Question about memories.

[conuly]

Where do they go when you're not thinking about them? I mean, you don't remember everything all the time, right? Some things you may have trouble recalling (the word is on the tip of my tongue!), but even the things you remember easily (in fourteen hundred ninety two...) you don't remember *all the time*. Most of the time, they're... not there. Your current thoughts are there instead. So where are the memories?

Comments

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks a lot for that little brain bug. I'm going to be up all night wondering about that one.

Grr *scritches at head*

[conuly]

You're welcome.

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I have to stay up late to catch BSG anyway, so not too much harm done. But... damn. It's a puzzler. Is there any scientic information about how memory works?

[conuly]

Yes, but I don't have it to see what they say.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

Like much about brain function, memory is poorly understood, but the prevailing theory is that memory is stored in the synaptic cleft of certain portions of the brain by the function of various neurotransmitters -- I'm greatly oversimplifying here for brevity's sake, obviously. (There was another theory that held that memory consisted of RNA molecules, but that theory has now been largely discredited.)

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

I remember RNA! Ahh, science fiction of my early teenage years, I look back on your theories with mild amusement.

Since a lot of memory seems to associate with certain environmental triggers (smell and taste being particularly powerful), I tend to assume that the memory storage and retrieval processes are similar. Basically, I believe, the way your brain is reacting at the time of the memory (badsmellbadsmell...mmm,tasteofmustard etc) imprints itself like a set of keywords on the memory (wow, LiveJournal analogy), and when your brain undergoes a similar reaction because you've smelt the same smell, out pops the memory with the keywords that most closely match the reaction.

Of course, given that I'm a comp studies student who knows little enough about computer memory, I really don't have a clue.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

I read many of the same SF stories that you did that used memory RNA for fantastic purposes... in fact, I'd still be reading such stories today if the Internet weren't such a chronovore (I need to keep working on getting on top of that).

One theory I've heard about smell being a stronger memory trigger than other senses is that the smell center is physically more proximate to the memory center in the brain than the other sense centers are, the idea being that since the signals don't have as far to travel, they're more likely to trigger memories.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

hmm.

My memories are located in the back of my head, towards the bottom of the round-cranium-bit. They are flat and like very fine sheets of good wood.

However, sometimes they unweave into balls of fine angelhair-noodle nests (you can buy them like that. it's neat looking), and scoot into the space behind/in front of my forehead, where my actual thinking takes place. Very annoying when trying to remember specific things, and then you remember the hilarity that is Professor X being pushed down stairs. yeah.

[xmorningxrosex.livejournal.com]

my brain is just like the Dreamcatcher story - my memories are stored in the warehouse in my brain in boxes. When I need to pull out certain memories, they're dug out of the shelf and the box is opened up. When I'm not thinking about them, then they get filed away chronologically. When I need to hide some memories for whatever reason, they're brought into the office with a lock on the door so no one else can get to them. Ok, so I don't really know, but that sounds fun to think about. =P

[leora.livejournal.com]

Memory is complicated, not too well understood, and the dominant theories change, so I may be a bit behind. But basically - we don't know.

What we do know is that paths you use often get reinforced. This happens physically. practice a skill or keep bringing up a piece of information and that path will have more mylin (I'm blanking on the spelling but anyhow) on it. The purpose of mylin is to insulate the path. This makes the transmission go more smoothly, less data loss, easier travel. So, things that you recall often are easier to recall. The ability to recall a memory can change, but you can reinforce an old path with work. This may relate to the concept of savings, that something once learned, even if completely forgotten, is easier to relearn. This also relates to memories being easier to find if you build numerous associations/different pathways to them.

But is a memory just a pattern in your brain, a pattern of which neurons fire? Or is it something else? There was some talk that memories might actually be chemically stored.

All I do know is that from personal experience, it is possible for those paths to get misdirected. it's possible to have the paths tangled so that they lead to different memories.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

honestly, i think they go to some kind of mainframe that we havent detected yet, which is why telepaths are able to read minds, because they can access this "mainframe". this also might explain racial memory and how animals can remember things from previous generations.

i feel this because memories and brain processes are merely energy and energy doesnt disappear, it merely is transmuted into a different form, and based upon my studies in particle and string physics theories, i am finding that there definately is some large kind of connection amongst everything.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure, but when they come back out they're all deformed and considerably more fantastic than anything that's ever actually happened. There may or may not be a bar or an opium hut somewhere in the back of my head.

