志异 Draft by Drama box december 2013 (english) | Page 53

body as space -

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mplex organ.
e experience with
smitted to our
uently encoded
the brain receives
terwards, the
tion is retrieved as
ut launching into
ts and details,
see the brain
ent areas, each
rtain functions.

assive amount of
e come across
ly selected
ncoded. The
memories also
on one’s subjective
he experience. The
d in our head is
ifferent from

‘reality’. When we ?nally express
our memories through speech or
actions, the memories may also be
different from their state in storage.
Many activities in reminiscence
work use sensorial stimuli like songs,
pictures and objects (for touching
or smelling). These stimuli act as
triggers to jolt the storage and
retrieval process in the brain. The
idea is to activate the ‘storage’
space by introducing similar stimuli
that the mind has experienced
before, in the hope that these
memories emerge from an
internal space in the brain.

The expression of memories can
take many forms. One could talk,
write, or put memories in images.
Memories could also be expressed
via the body. While memories are
encoded and stored in the brain,
the body sometimes also becomes
a retainer of memories. Once
external stimuli are introduced to
the brain, the memory could be
expressed via the body, almost as if
it is a re?ex action. These memories
are very often based on ritualistic
movements repeated frequently for
a period of time. For the seniors,
it could be fanning the ?re at a
wood-burning stove, shooting birds
with a catapult, working the sewing
machine or harvesting vegetables.
The body remembers more than
we think it does. When seniors are
given the opportunity to activate the
body as a space in which memories
are stored, the results are rich.
However, this can be challenging
because the aged body has been
subjected to many years of physical
and social conditioning.