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Why do we remember to the smallest detail some events from childhood, but forget where we just put the keys?
Science knows not only several types of memory, but also several types of forgetting. Psychologists have even compiled a classification of ways to forget, and biologists study these mechanisms at the cellular level. It turned out that forgetting is not only normal, but necessary.
Features of the brain in five amazing facts.
1 Passing Through A Doorway Erases Memories
A mysterious phenomenon – often a person ends up in a room without remembering how he got there. Scientists believe that the culprit is … doorways. For the brain, they may serve as a kind of symbol of the transition to a new “episode”, while the memories of the previous “episode” are stored. Such a division of memory into fragments – “episodes” helps to create a mental line of time and remember not only where an event occurred, but also when it happened.
Read more:
- 10 questions to refresh your memory
2. Some activities cause short-term memory loss
Occasionally, certain activities can cause short-term memory loss and confusion—this is called transient global amnesia. For some of us, this happens after sex. However, usually the memory returns after a few hours without any complications. But the mechanism of this phenomenon is still not clear – brain scans do not reveal any damage.
3. Even what we can’t remember continues to be stored in the “archives”
In 2013, a strange case was described in the journal Frontiers of Neurology. The woman had auditory hallucinations in the form of songs that she did not know. However, when she sang these songs out loud, those around her recognized them. Scientists decided that the woman, most likely, once knew these songs, but forgot. Perhaps “forgotten” memories continue to be stored in the brain, being accessible but unrecognizable to us?
4. The brain is programmed to forget everything that happened to us in infancy.
Most people do not remember themselves before 3-4 years. This is called infantile amnesia. Previously, scientists thought that memories were stored, but children simply could not talk about them (because they could not speak). However, recent research shows that the brain retains early memories but then deliberately discards them. The brain at this time grows at a tremendous speed, creating new cells and destroying existing ones.
5. Use it or lose it
The more actively we use the brain, the better it works. To verify this, a group of psychologists at the University of California (USA) conducted a series of five intellectual experiments with a group of fellow scientists and compared the results with the results of a control group of the same age, among the members of which there were no scientists. Experiments concerned memory. It has been suggested that the scientists would have an advantage. As a result, it was found that the scientists actually did a better job. However, the power of the brain fades over time. According to the head of the research team, Dr. Arthur Shimamura, “no matter how active an intellectual life you lead, it will get worse anyway.” However, a busy mind will no doubt last longer.
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