"I like to remember things my own way - the way I remember them - not necessarily the way they happened." - Fred Madison, Lost Highway

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

I just think of my brain as a really really big and fast harddrive.

With the occasional drive reading errors...

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks a lot for that little brain bug. I'm going to be up all night wondering about that one.

Grr *scritches at head*

[conuly]

You're welcome.

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I have to stay up late to catch BSG anyway, so not too much harm done. But... damn. It's a puzzler. Is there any scientic information about how memory works?

[conuly]

Yes, but I don't have it to see what they say.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

Like much about brain function, memory is poorly understood, but the prevailing theory is that memory is stored in the synaptic cleft of certain portions of the brain by the function of various neurotransmitters -- I'm greatly oversimplifying here for brevity's sake, obviously. (There was another theory that held that memory consisted of RNA molecules, but that theory has now been largely discredited.)

[pockingell.livejournal.com]

I remember RNA! Ahh, science fiction of my early teenage years, I look back on your theories with mild amusement.

Since a lot of memory seems to associate with certain environmental triggers (smell and taste being particularly powerful), I tend to assume that the memory storage and retrieval processes are similar. Basically, I believe, the way your brain is reacting at the time of the memory (badsmellbadsmell...mmm,tasteofmustard etc) imprints itself like a set of keywords on the memory (wow, LiveJournal analogy), and when your brain undergoes a similar reaction because you've smelt the same smell, out pops the memory with the keywords that most closely match the reaction.

Of course, given that I'm a comp studies student who knows little enough about computer memory, I really don't have a clue.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

I read many of the same SF stories that you did that used memory RNA for fantastic purposes... in fact, I'd still be reading such stories today if the Internet weren't such a chronovore (I need to keep working on getting on top of that).

One theory I've heard about smell being a stronger memory trigger than other senses is that the smell center is physically more proximate to the memory center in the brain than the other sense centers are, the idea being that since the signals don't have as far to travel, they're more likely to trigger memories.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

hmm.

My memories are located in the back of my head, towards the bottom of the round-cranium-bit. They are flat and like very fine sheets of good wood.

However, sometimes they unweave into balls of fine angelhair-noodle nests (you can buy them like that. it's neat looking), and scoot into the space behind/in front of my forehead, where my actual thinking takes place. Very annoying when trying to remember specific things, and then you remember the hilarity that is Professor X being pushed down stairs. yeah.

[xmorningxrosex.livejournal.com]

my brain is just like the Dreamcatcher story - my memories are stored in the warehouse in my brain in boxes. When I need to pull out certain memories, they're dug out of the shelf and the box is opened up. When I'm not thinking about them, then they get filed away chronologically. When I need to hide some memories for whatever reason, they're brought into the office with a lock on the door so no one else can get to them. Ok, so I don't really know, but that sounds fun to think about. =P

[leora.livejournal.com]

Memory is complicated, not too well understood, and the dominant theories change, so I may be a bit behind. But basically - we don't know.

What we do know is that paths you use often get reinforced. This happens physically. practice a skill or keep bringing up a piece of information and that path will have more mylin (I'm blanking on the spelling but anyhow) on it. The purpose of mylin is to insulate the path. This makes the transmission go more smoothly, less data loss, easier travel. So, things that you recall often are easier to recall. The ability to recall a memory can change, but you can reinforce an old path with work. This may relate to the concept of savings, that something once learned, even if completely forgotten, is easier to relearn. This also relates to memories being easier to find if you build numerous associations/different pathways to them.

But is a memory just a pattern in your brain, a pattern of which neurons fire? Or is it something else? There was some talk that memories might actually be chemically stored.

All I do know is that from personal experience, it is possible for those paths to get misdirected. it's possible to have the paths tangled so that they lead to different memories.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

honestly, i think they go to some kind of mainframe that we havent detected yet, which is why telepaths are able to read minds, because they can access this "mainframe". this also might explain racial memory and how animals can remember things from previous generations.

i feel this because memories and brain processes are merely energy and energy doesnt disappear, it merely is transmuted into a different form, and based upon my studies in particle and string physics theories, i am finding that there definately is some large kind of connection amongst everything.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure, but when they come back out they're all deformed and considerably more fantastic than anything that's ever actually happened. There may or may not be a bar or an opium hut somewhere in the back of my head.

"I like to remember things my own way - the way I remember them - not necessarily the way they happened." - Fred Madison, Lost Highway

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

I just think of my brain as a really really big and fast harddrive.

With the occasional drive reading errors...