Posted on 07/20/2008 9:30:34 AM PDT by Coffee200am
Oops ! He forgot your birthday again. Well do not blame his memory for this innocent forgetfulness as the the reason behind it is down in the genes.
While men may fail to match a woman's ability to remember the date of an anniversary, they are better at storing a seemingly endless cache of facts and figures and all this is because of genetic differences.
Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, have found that males use different genes from females when making the new connections in the brain that are needed to create long-term memories. They believe this might explain why men are far better at remembering ''tactical'' memories, such as travel directions and trivia, while women form more ''emotional'' memories such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries and details about the world around them. Professor Peter Giese, who led the Medical Research Council- funded research , said they had identified two genes that seemed to be important for learning and making memories in males but not females. ''It is unexpected that there should be such a difference within a species, but then we have to remember that males and females are far from identical at the genetic level as males have an X and Y chromosome while females have two X chromosomes. It is conceivable that the differences we found do account for the differences in the way the memories of men and women perform in different circumstances, '' he said.
The researchers used mice to study the role that certain genes play in how long-term memories are made in males and females. Using a series of tests such as a maze they were able to show that male mice were faster at making the spatial memories that allowed them to learn a route out of the maze. ''We see these sex differences in humans too as males and females use different strategies when it comes to remembering a route through a city, for example. In some tasks males are better than females and in other occasions females are better than males, '' Professor Giese said.
''These genetic differences could be very important in studying diseases like Alzheimer's, where memory is affected. Females are affected by Alzheimer's more than males, so it could mean the way females make memories is more vulnerable to disease.''
An anniversary day is not inherently important. What is, is either the memory of the importance of that day, which can be realized at any moment of any day, or, the importance of the person with whom that long ago occasion had any meaning, which may mean you are continually grateful for someone in your life and need no special day to make that person important, again.......................................And you tell your spouse that every year , right??
Actually, I’ve told my wife this, and she generally agrees. We do eat out or do something around our anniversary, but make no pains to do something a any specific day for that or birthdays.
Invariably, as the day approaches, one of us will break out in the song from the Flintstones ep (even after 20+ years ;)
It's also a week before Mother's Day, so there always a built-in reminder there.
My late husband could remember the anniversaries of our engagement, first date, first smooch, first movie together, first gift he ever got me and that I ever got him, etc. My memory was only good for birthdays.
The lesson being, that in any study there are always exceptions to the rule.
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What is this thread about?
I think women tend to think in cycles while men tend to think in sequences. That is, that time is a recurring cycle for the female brain and time is a linear sequence for the male brain. With the obligatory disclaimer for exceptions for either.
I wouldn’t say that either is better than the other, but rather that they’re designed to compliment each other. Yin and yang.
What thread?
Genes. Pingworthy?
I dunno. You started it.
Not chocolate.
Go back to sleep.
IS chocolate! My nose knows!
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i may have to send this to xshub as my bday is this sunday.... perfect timing ; )
My wife had the date engraved on the inside of my wedding band before sliding it on my finger 22 years, 11 months, 17 days, 2 hours and 15 minutes ago.
Clever girl.
No strange attractors either.
Cheers!
My anniversary is New Year’s Eve, so it’s very easy to remember.
I’m always on FR so I have a built in reminder of my wedding anniversary.
The great thing about it is that people who don’t know better just think I’m a wonderful loving man.
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See tagline.
I proposed to CDBear on Friday the 13th... of February. It’s one of my sense of humor quirks but it is also impossible to forget.
Our wedding date is my youngest sister’s birthday and one set of her grandparents’ wedding anniversary. We used that date as an inducement to get my sis and her grandparents to the wedding. The other grandfather walked her down the aisle. That brought family members from Texas and Wisconsin to Mississippi who would never have come otherwise.
The additional reasons to remember the date — well, that and my tagline — means I have no excuse for forgetting our anniversary. There are other dates I have trouble with, but they won’t land me in nearly as much trouble.
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