Memory
Audio from the
show HIPPOCAMPUS
Narrated by Dr Fiona Kerr
How do we construct memories? How do we retain and recall them, sometimes unbidden in a surprise of delight, reflection, or sadness?
When we absorb information our Hippocampus is the transfer centre for early storage of this information.
Long term storage happens during sleep, when information is encoded and consolidated into memories.
Like the interconnection with emotion and learning, the Hippocampus connects emotion to memory; crucial for keeping memories longer term, as emotion strengthens these new memories, and builds the cues for us to recall them. Emotions become hooks for memories.
This is one reason strong emotional memories, be they positive, happy and pleasant or negative like fear or stress, remain vivid. They are more richly encoded, last longer and are faster to retrieve.
It’s amazing, memory is ‘plastic’, meaning that each time we recall a memory we alter it with and emotional adjustment. This is why people remember the same event differently over time. It also means that over time we shape our recollections to contain less pain or even greater joy.
Neurogenesis, the building of new brain, ensures the connection of emotion to memory remains supple, and assists recall.
We can manage the way our memories are made.
Dr Fiona Kerr
Founder and CEO
The Neurotech Institute