Memory And How It Works

Our brains are responsible for two fundamental skills: thinking and acting. These two skills require the ability to learn (store) and remember (retrieve) information that the brain acquires. This is our memory.

The great advances in neuroscience in recent years have helped us to find the mechanisms that work when these skills are activated. In particular, we are talking about the areas that are working to create new memories. So how does our memory really work and what role do our brains play?

Both the scientific literature and the media have made many mistakes and created several myths and inaccurate images of our central nervous system. Ranging from the fact that the brain is like a computer to the fact that they are a plastic structure with unlimited capacity. We now know that neither is entirely true. Thanks to the latest research, we know more about how small magical cells called neurons form and communicate with each other.

Our feelings are closely related to our memory. Numerous studies show that events that have touched our emotions, whether they are positive or negative, are remembered more than those that are not. In this sense, emotional memory is the result of the production of memories activated in this way.

Memories require a variety of psychological and neurobiological processes that are necessary for the formation of new memories. In short, our imprinting on memory is the result of storing information that is accompanied by alerts or warning factors that create our memories.

Where are the memories stored?

Short- and long-term memories are created simultaneously and stored in the hippocampus and frontal envelope, respectively. The area of ​​the brain where we store short-term memories has already been identified. However, this has not been the case with long-term memory processes.

The Picower Institute of Learning and Memorization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, has for the first time revealed where and how our brains create long-term memories.

As Mark Morrissey, another author of the study, showed, memories form in parallel and then follow different paths. Those in the frontal lobe shell become stronger and those in the hippocampus weaken.

What is new about this study is that it has shown the advantage of communication between the frontal cortex and the hippocampus is very important.  If the connection between these two parts of the brain were to be broken, the cerebral memory traces would not develop properly. In other words, no long-term memories would be stored.

Memories are absolutely essential for our development and survival. And even more so with our negative memories, as they warn us of the risk involved in repeating actions that have previously plagued us. Even so much that in order to keep us alive and give meaning to suffering, the brain is simply forced to preserve long-term memories.

Memories depend on our neurons

The results of a study by Mark Morrissey show that memory neurons are located in three areas of the brain: the hippocampus, the frontal lobe, and the tonsil nucleus. The latter is the part of our brain that is involved in emotional memories.

This is contrary to many previous theories of memory consolidation. It shows that short- and long-term memories do not form simultaneously in the hippocampus and the frontal lobe shell, but first form in the hippocampus and later migrate to the cerebral cortex.

Neurons serve as the basis for communication, as the brain uses very few brain cells to remember what it sees. This is at odds with what has been thought so far, namely that the brain uses a huge network of neurons to store memories. Research suggests that neurons function as thinking cells, capable of specializing in certain memories previously selected by the brain.

This finding could help restore “artificially” memory to people who have suffered brain damage or have diseases such as Alzheimer’s. At the same time, the results suggest the existence of some kind of brain code. This code plays an important role in knowing visual perceptions and brain functions in the development of abstract memory.

Outside of the field of neurology, this discovery undoubtedly contributes to the development of artificial intelligence and neural networks. It will improve the design of many of the technical devices we use on a daily basis to store and process data.

Hippocampus, frontal lobe shell and almond nucleus

In the 1950s, a patient, Henry Molaison ,  suffered an injury to his hippocampus after an operation to control epileptic seizures. As a result, Molaison was unable to create new memories after the operation. However, he retained the memories he had before going to the operating room. In this way, people began to understand the importance of the hippocampus in the formation of new long-term memories.

This case showed that long-term episodic memories of special events are stored somewhere outside the hippocampus. Researchers believe that this site is the frontal lobe shell, which is the part of the brain responsible for cognitive functions such as planning ability and attention.

This indicates that traditional theories of memory enhancement may not be accurate. New research is needed to determine whether memories are completely erased from hippocampal cells or whether there is simply a problem with data recovery.

The almond kernel also plays an important role in determining in which structure we store new memories. Combining new memories with emotional states provides a greater connection and means that situations are easier to remember. The almond nucleus is responsible for giving memories a more or less visible position depending on the emotions associated with them. It also influences the decision as to which details of each memory will leave deeper traces and which less deep.

Emotional and narrative memory

The almond kernel has a protective function. This explains why some people are very afraid of dogs (what their emotional memory deals with), but don’t remember the situation where that fear started (which comes from their narrative memory). This is probably due to the stress they have suffered in a previous event with these animals, or to the fact that much more has been associated with the original event.

This type of memory – emotional memory – allows us to remember things to which we associate positive or negative events.

Activation of the almond nucleus with certain fear-inducing stimuli increases the traces of these memories and makes them much deeper. We remember things that happened to us much more clearly when they are accompanied by strong emotions at the same time. Thus, emotional activation strengthens our memories.

In summary, we have made some significant discoveries in memory and the creation of new memories in recent years. However, the answers that scientists are currently offering are still far from the final truth. Likewise, because they are only recent discoveries, we have not yet been able to take advantage of all that they bring to improve the lives of people with memory problems.

Literature

Massó, AG (2009). The Brain as a Machine to Learn, Remember and Forget.

Arbor, 185 (736), 451-469.

Jung, CG, Jaffé, A., & Borrás, MR (1966). Memories, Dreams, Thoughts (pp. 476-477).

Seix Barral.Morgado, I. (2014). Learn, Remember and Forget. Cerebral Keys of Memory and Education.

Perez Rosales, V., & Rosales, VP (1972). Memories of the Past.

Sanmaria, R. (2016). The Ability to Save and Remember Information has its Mystery

Sousa, DA (2002). How the Brain Learns.

Corwin Press.Walker, MP (2007). Sleep to Remember. Mind and Brain, (25), 53-61.