[Cz-health-sci] Memory articles: structure

[Howard Berkowitz]

Not trying to take things too far afield, but if you want people that can write top level articles, look for well-qualified computer/network architects and senior engineers, and quite possibly traditional architects.  The role calls for "top-down" thinking and problem definition. You'll also find this among military and business people that are competent at strategic thinking.

> Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:54:53 +0000
> From: gareth.leng at ed.ac.uk
> To: cz-health-sci at voltaire.citizendium.org
> Subject: Re: [Cz-health-sci] Memory articles: structure
> 
> Yes, but to some extent we have to work with this; people write about  
> their passions and we have to use that constructively - and it's  
> really hard to construct good top level articles, they need a very  
> considerable investment. Memory is something I know something about -  
> but at just one level - the cellular mechanisms involved. Linking the  
> neuroscience to the psychology is like building a bridge across the  
> Atlantic - and just as vulnerable to continental drift.
> 
> PTSD I feel a bit more comfortable about - the editor of ''Stress'' is  
> in the next office to me and is one of my oldest friends. So I  
> suggessted it knowing that I could probably keep it sane within my  
> approximate expertise. It's a well defined syndrome with a solid  
> focussed body of research around it. I can work on [[Stress]] as a  
> higher level field to it.

I can contribute a certain amount from trauma medicine, which gets into the physiological stress of multisystem disease, and also the psychological factors in warfare and in emergency service workers. Indeed, having just read eMedicine's article on PTSD, I found it seriously flawed in terms of etiology -- it postulates a stress event where the victim is overwhelmed; PTSD among soldiers and emergency service workers often manifests itself after someone performed heroically during the traumatic event. 

> 
> I think recovered memory can be fine - see the guidelines on the  
> external links s page that really define quite tightly the accepted  
> view, along with the bibliography ssummaries. Recovered memory is NOT  
> a scientific issue, there's no science tahts relevant, it's just a  
> legal issue and a therapy practice issue - very important for both.  
> But really there is no science there.

This is a valid point with which I agree. With CZ politics, can we face it head on, identify it as political, legal, and perhaps medical, as part of the overall struggle we are having with such things as ritual abuse? 
> 
> 
> Quoting Howard Berkowitz <hcberkowitz at hotmail.com>:
> 
> >
> > We don't seem to have a top-level structure about memory in the   
> > neurologic sense, although there's more on computer memory. For an   
> > assortment of reason, I think we need a top-level one, with various   
> > subarticles on types and pathologies.  I'm a bit disturbed with a   
> > bottom-up approach that seems to be starting with the controversial   
> > issue of recovered memory, an article which blurs into PTSD and   
> > legal issues.
> >
> > Obviously, the neuroscientists among us are better qualified for the  
> >  broad view. I'd be delighted if we just started with a good solid   
> > Memory/Related Articles pages, with appropriate disambiguation of   
> > Memory (biomedical term), to disambiguate from the many kinds of   
> > computer memory (e.g., RAM, ROM, CAM, TCAM, EEPROM, etc.) as well as  
> >  things such as "memory of water".
> >
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> 
> 
> Gareth Leng
> Professor of Experimental Physiology
> Head of School of Biomedical Sciences
> University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Sciences
> Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9XD UK
> 
> -- 
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
> 
> 
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