Charan Ranganath

Sea lions, yeah.

We'll get back to the sea lions. I would argue that to remember where you are when you first get up, you have to engage in an active episodic memory retrieval. That is, you have to figure out, well, how did I get here? And that takes a moment. Orienting yourself takes a moment. And that – because it's a little bit of a controlled memory search, right?

We'll get back to the sea lions. I would argue that to remember where you are when you first get up, you have to engage in an active episodic memory retrieval. That is, you have to figure out, well, how did I get here? And that takes a moment. Orienting yourself takes a moment. And that – because it's a little bit of a controlled memory search, right?

We'll get back to the sea lions. I would argue that to remember where you are when you first get up, you have to engage in an active episodic memory retrieval. That is, you have to figure out, well, how did I get here? And that takes a moment. Orienting yourself takes a moment. And that – because it's a little bit of a controlled memory search, right?

It's not something that's in front of you that reminds you of where you are initially. And you're also in this little bit of a fog when you wake up. I don't know enough about sleep to say, but I would suspect that people probably are in some kind of a – stage one-ish or just high alpha, these brain waves that are like very much associated with kind of grogginess as you're getting up.

It's not something that's in front of you that reminds you of where you are initially. And you're also in this little bit of a fog when you wake up. I don't know enough about sleep to say, but I would suspect that people probably are in some kind of a – stage one-ish or just high alpha, these brain waves that are like very much associated with kind of grogginess as you're getting up.

It's not something that's in front of you that reminds you of where you are initially. And you're also in this little bit of a fog when you wake up. I don't know enough about sleep to say, but I would suspect that people probably are in some kind of a – stage one-ish or just high alpha, these brain waves that are like very much associated with kind of grogginess as you're getting up.

Neuromodulators are probably super low.

Neuromodulators are probably super low.

Neuromodulators are probably super low.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so that's going to lead you to really be slow in doing that memory retrieval that you need to orient yourself. So like in the clinic, if you want to ask, if you want to understand whether someone has a memory disorder, one of the simplest things is to ask them what day of the week is it? What month is it?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so that's going to lead you to really be slow in doing that memory retrieval that you need to orient yourself. So like in the clinic, if you want to ask, if you want to understand whether someone has a memory disorder, one of the simplest things is to ask them what day of the week is it? What month is it?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so that's going to lead you to really be slow in doing that memory retrieval that you need to orient yourself. So like in the clinic, if you want to ask, if you want to understand whether someone has a memory disorder, one of the simplest things is to ask them what day of the week is it? What month is it?

Who's the president? Yeah. Right now that's a loaded question.

Who's the president? Yeah. Right now that's a loaded question.

Who's the president? Yeah. Right now that's a loaded question.

Well, here's what I'll say. It's a really interesting and complex question. You always talk to a scientist, you get that it's complicated. But I'll give you as simple of a thing as I can, which is, so if you look at patients with amnesia, so they have a memory disorder where they can't form new memories, they have a sense of who they are, as you mentioned, right?

Well, here's what I'll say. It's a really interesting and complex question. You always talk to a scientist, you get that it's complicated. But I'll give you as simple of a thing as I can, which is, so if you look at patients with amnesia, so they have a memory disorder where they can't form new memories, they have a sense of who they are, as you mentioned, right?

Well, here's what I'll say. It's a really interesting and complex question. You always talk to a scientist, you get that it's complicated. But I'll give you as simple of a thing as I can, which is, so if you look at patients with amnesia, so they have a memory disorder where they can't form new memories, they have a sense of who they are, as you mentioned, right?

It's not like they don't know who they are. And I mean like they know their names, they know their biographies and so forth. But what happens is at the time, let's say if you had gone swimming and you nearly drowned, you had a hypoxia incident or a cardiac arrest or you had like a traumatic brain injury, severe memory deficit, right? Your sense of self doesn't update. It gets kind of stuck.