Bear with me. So for example you forget words in a foreign language or someone’s name… what has happened to the information in your brain? Does it just…disappear after a certain amount of time? Does it get “stored” somewhere else and it just takes longer to retreieve the information after a while? Maybe a bit harder to answer…is there a reason that sometimes the information comes back on its own (you recall it independently) and sometimes you have to relearn things (for example, a foreign language you used to speak and have to learn again after not speaking it for months/years)?
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Neuroscience PhD here! Definitely learned this at some point, but I can’t recall at the moment sorry.
*Edit* Ok fine, short answer – we don’t know. But I like to think of memories like fading tire tracks across our brains. Like tire tracks, memories aren’t specific items so much as a pattern of information that’s represented amid all the rest; your brain is covered over with tracks in all directions.
When you focus on one track in particular you can get into the groove and follow it easily, but as it fades over time you can lose your way.
Of course the brain isn’t a static thing. Depending on the context and what you’re thinking of, different tracks become more or less easy to pick out. That’s why sometimes things will remind you of a lost memory, or it will seem to just pop into your head – some pattern across your brain has snapped back into focus.
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