• Question: What is memory? why dont we remember everything?

    Asked by lemonsqueeze99 to Indi, Jarv, John, Ken, Vicky on 18 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Vicky Young

      Vicky Young answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      OOhhh processes of the brain confuse me a bit. Its all to do with short term and long term memory. We have a very small short term memory and if we need to remember something for longer periods of time we need to commit it to long term memory. Short-term memory doesn’t make any real changes in the brain but long-term memories, on the other hand, are made by permanent changes in brain cell connections across the brain. There is an area in the brain called the hippocampus that is essential for converting short-term to long-term memory, but the memories are not stored here they are stored across the brain! How some memories are committed to long term memory and others aren’t is still not fully known.

      I hope this answers your first question too about memory. Memory is the process of changing brain cells to encoding the memory which can then be storage for long periods of time – sometimes a whole lifetime.

    • Photo: Indi Ghangrekar

      Indi Ghangrekar answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      As Vicky says, there are differences between short term and long term memory and it is all to do with how well connected brain cells are. The reason some things enter long term memory is because the connections between the cells involved are strengthened. If a few different parts of the brain are involved with creating a memory, that also helps strengthen the connections – for example if you revise for an exam by speaking aloud to yourself, writing the info down and drawing diagrams – the connections will be super strong and help you remember better.

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