For centuries, scientists have fought over the mysteries of memory. The creation of more perfect equipment and the study of the brain brought some clarity to this question, but they also revealed many of the oddities of our memory.
Researchers are constantly amazed at the weirdness of the brain, from survival mechanisms that interfere with solving math problems, to the presence of false memories and anti-memories. Scientists are exploring the possibilities of teaching patients during sleep, transplanting other people's memories and working with prosthetic memory.
10. The falsity of the first memory
A person's oldest memories represent the first self-awareness. It may be for this reason that it may alarm you that most of the first memories are false. When the researchers worked with a group of volunteers who kindly shared their first memories, most of the group members refused to believe their memories were fabricated.
However, a 2018 study has data to support this. About 40 percent of the 6,600 participants said they remember themselves as early as 9-12 months old. This is the age that refers to the pre-verbal stage of human development, when the child cannot retain memories. The scientific literature suggests that memories do not remain until the age of two. Why are people sure that their first memory is not fiction?
The answer is complex, from nostalgia to an ingrained belief in the truthfulness of the stories people tell themselves. Research points to one real thing - so-called first memory can be associated with many factors. These can be imaginary fragments of an early event (but not the earliest memory) or gleaned from family history archives.
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9. The volume of human memory allows you to accommodate all the information that is on the Internet
In 2016, in order to study human memory, scientists examined the brain of a rat. Humans and rats share similarities in brain shape and synapse function. It took scientists a year to sketch every cell they found inside a portion of the rodent's hippocampus. Incredibly, even a tiny piece of tissue has enormous volume. (This specimen was 20 times thinner than a human hair.)
Then, from the collected material, they put together all the neurons with complete structures. After that, 287 brain cells were examined for their size and synapse communication. When scientists noticed that all signals are transmitted from almost one point, they calculated that one neuron can use 26 different ways to encode its information. This precision allowed the team to translate it into computer language. It turns out that the human brain can store one petabyte of information. In terms of volume, this is approximately equal to all the information available on the Internet. This brain cache uses the equivalent of a 20-watt light bulb. If we were to assemble a computer with the same amount of memory, a nuclear power plant would be needed to power it.
8. Hypnopedia really exists
Hypnopedia is the ability to learn in sleep, thanks to which its unique market has formed. However, as attractive as the idea of such training may seem, hypnopedia has its limits. It was already established in the 1950s that people cannot remember facts if they are not awake. Modern research has confirmed these findings, but they have also made some interesting discoveries.
In 2014, Israeli scientists conducted experiments with heavy smokers. They put the volunteers to sleep and smoked them with cigarette smoke mixed with unpleasant odors. For two weeks, none of the test subjects smoked.
A 2017 study later proved that the brain of a sleeping person can create entirely new memories. Learning Spanish in a dream is impossible, but memorizing complex patterns against a background of white noise occurs automatically.
Upon awakening, the volunteers easily identified the music that was played to them in their sleep, but only if the music was played during the REM sleep phase. None of the members of the group managed to remember anything during any other phase. This provided the first evidence that sleep stages play a role in memory formation.
7. The mystery of epigenetics
The section titled epigenetics is based on the assumption that children inherit their father's experiences. What a father ate, or what environment he was exposed to, can affect the biology of several generations. The existence of the father's "life memories" has been supported by several studies in animals and humans.
In 2018, Santa Cruz researchers uncovered some of this mystery. The object of their study was a male roundworm. More precisely, his sperm. In it, they found the presence of something that was not even supposed - accumulations of histones. These are proteins that are involved in the packaging of DNA strands in chromosomes, and in them the researchers found epigenetic information.
The search for epigenetic markers in sperm is the first but insufficient explanation of the concept of this unusual inheritance. At least scientists now understand that it is carried inside the histone packaging. In addition, these proteins are present within chromosomes important for development. And they are so important that when small worms did not have normal epigenetic markers, they were born sterile.
6. Basic memory trick
Need to remember something? Draw this.
A recent study found drawing is "the new Jedi ploy." Canadian researchers, especially those battling Alzheimer's, take this very seriously. They recruited 48 volunteers to research how drawing sharpens memories in young people. There were also more mature people in the group. Half of the group were about twenty years old, the rest were about eighty.
They were given words and a choice: either write each word letter by letter, jot down a list of its attributes, or draw an associated image. After the break, the volunteers were asked to remember as many words as possible. The younger participants performed better, but both age groups showed encouraging similarities.
