Your Memory Rewrites the Past to Live and Deal with the Present

A recent study shows that our brain may actually edit past memories in order to help them relate to the present.

According to researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, they found that the brain revises memories of the past and updates them through combinations with new experiences. The brain does this so that we can better adapt to live in the present and forget the past.

For the study, researchers recruited a total of 17 men and women to participate in tests involving an MRI scanner. The procedure helped to accurately measure the particpant's brain activities and eye movements in order to determine what was going on regarding specific regions of the organ and memory.

For the intial test, participants were asked to study 168 object locations on a computer screen with different backgrounds. After that, they were then shown new backgrounds and instructed to put the object in its original location. They observed that the participants always failed to place the objects in its original place.

During the last phase of the experiment, participants were presented with the three objects and asked to place them in the original location, the location chosen by the participant or a new location.

As memory gathers little bits of information-including various things in a setting such as the environment, people and objects-when old memories are remembered, new information is melded with the old to become more relevant to the present, according to researchers.

"A memory isn't a static thing that you bring in and it slowly gets moved out and stuck somewhere in the brain," said Joel Voss, a researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, and the co-author of the study, via USA Today. "Every time you retrieve it, you have the ability to modify it." He and his team are studying the role the part of the brain called the hippocampus plays in this modification process.

Researchers believe that these findings could hold important implications for understanding issues regarding social interactions as well as underlying issues for post-traumatic stress disorder.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the Journal of Neruoscience.