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Volatility of Human Memory

prostoalex writes "Scientific Americans looks into the human brain, trying to figure out why some events just tend to stick in our memories forever, while the others are gone: "How does a gene "know" when to strengthen a synapse permanently and when to let a fleeting moment fade unrecorded? And how do the proteins encoded by the gene "know" which of thousands of synapses to strengthen? The same questions have implications for understanding fetal brain development, a time when the brain is deciding which synaptic connections to keep and which to discard. In studying that phenomenon, my lab came up with an intriguing solution to one of these mysteries of memory.""

11 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    fp!!11

  2. cool by xbmodder · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    this is really cool. i wonder if you could make super memory or something? that would be awesome... or like lock a test into your mind -first post

  3. Re:Bizarro! by xbmodder · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    what?!???!?!? why is he gettin modderated?

  4. Re:WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So is the gay community, but we're (caucasians) turning that around too.

  5. Re:Bizarro! by ackthpt · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Bizarro! Bizarro! I'm moderating! Bizarro! I'm moderating you!!!

    For a moment I thought you were refering to Bizarro, by Dan Piraro, but I'm not sure. There's that Superman Bizarro World, you know, uh ... (dang, what's his name again) dude.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  6. sex 3ith A Taco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    user. 'Now that and that th3 floor w0n't be standing Resound as fitting that comprise new core is going of progress. moans and groans where it was when

  7. Re:WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I am a black human 20th level powergeek with the Jewish Armor of Jewbaca. I hereby command you to be my slave for all eternity. Yes, that will cost me 3 charges of this precious artifact, but damn it's worth it to make scumbags like you shutup.

  8. Re:Bizarro! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    He's refering to an episode of Sealab: "Bizarro, I love you, bizarro." That episode would have been first class without that fucking penguin repeating that line over and over again. It was still fairly funny.

  9. A few memories I would like to remember... by djeddiej · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The first time I received a video game system (an Atari 2600, with Combat, Air Sea Battle) The first time I got wasted. The first time I won some money on a bet. The first time I had sex. The second time I had sex. The third time I had sex. How about the fourth time? And the fifth? Perhaps they will device a way to loop that memory, and perhaps stimulate the sensations of smell, sight and hearing too... Perhaps they will call it...the holodeck?

    --
    just a web application developer and instructor in Toronto, ON Canada
  10. Two Words: by Matey-O · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    EEEEEEAAAARRRRRR WOOOOOORRRRRRMMMMM! /me: Goes off singing 'Who let the Dogs out?'

    --
    "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
  11. 2 cents ... an philosophy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    very facinating indeed.
    but to explain memory one should not just
    try to figure out how the chemical mechanism works.
    one has to also look "from a distance".
    try remembering back to your first
    memory...
    to me it seems all memories i can remember,
    because i also have memories of memories
    i know i have forgotten, are part of me now.
    sounds silly, but the me is my persona
    my character.
    starting from that first memory we
    selectively start to memories things
    that will eventually form the person
    we want to be.
    also we select memories that help
    us look at the world the way we want
    to look at it. so to speak to make it
    look pretty. i don't mean pretty
    faces or things, but a very real
    geometrical view of the world.
    we can both say:"what a pretty
    tree, or flower", but in reality
    we see "completly" different trees.
    of course if we measure the tree,
    you and me, thanks to the laws of logic,
    math and geometry we will have the
    same tree. but on first looking at the
    tree you and me will look differerntly.
    you might first "process" the "greenness"
    of the tree, while i might "process"
    the "shadowyness" of the tree. and
    every thing we look at, we first see a
    instance, "grid" to which we add more
    details, and this is why we both see the
    same tree different.
    here is the secret of memory. we learn to
    look a certain way and by doing so, feel
    a certain way. if we are satisfied, we
    continue to select memories to add to
    this personal "world view".
    what doesn't really fit my "world view" and
    my character in it, i tend to forget or
    i have to make a forced effort to remember ... :)