How does MEMORY work?

[AviatorTom]

How does memory work? When we remember something from the past, is all that data really held in our brain cells? Or maybe we somehow travel back in time and re-observe what's happening? Or maybe we're just accessing the huge storage of the simulation that we are all in? What do you think?

Updates

+1 y

Just think of the millions of terabytes of equivalent data the human brain would have to remember during a person's lifetime. Are there really that many neurons and pathways in the physical brain to be able to store and access all that? Or is something else going on? Will we ever know?

[CrazyGirl2]

Our memory is stored in the Hippocampus of the frontal lobe of the brain. Memory is affected by emotion which is also centered in the frontal lobe, and as such can be highly unreliable, if one in a heightened emotional state when the memory is formed, like fear. Which is why experts in memory and neuro-science will tell you that the worst evidence in any trial is eye witness testimony. Two people can observe the same event, yet argue about the facts afterward. Ex: In a study in Britain, groups were asked to watch a film of a bar fight. After ther were to simply tell researchers who started it. In some of the groups, actors deliberately began discussing that the OTHER man started the fight and in those cases the group all chose the wrong person. (Source: https://theconversation.com/new-research-reveals-how-little-we-can-trust-eyewitnesses-67663 ).

The creation of a memory requires a conversion of a select amount of the information one perceives into more permanent form. A subset of that memory will be secured in long-term storage, accessible for future use. Many factors during and after the creation of a memory influence what (and how much) gets preserved.

Memory serves many purposes, from allowing us to revisit and learn from past experiences to storing knowledge about the world and how things work. More broadly, a major function of memory in humans and other animals is to help ensure that our behavior fits the present situation and that we can adjust it based on experience.

Encoding is the first stage of memory. It is the process by which the details of a person’s experience are converted into a form that can be stored in the brain. People are more likely to encode details of what they are paying attention to and details that are personally significant. Which is why there are different “ways of learning”. Learning should be tailored to each persons needs, to improve the likelihood that they will remember and thus learn.

[CrazyGirl2]

Thank you so very much for the MHO ⭐️. I REALLY do appreciate it more than you know. 🙏🏼 🥰💋

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

The part of the brain where we store long-term memory data is called the Hippocampus. Everything comes with visual, auditory, and other forms of sensory data. If we focus hard enough, we can recreate any sensation we can think of, this is part of accessing the hippocampus as well as sending signals to different parts of our brain to make us use those same parts to replicate those sensations. So when we have a craving, we can almost taste the food we're desperate to eat. When we desire comfort, we can think of the softness of our own beds and almost feel it on our skin.

[lightbulb27]

Sounds like memories are just "recordings" of what occurred stored in the brain and possibly, the body. It's a network of cells that create an chemical/electrical map of things that are important emotionally or repeated to create patterns.

Does it go beyond this life and universe or are they relevant beyond? Possible at minimum on exit. Time is just a thing while we are alive, does the essence of the "memory" go beyond when we are not functioning in time.

ugh... that's why you want to be a good boy and say your prayers... just in case...

Also, it would seem memory (of some sort) is passed on between generations, with default wiring in the brain. I'm not saying the emotions are, but the mappings of them may be.

[TheSpaceGnome]

It is not fully understood how brains store thoughts.

All we know is they do, and its not a data retrieval system like it is in computers.

Memories aren't stored in singular spots, people with extreme damage to the brain (or even objects lodged in their brain), often do not lose any memories.

It is most likely that every brain cell houses every memory.

Time travel isn't possible because time is not a form of space.

Life is not a simulation.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Organisms don't store data the way computers do, space is not the concern, there seems to be an unlimited amount of space for memories.

When viewing the brain on real time scans, different parts of the brain light up in different people, and also in the same people when thinking the same thing, but later. it is never the same twice. its as if thoughts are chaotic in location like an electrical storm, always moving around, or simply stored everywhere simultaniously, and "retrieved" from the current quickest path depending on whatever else you were doing/thinking at the time.

Even long forgotten memories from near the begining of a person's life can return with the right stimuli, and this stimuli need not always be the same each time for the same memory, it could be a smell, or touch, or sight. It seems that the brain simply records everything you experience, and only supplies what is relevant, and is often bad at judging what is or isn't.

In computers, data is written once in a singular spot, it is then retrieved using a singular command of code that gets translated to a computer language. This is not how minds work.

