of sensory memory.

Case Study: Clive Wearing

British conductor and musician Clive Wearing contracted a brain infection in 1985. He was left with a memory span of only 10 seconds. The infection - herpes encephalitis - left him unable to recognise people he had seen or remember things that had been said just moments earlier. However, despite being acknowledged by doctors as having one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever, his musical ability and much of his musical memory was intact. Now aged 73, he is still able to read music and play the piano and once even conducted his former choir again. Researchers have come to believe they are closer to understanding how musical memory is preserved in some people - even when they can remember almost nothing of their past.

Scientists are trying to understand how amnesiacs can lose all memory of their past life - and yet remember music. The answer may be that musical memories are stored in a special part of the brain. In tests his musical memory was classified as 'normal' - even though the rest of his brain was so badly affected he could not remember the layout of his flat, the Guardian reported.