We humans use our large brains to make and store maps of our environment; maps we then use everyday for getting around and for recalling where we’ve been. But we are nothing special – many other animals…
Getting rid of negative memories is increasingly within our grasp.
taylor.a
Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render the…
We all know the past disappears.
FotoRita [Allstar maniac]
Jee Hyun Kim, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
If memory can be defined as “a past that becomes a part of me”, can forgetting be defined as “a past that is no longer a part of me”? Smokers who have abstained for years may not consciously be able to…
Did you forget to lock the door, or just forget to pay proper attention?
jef safi \ 'pictosophizing
Jee Hyun Kim, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Memory is difficult to define without being circular. People often define memory as “something you can remember”. But we cannot deny the existence of a memory when there is no recollection. Sigmund Freud…
“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.” William Gibson, Count…
An inflated sense of memory function in people with dementia may influence their likelihood of seeking help. Initially respondents…
Scientists believe that by mimicking the production of a molecule, they may be able to delay or repair the onset of dementia in elderly patients.
AAP/Melbourne Neuroscience Project, Katrina Lawrence
The discovery of a molecule that appears to regulate memory and learning in the brain could pave the way for treatments of early dementia, scientists at the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute (QBI…
Brain scan technology is finding that some parts of the brain respond more strongly to colour than others.
Flickr/dpi
For more than 200 years, scientists have known the range of colours we can see means there must be three different types of light-responsive cells in our eyes. These three types of cell, along with the…
Scientists say they have found a way to activate the brain cells that trigger particular memories, according to research published today in the journal Science. Researchers at MIT employed optogenetics…
So here it is, another morning. Another day of yawns. Another day of … oh … what was I saying? We all know that if you don’t get a good night’s sleep, you don’t function properly during the day. It could…