For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have tried to explain how cognitive memory processes work, why we forget certain things, and why our minds cannot store more knowledge. A study published in Cell Reports showed that with the acquisition of new experience, we lose some other.
What exactly was discovered?
Study
Jacob Berry from the Department of Neurosciences at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida presented a paper that can answer questions about how the mechanism of capturing new knowledge works. The study was conducted on fruit flies. The goal was to try to figure out how new experiences relate to forgetting old knowledge.
Learning and forgetting are linked
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The fly experiment consisted of four parts. First, they had to smell a new scent, and learning it was accompanied by the activation of a dopamine neuron. This was quickly followed by an electric shock. This is how the flies learned that the smell was bad for them. The dopamine neuron that realized that the smell was bad turned out to be the same one that was responsible for forgetting about it in the future.
To enter new knowledge, old ones must be deleted. The fly forgets about the negative smell because it remembers new things. Thus, learning and forgetting overlap at different stages in the brain.
Berry is trying to prove that old and new are more united than we think. It is necessary to erase the old in order to preserve the new knowledge. This happens when, for example, old acquaintances are called by the names of new ones.
Forgetting is a natural process
For the brain to continue to function normally, it must replace the past. Berry notes that it is impossible that in a long life the mind does not erase any memories. It is natural to forget in order to avoid being saturated with irrelevant information. The mind can distinguish between what is emotionally important to us and what can be excluded.
It is only recently that neuroscientists have realized the importance of active forgetting and have begun to study the processes that make the brain forget.
Learning and forgetting processes help explain the psychological phenomenon of retroactive intervention, where newer information interferes with attempts to remember old information. For example, you might name your former boss after your current boss.
Why fly experiments are applicable to humans
Although the study was conducted on fruit flies, scientists expect the results to apply to humans as well.
“Evolution developed many important processes, such as this one, quite early on, so it makes a lot of sense to study the synaptic pathways of simple organisms,” says Berry.
The study not only provides new insights into the brain's mechanisms for active forgetting, but also provides a great example of how much we learn about brain function in laboratory animals such as Drosophila.
Understanding the process of remembering and forgetting - and perhaps how to manipulate them - is important to humans. In drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder, it is necessary to develop approaches that promote active forgetting. On the other hand, improving memory will help with dementia and memory loss.
Sergey Prots