[TheSpaceGnome]

When you forget something, the memory is still there, its just mot being stimulated, so you don't currently remember it. When a computer forgets domething, the data is gone, corrupted or deleted.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Its also possible the brain records something other than memories, and reconstructs memories on demand based on those. Rather like storing morse code and then translating it later.

[OlderAndWiser]

How would we know which, if any, of those theories is correct?

[CrazyGirl2]

Well think about it, physicist John Archibald Weaver wrote a thesis in 1989, stating that due to the universe’s perfect mathematical construction and function, a powerful enough computer could actually simulate the entire universe, and he posited that “for all we know all of this could already be a simulation, how would we even know?” Ten years later The Matrix was released in theaters! Before 1999 most people had never heard of Weaver or his Simulation Theory thesis, yet now “Simulation Theory” is touted by otherwise serious people on a regular basis, even here on GaG!
Similarly H. G. Wells’ War of The Worlds Aired as a radio play in 1938. It was broadcast in the form of a “Breaking News Alert” So many people famously believed that they were listening to a real news alert of an alien attack, that police phone lines in New Jersey and New York were completely jammed by panicked people looking for help evacuating. Before that night there was no such thing as a UFO sighting. Ten years later a classified military experiment crashed in Roswell, NM. Since then, UFO sightings have been a regular part of life. However, with the ubiquity of high definition image and video cameras in everyone’s pockets, Ufologists assumed that UFO sightings would increase exponentially. This however has not been the case, with either images or video. In fact UFO sightings are now at an all time low. The same is true of things like the Loch Ness Monster. When cameras were expensive and rare, images of “Nessie” were everywhere, however now that everyone has a Hi-Def camera in their pocket or purse we almost never see new images of it. I highly doubt that this is a simulation, and I subscribe to the philosophy “I think therefore I am”. Maybe we all should?

[OlderAndWiser]

@CrazyGirl2 Have you perhaps placed Descartes before DesHorse?

[CrazyGirl2]

Funny 😆

[Amy10223]

The brain is an amazing organ that is more capable of things than most people think. It's full of nerves that are interconnected, neurons and motor neurons, dendrites and synapses that serve to carry messages to and from the body. It can heal a part of the brain that had a stroke. So, if it can do that, it is surely able to keep memories of things that happened long ago. It can also block certain unpleasant things that are happening or have happened in the past. We don't travel back in time.

[Red-Blaze]

I yet to fully get into the pysical part of it all

But from my understanding the simple way to explain it is that you got wires in the brain, a memory is from from a bunch of pathways like that connected

If you don't access something for a while the connection becomes loss and you lose the memory more

So keep remembering things and refreshing them, helps to keep the memory for longer

But that is just what this.. "smart people" say in reality its all on a floppy using Aline tech or some sort!

[msc545]

Nobody really knows for certain, but - The process of memory formation and retrieval involves changes in the connections between neurons in the brain, as well as the release of certain neurotransmitters. Additionally, different regions of the brain are responsible for different types of memory, such as the hippocampus for declarative memory and the cerebellum for motor memory.

Past that, the knowledge regarding human memory is very scant but there is quite a bit of research in this area.

[thnderskiies]

Memories are stored as links between neurons in your brain. Neurons are brain cells that send signals to other neurons. Recalling that memory means making those neurons fire in the same pattern again, essentially reconstructing the memory.

The exact nature of how a memory gets encoded into links between neurons isn't well understood though.

[SaoirseS]

Our memories work by us remembering things.


This might help:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/remember-birth.htm

[DubiousIntentions]

If we couldn't remember, how could we learn from our mistakes, or remember songs and lyrics? I just doesn't always work with dreams.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gr3PIwln1aE

[exitseven]

There is probably some way data can be stored chemically within neurons. The part of the brain that stores memories is right next to the place that processes smells. That is why certain smells cn invoke vivid memories.

[purplepoppy]

I've no idea but I've heard that your brain stores absolutely everything, what it's not good at is remembering where things are stored.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

All of Your hypotheses seem (partially) correct. However, false memories do exist. I reckon they’re memory hallucinations. I ain’t sure, but memory seems to be one of the 20ish senses. Brain stores something and recalls it when you just remembered something.

[Fuentes]

I have photographic memory so I recall everything.

Shit what if were all bots like Google In a simulation lol and that's how I actually pull it out

[CuriousMufuxka]

That time in 3rd grade where I got my clay stolen sucked! Where are my keys?

[NathanDavis]

sometimes, it doesn't...

[Bricealan]

What was the question? 😂😂🤷‍♂️