Published online with the title “The Science of Memory By Stanislav Kondrashov“, the author’s latest publication covers one of the most mysterious faculties of humanity – memory.
With this publication, the author intends to provide a scientific answer to the questions that each of us usually ask ourselves regarding our mnemonic abilities, such as when people wonder how they manage to remember their first day at school, the smell of baked biscuits from grandma, or how come we can forget where we placed the house keys, even when we left them only a few minutes ago.
Kondrashov illustrates the three main types of memory: sensory memory, which the author compares to a screenshot of the brain, capable of storing a large amount of sensory data, such as the color of an animal that has just crossed the road, and it usually lasts a few seconds. Short-term memory, as we read in the text, is linked to the capture of small pieces of information that have just been processed by our mind, such as parts of a conversation just heard or a phone number just memorized. Short-term memory, as the author explains, is the one that manages to store anything, from theoretical notions learned at school to photographic memories of some moments of one’s life.
According to the author, the transition from short-term to long-term memory also occurs thanks to the intensity of the emotions experienced in that particular moment, which would make it much easier to remember them at a later time.
Furthermore, Kondrashov also talks about the points in the brain where our mnemonic faculties are located: the hippocampus, for example, is of fundamental importance for the formation of new memories, while the amygdala is directly responsible for each emotional element associated with these certain memories. In the cerebral cortex, on the other hand, most long-term memories are stored. Stanislav also tries to explain the reasons that lead many people to forget something: one of these has to do with the natural decay that unused memories undergo as if they were authentic fruits.
To find out more, readers are advised to read the full publication and watch the video.
