How does memory loss work? are the memories completely erased or are they stored somewhere inaccessible in the brain?
In: 6
Nope, that’s not how it works.
Episodic memory in the brain is not like your computer’s hard drive. Ideas are connected to each other in a network. Forgetting is a routine maintenance process, where stronger connections are reinforced at the expense of weaker ones. That’s why you can remember the Halloween costume you wore when you were 12, but not which shirt you wore last Thursday. It’s also how you can remember the term “bucket list” from the distant past even though the term was coined in the 2007 movie.
Human memory is a miraculous, and not very reliable, thing.
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