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.