Most of the words were remembered by those who drew. For memory, drawing may be more important than rewriting or studying text. Researchers believe that the effectiveness of the technique is related to the ability of the brain to perceive the same information from different angles of view - visually, verbally, spatially, meaningfully and physically.
5. Mathematics cripples the brain
Math can really hurt the brain. This feeling is familiar to most people. You look at the equation and feel like your brain is shutting down. People who have difficulty dealing with numbers are often considered incapable. If you don't do calculations quickly and accurately, you run the risk of being considered a math idiot.
But the truth is more encouraging - most people are actually good at math, including those who get cold sweats during exams (and who don't pass them as a result).
So what's the problem? Fear.
Time tests, persistent teachers, classmates who do great on their own, but don't help those who are afraid to fall behind or make a mistake. Fear is a primal feeling. It blocks memory so that you only think that the approaching cave lion is life threatening. Fear requires you to simply climb the nearest tree. Fear sees no difference between long-lost predators and math problems. When a person panics during algebra classes, fear shuts off his memory, making calculations nearly impossible.
4. Anti-memorization
The storehouse of memories is surrounded by eternal mystery. If all the information remained in its original form, people would not be able to remember the latest events, for example, where they parked their car.
A 2016 study found anti-memorization. This process helps the brain store fresh memories without any problems. It all comes down to a balance between two types of brain cells - neurons that get very excited and neurons that calm them down.
During the generation of memories, the firing cells establish electrical connections with each other. But they cannot idle. Researchers believe that such overactive neurons contribute to epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.
To restore balance, there are calming neurons that trigger a process scientists have called anti-memory. These neurons also make connections, but with a pattern that is exactly the opposite of the original.
Tests have shown the presence of this balancing mechanism in volunteers. They were recovered "forgotten" memories by suppressing calming neurons. These memories were not erased, they were only in "sleeping" mode so as not to disturb others.
3. Prosthetic memory
The introduction of electrodes into the brain of a healthy person is strictly prohibited. However, in 2018, scientists were able to work with patients already equipped with implants. 15 patients suffering from epilepsy received care at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Surgically implanted electrodes were part of the therapy, but patients were happy to let scientists take advantage of their treatment.
The idea was to test a future implant, which would have to reproduce human brain activity to improve short-term memory. The patients played a computer game in which their memory was one of the factors. Scientists have used pre-implanted electrodes to record brain activity, especially during correct responses.
They were soon able to create personalized profiles for each volunteer. When a person's personal activity map was later used to stimulate the brain of each person, the value of short-term memory increased by 35 percent. This was a hugely successful step in the implementation of "prosthetic memory", which was developed specifically for each individual.
2. Transfer of memories between snails
In 2018, the snails exchanged memories. This strange achievement comes from a team of scientists from California. Curious if genetic memory existed, the researchers turned to a sea snail called Aplysia californica.
In the course of the experiments, one of the snails received an electric shock, while the snail quickly squeezed its fleshy flaps. Repeated blows taught the snail to keep the shutters retracted longer.
One of the snails trained in this way was taken from RNA (a genetic molecule that acts as a messenger). When the RNA was injected into another snail, she remembered the donor's experience. After the first blow, the snail held the shutters retracted longer than usual, as if expecting a second blow. Snails that received RNA from untrained donors reacted briefly, believing that an electric shock was a one-time event.
This proved that memory was embedded in the genetic code, although the exact process of transferring memories through donor material remains a mystery.
1. Breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
There is still no cure for Alzheimer's disease, which currently ruins the lives of an estimated 50 million people. But in 2015, Australian scientists found a way to eliminate the cause of its appearance.
Alzheimer's disease occurs when plaque builds up in the tissues of the brain and blocks brain function. The result is an increasing loss of cognitive function. Australian scientists took advantage of a group of mice suffering from the same problem. They tried to treat them in a new way, which could change the approach to the treatment of this disease.
About 75 percent of the mice showed complete recovery of their mental abilities, including memory. The new technology is non-invasive and does not damage brain tissue. It is called "focused therapeutic ultrasound", as it is based on the effect on the brain of ultrasound. This method gently expands the blood-brain barrier, which contains cells to remove waste.
These cells are activated and remove the lesions that cause the worst of the symptoms of Alzheimer's. This discovery could lead to an effective, drug-free therapy.