Scientists find that the brain creates parallel copies of the same memories: 02:10

Swiss scientists from the University of Basel have discovered that the memory of an experience is stored in the brain in several parallel copies. These copies exist for varying periods of time, change to a certain extent, and are sometimes erased. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Science.

The team found that in the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for converting short-term memory into long-term memory, a single event is recorded by different groups of neurons that arise at different stages of embryonic development.

According to experts, the version of memory in early neurons is initially inaccessible to its owner, and the person can access it only after some time.
In later neurons, on the contrary, the same memory appears very clearly at first, but gradually disappears.

Scientists have found that memories stored briefly after being acquired by late-born neurons can be modified and rewritten.

This means that remembering a situation immediately after it occurred primes subsequent neurons to become active and integrate the actual information into the original memory.

In contrast, remembering the same event long afterward primes early neurons to fire again to make a copy of themselves, but the associated memory cannot be easily replaced.

According to researchers, in the future, understanding memory processes will make it possible to erase traumatic memories and restore memories that seemed lost forever.

Earlier scientists I learnedShingles can impair a person’s memory.