JMHO this will be the what the Defense is going to use in their case. I think they have done very well on cross so far. JMHO
Defense Expert Dr. David Diamond
Theorizing on the Neurobiology of Forgotten Baby Syndrome
http://psychology.usf.edu/faculty/data/ddiamond/baby-sy.pdf
*Ton of case references on the PDF
One aspect of my research program is the study of how different brain memory
systems appear to cooperate, as well as to compete against each other. Two brain
structures, the hippocampus (HC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), work together to
optimize decision-making and multi-tasking, and to form and retrieve new memories.
Two other brain structures, the basal ganglia (BG) and amygdala, can interfere with the
functioning of the HC-PFC memory system. The BG controls habit-based behaviors and
the amygdala controls emotional memory processing. In the following I provide two
conditions in which the HC-PFC, BG and amygdala interact to cause memory failures,
with potentially tragic outcomes. The failure to remember that a child is in ones car,
which can have a tragic outcome, is referred to as Forgotten Baby Syndrome.
Condition 1: The BG can suppress the functioning of the HC-PFC. In a situation
which is considered predictable and safe, as when a person is performing a routine
activity such as driving a car to work, the BG can dominate the HC-PFC memory system.
The BG enables automated behaviors (habits) to occur with minimal mental effort.
When the BG dominates memory processing, a person is less likely to interrupt habitbased
behaviors to do something that is consciously planned. A benign example of BG
domination over the HC-PFC system is when a person forgets to stop at a store to pick
up groceries on the way home from work; the BG (habit-based memory system)
suppresses the HC-PFC system from interrupting the drive home to stop at the store. A
similar, but tragic, example of BG dominance over the HC-PFC system is when a parent
drives to work, and in the process forgets to drop off a child at daycare. Our hypothesis
is that parents forget to stop at the daycare because bringing the child to daycare either
is not a part of the parents daily routine, or the parent inconsistently takes the child to
daycare. On the day in which the parent forgets the child, the BG memory system has
dominated control over the HC-PFC memory system, thereby causing the parent to
drive straight from home to work. In the process of BG memory system dominance, the
parent loses awareness of the sleeping (quiet) child in the back seat of the car.
Condition 2: The amygdala is activated under high stress conditions, thereby
enabling a person to remember a stress-provoking event very well. When the amygdala
is activated it has two effects on brain memory systems. First, it interferes with the
functioning of the HC-PFC system. The amygdala-driven suppression of the HC-PFC
can result in an individual becoming completely focused on a stressful event, causing
him or her to lose track of other information which was held in memory by the HC-PFC
system. This loss of memory may involve a relatively benign situation, such as a stressful
event causing someone to forget where he or she parked their car. A comparable, but
tragic, example of a stress-induced memory impairment is when a parent becomes so
preoccupied with a stressful event during a drive to work that he or she forgets that a
child is in the back seat of the car; the child is left in the car, resulting in death caused by
hyperthermia. Second, activation of the amygdala, and/or sleep deprivation, enhances
the functioning of the BG (habit-based) memory system. This enhancement of the BG
enables subconscious habit-based memories to be expressed efficiently in times of
stress. Thus, a stressed person is able to efficiently drive to work while focusing on a
stressful event, but in the process, the suppression of the HC-PFC system interferes with
the recollection of new information, and the persons awareness of the child is lost
).
