What memories are made of

Instinctive recognition occurs at many levels within the human complex..its good to know that some scientists are on the right track..

i don't know...the brain is a complicated thing with man different neurons and transmitters how can they be sure what does what...it is hard to track that

"Proust Was A Neuroscientist" is an amazing book that discusses this subject, in addition to other topics that talk about how art was used to discover certain scientific truths we now know. It is by Jonah Lehrer, great book!

This study came out in Science last month and it's a HUGE move forward in memory research. The hippocampus is an area known for processing all the sensory inputs you get every day, then it spits out a short-term memory which is encoded across all the regions of your brain's cortex for long-term memory storage. It's an amazing system which requires different neuron patterns in different regions. The memory becomes a memory by changing the "weight" of each synapse in that pattern/circuit.

I call mine "Conn-igital" pictures in my mind, complete with smell-o-vision. I associate the smell of the moment with the memory.

Everyone has memories which stay with them. I tell my granddaughters to store those pictures in their mind. I usually say, click, click. My husband knows I"m putting that moment in my memory for future reflection.

Recently when they went to Chicago, I asked them to take pictures in their minds and describe them to me when they come home. I told them to take a deep breath and put a smell with the picture. They brought home some interesting memories.

this another great step to getting to know how the brain works

Honestly... how do they monitor that kind of thing?

They stick electrodes in the brain and measure the electrical response. Neurons are just a bunch of linked electrical wires with chemical responses on their ends (synapses)!

hmm maybe now they can start making some sort of something that will cure memory loss... that would be nice... ^_~

cool article

forgive me for being highly critical of this article, but this only reinforces what we've known. The article mentions this as well, and we've tested and proved it with animal models as well. A strong memory (your moms face, for example) is resilient because of the increase of the amount of transmitter and the subsequent increase of NMDA receptors on that set of neurons. All in all, unless I'm missing something, and someone please let me know if I am, this isn't really new news.

I dont really know much about this but, in a way it seems kind of kool and werid at the same time...

Wow, that is really cool! And it makes a lot sense.

Memories are physical and thats a great breakthrough in the study of humans. This could lead to many other discoveries.

well that makes really good sense
there are so many discoveries
about humans

i agree with briana!

there are many its like we
get new ones everyday

I think that the brain is amazing and how it works is unbelleveable.It's like a sponge it observes new information and you will remember it forever.

This article is amazing. It's cool how our body works and how it obtains many thing. That is interesting to me.

Neuroscience is some cool stuff, especially since it's going to be leading to mind-controlled computers which then give direct-brain feedback.

I wish they would make more headway in finding a way to prevent memory loss, or helping people who have had head injuries, and memory issues.

Awesome post

In fact, when we create a new memory, we create a new neural pathway!