Why do we forget? New theory proposes 'forgetting' is actually a form of learning
Jan 2022, phys.org
Access vs Loss:
The memories themselves are still there, but if the specific ensembles cannot be activated they can't be recalled. It's as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can't remember the code to unlock it.
It's not that you forgot, but that you forgot how to remember.
And on the collective memory -- we encode so much of each other's memories, when getting together with old friends and remembering a crazy night you all had, where each person remembers a different part, because you each have developed different "access routes" to different parts of that night. Only together can you activate each other's memories, and thereby get the much bigger, fuller picture of all that went down that night.
via Trinity College Dublin: Tomás J. Ryan et al, Forgetting as a form of adaptive engram cell plasticity, Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41583-021-00548-3
Image credit: Lost In Thoughts - Sebmaestro on Deviantart
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