Memory. One word. Three syllables. A whole range of meanings from the recollection of past events to a simple flashback. It is in all things but where is it stored, what research is being done, what does it look like? Let’s explore this deeply vast topic together. It all starts with a definition.

Memory is “the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences.” According to dicitionary.com but the Webster dictionary says that memory is “The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.” It really depends on who you ask and what words they use but generally it is all the same the recollection of past events stored in your brain like it was 1’s and 0’s on a computer.

Highly Superior Autobiographical memories (HSAM) are a curse as well as a blessing. It is the ability to remember most or all of your past and the past in general. A woman, Jill Price, wrote to a professor at University of California, Irvine, to get assistance with this. By assistance she wanted to aid in the research of eidetic memories. People with HSAM are similar to people with photographic memory except that they remember the past like a video. Although when watching a video you still feel like you’re in the present, but many people say that it is like traveling back to the past reliving a past event in the blink of an eye. Research has just begun on this subject meaning they are still trying to figure out what it is and why it happens. This is just a suburb of the giant city that is memory, but what is the opposite of HSAM? Alzheimer’s disease is the complete opposite of HSAM in where you can’t remember things for any long period of time with reminders. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s but they are searching for one. The many branches that are being pursued one of the most interesting, in my mind, is the use of snake venom. The new structures are helpful in fighting many diseases the research is older but still in early stages. They are studying the peptide chains of the venom in hopes for cures or the base of a cure. All-In-all, remembering things is an importan part of our lives, but let’s explore where memory is stored.

Memory is stored in the cerebral cortex. It travels between neural pathways which run throughout our body. If these are underdeveloped it causes long-term memory loss. Short-term memory is stored in a sort of RAM unit in our brain where it stays until it travels along the pathways meaning if these are damaged then memory can’t travel to be stored long term. This is a very controversial topic many people believe that memory is stored in the hippocampus; a seahorse-shaped folding in the cerebral cortex, but there is not a large amount of proof behind it. This is the most unknown part about memory is what memory looks like and where it is stored. No one has been able to prove that it even has looks in the same way love is an idea that you can see, so is memory. Although memory is studied extensively it is one of the greatest mysterious of the human body.

Studying memory is a great way to pass hours of time without noticing. It is not very well known but still there is lots of information about it.

What part of the brain does thinking take place in?

What causes you to remember things?

And do we subconsciously remember things?

Questions like these and many more are being researched as we speak so let’s do the world a favor and remember.

Here is a demonstration of memory using 3d projection software