How Our Memory Works

Have you ever wondered how your memory works? The brain is not like a computer with limited storage capacity, rather, individual memories are scattered all over the brain. For example a amemory of eating grandma's apple pie, some brain cells help you remember what the pie looked like, others help you remember th smell of the cinnamon, and even cells to remember the delicious Taste. Our brain doesn't have a single place that serves as a memory bank. Instead, individual memories are scattered all over the brain. Many brain cells, in several different regions, work together to make one memory. A memory is not a physical thing that we can find in any given brain cell. It's an action, not an object. A memory only happens when many connected neurons fire in a specific pattern, and because the same cells can fire in many unique patterns, one group of neurons can encode multiple memories, which increases the memory storage capacity of the brain. Buried deep in the middle of the brain we find a group of cells shaped like a sea horse, which is why the 18th century scientists named this bit the 'hippocampus'. The hippocampus is a key to making memories, but it isn't where memories are stored. To commit new memories to long-term storage, the brain consolidates by replaying the experience in fast forward, over and over, backwards and forwards, to make the connections between cells stronger. However, sometimes our mental replay of something we only imagined can feel as vivid as a real experience.

Forgetting is a crucial function of our brain. We do it in at least three ways:

i) Passive oblivion- may happen because the connections between brain cells gradually weaken over time or perharps the memory is still there but ou might lose the triggers sights sounds smells you need to retrieve it, targeted forgetting, and motivated forgetting. Passive oblivion is when memories fade away with time.

ii) Targeted forgetting - happens at night while we sleep. This is when we clear out random, useless tidbitd of information we have learned during the day and erase outdated memories. In Certain stages of sleep, we trim and prune connections between cells and erase uneeded memory circuits. Our brain forgets to let us move past traumatic events, clear out junk, and update our mental models of the world. There are people with hyperthymesia, a rare condition where they never forget anything, but it can also come with haunting memories and regrets.

iii) Motivated forgetting- something we all wish we could do for one thing or another. This is when a person intentionally surpresses unpleasant memories. Forgetting on purpose is a way to regulate our emotions and to focus on what needs to be done in the prsent instead of getting lost in negative memories of the past. We may need motivated forgetting to maintain our self-image, to maintain confidence, to stay optimistic about the future, or to be able to maintain relationships with people who have hurt us. We do not know exactly how motivated forgetting happend but part of our brain seems to step in and block the troubling memory from being retrieved.

Forgetting allows us to move from past traumatic life events. In fact Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be a problem where one simply remembers too much. Forgetting also helps us clear out junk for with much uneeded or unnecessary information, we would not be able to replace things that are no longer true with better information and update our mental models of the world.

Can we erase those unwanted memories somehow? When it comes to erasing memories in Humans, our best tool still works like a hammar, not a scapel. Its no accident that our ability to forget, like our ability to remember, is a complex and finely-tuned mechanism.Humans have a finely-tuned ability to forget and remember. Memorization can help you get started with a new concept, but truly understanding it requires more. Skills like seeing how concepts are related and dealing with new information are necessary for learning. Brilliant is a great place to develop these tools. Stay curious! So you probably can teach yourself to have good memory and never forget anything. However, true understanding it requires much more - seeing how concepts are related to each other, looking for different interpretations dealing with new information. These are the skills that will help you learn anything, and if you would like to sharpen your brain and develop these tools, then Brilliant could be the place to go for that.