Do you often feel like your brain is so full of information that you have to toss something out in order to learn something new?
This is common amongst many of us, and new studies are coming out to explain why it is necessary for our brains to discard certain memories.
Think of it like this: In order to make room for a new habit, you must let go of a previous one, right? Our brain operates in this way, when remembering something important makes our brains discard any similar memories that might compete for its attention.
Think of this example of going to the ATM: For the past two years you’ve had the same PIN number for your debit card. You have recently decided to get a new card, with a new PIN number. You’re probably going to type in that old PIN number many times before you remember that you have a new one. The more that old number fades into your memory, the easier it will be for you to remember the new one.
Basically, forgetting is a crucial part of memory- you have to forget certain things in order to remember new things, and that is how the process of discarding takes place.
Researchers have been testing the idea that the brain intentionally wipes away similar memories in favor of preserving the ones it labels important for years, but recently they have been narrowing those studies down to how precisely this happens.
This new study has been done by the University of Birmingham and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences unit in Cambridge in which patterns of brain activity in participants were monitored by MRI scans, while they were asked to recall individual memories based on images they had been shown earlier.
Over the course of four selective retrievals, the participants in the study were cued to retrieve a target memory, which became more and more vivid with each trial.
Dr. Maria Wimber from the University of Birmingham, explained: “Forgetting is often viewed as a negative thing, but of course, it can be incredibly useful when trying to overcome a negative memory from our past. So there are opportunities for this to be applied in areas to really help people.”
Dr. Anderson, from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Cambridge, co-led the study and said that: “People are used to thinking of forgetting as something passive. Our research reveals that people are more engaged than they realize in shaping what they remember of their lives.”
We at LifeDaily have certainly found these new studies interesting, and we hope that in your life you, “forget the bad stuff, to remember the good.”
[Featured Image Credit: h. koppdelaney]
Learn Why We Remember Some Things But Forget Others is a post from: LifeDaily