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Asked by to Tom, David on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Thomas Smith answered on 26 Jun 2014:
David is the real expert on this, so I’m sure he’ll give you an excellent answer. I’ll have a go.
As I understand it, when you experience something (like a day at school), neurons in your brain form lots of new connections, these are called synapses, and these ARE your memories. If the memories are not very important (like what colour socks you wore 3 weeks ago), then the synapses are allowed to break, and the memory is lost. If the memory is important (like your first day at school, or like a particularly excellent lesson), the synapses are strengthened and the memories are kept.
Another way to keep memories is to keep thinking of them – one example is learning to play an instrument, by repeating things over and over again, you strengthen your memory (you strengthen the synapses).
There are a few reasons why people might lose even their strong memories. These either involve hitting their heads or just the process of getting old. If you hit your head, it can lead to swelling in regions of the brain that have lots of memory synapses, which can cause those memories to be lost. Synapses also break down over long periods of time, so as you get older you can begin to lose your memories. Correct me if I’m wrong David!
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David Davila answered on 27 Jun 2014:
Tom’s right – fire together, wire together! This means that your brain cells (neurons) form connections based on how often those connections are used – so if you keep practicing something, those connections in your brain keep getting used and so they get stronger, and soon that thing becomes strongly imprinted in your memory!
There are lots of reasons why someone would lose their memory. One is phsyical damage – a strong enough hit to the head or a misplaced cut in brian surgery can cause damaged neurons to die – and the connections die with it. Another, more mysterious cause of memory loss is emotional trauma – when something very emotionally damaging happens, sometimes the only way the brain can cope is by shutting down those memories altogether (along with other memories) to stay in control. In this way, through interesting ways we don’t really know about yet, the brain can actually give itself amnesia, or memory loss.
Finally, there are a couple of ways that you might lose your memory getting older. 1) If you don’t keep using these connections, they die off on their own, and so we forget things that we don’t practice or think about a lot. 2) When you get older your brain gets worse and making new connections, so it gets harder to remember new things, and so old people may have bad memories. 3) Neurological disorders, like Alzheimers, can cause memory loss by causing neurons to die and disrupting the connections in the brain.
All in all, memory is widely studied and very interesting topic in neuroscience and I wish i knew more!
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