What are memories made of?

What are memories made of? We could say that of an endless number of emotions linked together to form more or less beautiful jewels. Also from a chest of sensations, some more pleasant, others highly painful. A memory is also a perfume in the memory, a smell of childhood and, of course, successions of images that, like slides, we recall from time to time.

We could define this dimension in a thousand ways, some more poetic than others. However, for neuroscience a memory has little romantic, poetic or literary. In fact, once again, To explain how the brain processes and organizes memories, the metaphor of computers is used. The truth is that this organ acts in a very similar way to the most sophisticated of processors.

What’s more, like any set of cables, subroutines and electrical systems, it is not exempt from making errors. The brain, like any machine, also makes mistakes. And if there is a dimension where misunderstandings and confusions are frequent, it is in memory. In fact, a small part of the memories we validate are invented.

What are memories made of? This is what science tells us

Are memories “things”? Are they made up of atoms? Can a memory be observed under a powerful microscope? The answer to all these questions is obvious: no.

If we ask ourselves what memories are made of, we must visualize groups of neurons connected to each other.forming “taxonomic trees”, groups of specialized cells.

Let’s now imagine a person with amnesia. She is someone who cannot recover from his memory who his mother was, when her first kiss was, or what his last pet’s name was. However, she can remember what she ate this morning or the title of the movie she saw an hour ago. This man or woman is apparently healthy: however, there is something wrong with his or her brain.

The first thing we must understand is that our memories are not in a specific warehouse. Actually, we have a complex taxonomy of memory systems, each with its own specialized circuits and neurons. This explains why there are people who suffer from retrograde, anterograde, dissociative, drug-induced amnesia, transient global amnesia, etc.

Let’s get more information.

The protein responsible for building your memories: AKT

In the brain we have a molecule that acts like that special cement, putty or glue that gives shape to our memories. This is the AKT protein.

Studies such as those carried out at the University of Colorado tell us something fascinating: this element is present in all brain tissue and is what makes it easier for new experiences to become new memories.

The brain is like a barcode recognizing patterns

We were talking at the beginning about the metaphor of the brain as a computer. Something that many neurologists who are experts in human memory point out to us is that memories are not like photographs that one saves at high resolution and with many megapixels. In reality, the memory works almost like QR codes.

That is, what the brain does is categorize each stimulus and experience. And it does so based on neural patterns. Each memory is a connection between several neurons and this generates an electrical pattern, so to speak..

Every time we retrieve a specific piece of information, neural stimulation is generated capable of instantly evoking an image, an emotion or a sensation in our mind.

What are memories made of? They are constellations of stars

It was Carl Sagan who said that we are stardust reflecting on the stars. Now, if we ask ourselves what memories are made of It can also help us visualize a set of stars forming small galaxies.. Why do we say this? It is easy to understand and wonderful if we see it this way.

As we have pointed out, A memory is nothing more than a set of neuronal cells linked together. As we accumulate more and more experiences and memories, protuberances of cells form complex structures that, seen with new diagnostic techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, look like small stars inside a galaxy emitting electrical pulses.

Likewise, it is important to take another aspect into account. While it is true that the brain organizes memories into patterns, sometimes it makes mistakes.. It can distort events, it can fill information with invented data and it can also take as valid facts that have never happened, as occurs with the Mandela effect.

That is to say, although our brain works like a computer and we have particles from ancient stars in our DNA, as Carl Sagan said, the truth is that, sometimes, it is fallible and makes mistakes. However, this does not make it any less fascinating.

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