Although most people think of memory as a vault for storing information, it is more like a seamstress who stitches together logical threads into scenes that make sense. In this view, a good memory is therefore not one that holds lots of data but that can deftly separate what is useful from what could distract or upset you. Getting rid of what is not necessary—forgetting—is thus an important part of memory and of thought. It is also critical to emotional wellbeing. Revisiting bad memories is hardly a formula for happiness, after all. (For more on memory and forgetting, see Scientific American Mind’s special report on memory in January/February 2012.) Take this tour of your brain to see the parts that help you remember and those that let you forget.
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Animation by George Retseck, Ravenswood Media; Art Direction by Patricia Nemoto |
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To learn more about memory and the power of forgetting, see the January 2012 Scientific American Mind. Stay tuned for the new Scientific American interactive brain, coming in 2012.
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15 Comments
Add Comment"Revisiting bad memories is hardly a formula for happiness, after all"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAvoiding bad memories is hardly a formula for happiness, too
It's important to find a good voice for a video. This woman (the author, I assume?), who is probably quite brilliant, has a very bad voice for narrating video. It actually makes it difficult to focus on the content of the video, rather than the grating sound of her voice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDespite being a non native speaker, i found the narrating voice very clear and pleasant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Avoiding bad memories is hardly a formula for happiness, too"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, it is, in spite of what Freud believed.
Physycians have to utilise in daily practice the present knowledge on cerebral cortex functions, as it has recently happened, regarding PNEI system and Limbic region, Brain Sensor Bedside Evaluationhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-science-stories-2011&page=11&posted=1#comments; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=thats-me-over-there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe voice you speak of showcases the currently trendy "vocal fry" characteristic exhibited by so many of today's women in the US.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood morning. It still amazes me to find that after all the years of in-depth studying of the brain, no one definitively knows how it works. Although researchers are hopefully moving in the right direction, they are still explaining brain function with a very broad brush. Yes they can map neural activity but still can't answer a simple question like, "Where is memory stored?" Is it within the neurons individually? . .collectively? .or, as some researchers postulate, memory takes place throughout the entire living body's various tissues collectively, i.e., "you are your memory."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould it be, as one researcher theorizes, (L.M. Ingersoll, "Quantum Colors Matter," Amazon.com) memory formation, storage, and retrieval, is the specific result of a color coding process? Color (frequency) comes in more than a trillion hues, shades, temperature, etc and is unique to each other. This just might explain how the 6 trillion +- neurons of the brain can process each memory seperately, store it, and then retrieve it by matching the color code used during storage.
Researches must go beyond the cellular level and begin looking lower into the quantum mechanics of memory, energies, photon electromagnetic cellular transmission, etc. for solutions.
Something to think about . .All responses are welcome.
I forget why I started to read this article after reading the comments...but I am over 80 and doing fine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI didn't notice anything distracting about the reader's voice, speech patterns or enunciation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the Prefrontal Cortex paragraph alongside the illustration the word "breaks" perhaps should have been spelled "brakes." The comment concerning voice quality may have overlooked one of the problems occasioned by our new digital high dev large flat-panel screen viewing in some units. Welcome to life in its new leisure settings. The "forgetter" in these cases should work to our benefit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am of the persuasion that memory is processed by the brain, not stored in the brain. As to where memory is stored, one is drawn to consider how it is possible for one human to recall the memories of another human across vast distances or even across time. One such consideration is wrapped up in the theory of the Akashic Field - that energy within which all history seems to be locked up in.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReferences:
1. http://www.viewzone.com/memorytest1.html
2. http://web-us.com/memory/memory_encoding.htm
3. http://www.anandavala.info/TASTMOTNOR/The%20Akashic%20Field.html
4. http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/akashicfield.html
Good point!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMen are prone to prefer a pleasant sounding voice regardless of the gender. Woman generally don't pay attention to such trivial nonsense, as my wife calls it. If the content works for you, the package can be ignored.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article reminds me of what Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective, explained about the human brain to his colleague,Dr. John H. Watson, in the story "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I quote:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"You see," he [Sherlock Holmes] explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
" "Avoiding bad memories is hardly a formula for happiness, too" "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Actually, it is, in spite of what Freud believed"
Freud notwithstanding, lets say something bad happens, are you saying that beyond our short term (or working) memory of the event it is a formula for hapiness if one avoids any recall of the event.