Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Jimbee on 23/11/2023 09:50:28
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Interesting story. When I was a little kid, my mother told me, your brain basically holds onto every event or memory that you have. I guess she was trying to tell me its like a big computer recording everything.
Is that true? I know we are born with every brain cell we will ever have. And when we die, we have less brain cells than we're born with. So if your memory is encoded on a brain cell that dies, you'll obviously lose that memory. But what happens to every fact you're exposed to? Some day if we can access the information in people's brain, would we find everything that ever happened in their lives? Also, memory is affected by things like emotions, adrenalin, etc. And sometimes we just don't know why we remember some things better than others. Does that have anything to do with it?
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Anyone who thinks the brain records everything like a video recorder to be played back with high fidelity later needs to watch Elizabeth Loftus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI) and Daniel Kahneman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg).
And if it's important to be able to recall an event like it's been recorded, record it!
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Interesting story. When I was a little kid, my mother told me, your brain basically holds onto every event or memory that you have. I guess she was trying to tell me its like a big computer recording everything.
Is that true?
No.
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What was the question again??, I can't remember. Seriously, I don't think memories would be located in individual neurons although electrical stimulation of the brain in certain areas can trigger intrusive memories. One theory of memory, and I stress theory, is that it is distributed throughout certain brain areas akin to a hologram. The complexity of the brain with it's vast number of neurons each capable of a huge number of interconnections , multiple neurotransmitters and multiple feedback loops militates against a simple explanation. To add to the complexity, astrocytes which were assumed to be just a background support system for neurons are now known to communicate with the neurons. The complexity is mind-blowing, for the want of a better term, and as research advances the picture becomes ever more complex.
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It seems that a lot of long term memory is synthetic: we recall a few actual data points then construct a plausible story or picture that joins them together. This is a problem with eyewitnesses in many court cases. Very similar to lossy compression and reconstruction algorithms, but also adaptive as our concept of plausibility develops over time.
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I believe you are quite correct on this, Alan. I also think when an old memory is revisited on several occasions it is reinterpreted each time it is accessed.
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An aside (what did you expect?):
Back in the day, I was part of a small group of pupils needing to get O level Latin for university entrance, in 3 months. We were taught by a retired infantry officer who described Caesar's battle plans and a few details about Roman domestic and commercial life, then gave us lists of nouns to learn.
"When stuck, just translate the nouns (they are mostly French anyway) and make up a plausible story to join them together."
We all passed with distinction!
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I remember doing Caesar's gallic wars in my latin classes.
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@Jimbee
I see Users/Members have provided quite detailed Responses towards your Query.
(Time + Energy)
Are you in Dis/Agreement of any posts?
Were they Helpful in furthering your understanding?
You got any interesting Follow-up queries?
(Just Wondering)
ps - surely you must be reading all the responses & appreciate them, isn't it.
(No Doubt About That)
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Probably.
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I remember doing Caesar's gallic wars in my latin classes.
I remember Mr Garlick giving up hope of teaching us any Latin, and reading us Greek mythology instead. His problem was that out of a class of about 30, one wanted to be a lawyer, another wanted to be a doctor, and the other 28 chose to do German instead, but got lumbered with Latin to fill up the rest of the class.
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Just to prove a point, or maybe not, here's a verbatim from Captain Rex:
"What do you do when you are impeditus by a flumen? You jac a pons across it, lad."
But can I remember his surname? No way.
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I thought I already replied to this...
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Foreign accent syndrome would suggest that it does.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome
People who have attempted to learn foreign languages can wake from a head injury speaking only the words that they have heard before.
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My aunt and uncle lived in France for a while and became very fluent in their second language. My aunt later suffered a stroke and was unable to speak in English, but my uncle was able to communicate with her in French. It seems that learned languages reside in a different part of the brain from childhood-acquired language. I'd be interested to hear of any similar instances where the patient was brought up truly bilingual, like my childhood chum who spoke German indoors at home and English everywhere else (including in the family garden!)