What Happens in the Brain When We Misremember

Human memories are a blend of personal experiences and our knowledge of the world around us. They aren’t necessarily a record of exactly what has happened. Memories can be unreliable, new experiences mixing with the old ones. At times, faulty memories have had quite negative consequences, such as eyewitness testimony in court. Psychologists have been working to uncover what contributes to misremembering.

Decades ago, a procedure known as the DRM task was developed to study false memories. This task is a psychological experiment in which participants are given a list of words that are related to a “lure” word, which is not present. After some time passes, participants are asked to remember what words they were given. Many recall seeing the lure word even though it was absent. This effect contributes to the idea of gist memory; we store overall ideas in our minds rather than remembering on an individual basis.

Brain-imaging studies have allowed us to see where certain memories are stored. Sounds are stored in the auditory cortex, images in the visual cortex, and so on. Researchers believe that there is a certain area of our brain, known as the “hub”, which is able to see all memories at once. The hub can discern similarities among objects, even if they do not look or sound similar, such as an ostrich and hummingbird.

Researchers have theorized that our brain’s ability to see similarity in meaning causes an overlapping in patterns of brain activity. This overlapping then leads to faulty memories. No one has known exactly where this overlapping occurs until recently. Cognitive neuroscientist, Martin Chadwick, and his team used brain scanning while repeating the DRM experiment. From the scans, they were able to see that the frontal part of the brain’s anterior temporal lobe (ATL) responded in all participants during this study. Chadwick found that while such brain overlapping can lead to some unreliable memories, its organizational method allows us to remember things better.

By striving to understanding how the brain record memories, we can work to resolve legal issues associated with eyewitness testimonies. Knowledge of this can also further intelligent machine development. Our minds use memory of past experiences to adapt to new situations, allowing us to predict consequences and make appropriate decisions. Computer programs currently do only what you specifically tell them. By learning how the mind adjusts, an adaptive machine could someday be developed.

I chose this article because everyone, including me, misremembers things at times. I simply wanted to know the reason behind why that is. There may be a way to improve memory by understanding the way events are recorded. This could lead to finding a method to reduce effects caused by diseases associated with memory deterioration, such as Alzheimer’s.

The idea of intelligent machinery also intrigued me. If a machine was capable of “learning” and adapting to new situations, it could perform all sorts of tasks without needing to be specifically told to do so. However, human minds are very complex, and I am unsure of how higher thinking could be replicated by a machine.

I learned that while our minds are able to connect at a higher level, it isn’t always accurate, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While overlapping brain patterns may result in some false memories, this process allows us to accurately retain much of our everyday experiences. The ability to make higher-level connections enables us to learn and grow. We just need to be aware of false memory, so that we are more cautious when dealing with certain situations, such as eyewitness testimony.

-Ashley B.