This dissertation examines how the Serbs as a nation deal with the past through the prism of the 1915 Serbian Army retreat across Montenegro and Albania in the wake of the invasion of Serbia in... Show moreThis dissertation examines how the Serbs as a nation deal with the past through the prism of the 1915 Serbian Army retreat across Montenegro and Albania in the wake of the invasion of Serbia in October 1915. We investigate the remembrance of this iconic event as a symptom of Serbian mythologized self-perception. The Retreat today is a canonised memory symbolising Serbian heroism and sacrifice. The First World War and the Retreat are experienced as specific and personal. Any attempted introduction of alternative views of the Serbian role in the First World War are rejected as hostile revisionism. The Serbian government has used the centenary commemorations to distract the Serbian public from the more recent unexamined past — Serbia’s role in the wars of the Yugoslav succession of the 1990s. This commemorative opportunism has been termed in the thesis as historical frame switching —framing current political events within arguably irrelevant historical contexts mostly in order to present an image of biased and unjust treatment of Serbs by the West. Further, politically loaded commemorations are analysed alongside grassroot events and ceremonies that memorialise the War and the Retreat. The latter are recognised as fictive kinships of remembrance, as previously characterised by Jay Winter. Show less
Early dementias are difficult to distinguish from normal age-related memory decline. In the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, brain functions are already changing... Show moreEarly dementias are difficult to distinguish from normal age-related memory decline. In the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, brain functions are already changing, but this is not directly visible from the outside. Many research is aimed at discovering early disease markers. However, research using EEG registration during conventional eyes closed conditions revealed little additional information. The yield of EEG research can be improved by probing the weakest spot, which, in case of dementia, is memory. Karin van der Hiele introduced memory tests during EEG registration and found that early abnormalities in brain functioning can then be observed in Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease. An interesting finding came to light: the EEG in dementia displays a lot of muscle activity which is normally filtered out. However, the researchers decided not to throw this activity away but to measure it. Interestingly, they found that the amount of muscle activity was related to cognition and to the number of depressive complaints. It may pay to keep an open mind regarding the nature of the parameter to be measured. Show less
