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| MEMORY IN THE BRAIN |

Memory and the Brain

"Nothing is  more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory."

-Franklin P. Adams or Robert Benchley

A bad memory is the last thing we'd want. We scold ourselves for forgetting to buy an important ingredient after we've come back from the supermarket. We scold ourselves because we forget our wedding anniversary and hence got a severe reprimand and a scold in return. 

We scold ourselves because we forget our dental appointment and then got fined 200 Rs for a no-show. Unfortunately, even dentists act like policemen nowadays. One fines you for speeding, and the other penalizes you for not showing up.

That does not bode well for our financial future; nor does it bode well for the future of our minds.

What is memory?

It depends on what perspective we look at it. In psychology, memory is a human being's ability to store and remember bits and pieces of information and eventually to use such information when the need arises. 

Memory is used to fall under the field of philosophy, but in the early 20th century, it was integrated into cognitive psychology. Today, memory now property belongs to a branch of science that combines cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Thus, it is now under the realm of cognitive neuroscience. 

For our purposes, we will take first classification-by duration and explain it briefly before we deal with ways to improve our memory. Under memory by duration, we have three types:

  1. Sensory memory
  2. Short-term memory
  3. Long-term memory
According to Wikipedia, sensory memory corresponds to the first instant that a person or object is noticed. This observation sometimes moves into the sensory state, and qualities of short-term memory. 

Sensory memory means that the observation or perception lasts from milliseconds to seconds. Short-term memory, in turn, corresponds to memory that occurs from seconds to minutes.

Immediate interaction with things, objects, and persons constitutes our sensory memory as they are information produced by our five senses. Touching, smelling, or seeing are faculties that enable us to remember more easily.

Long-term memory is a memory that is stored and then retrieved after days and years. 

An example may help us understand this system of classification better: supposing someone gives us his number. We remember it for a few seconds maybe even up to a minute or two but soon forget it. This is short-term memory.

On the other hand, we remember certain phone numbers that we use frequently. our baby sitter's number, the pharmacist's, our husband's office-these numbers are stored in our long-term memory. 

In the next blogs, I will talk more about nutrition, exercises to keep our memory fast and agile. stay tuned!!!

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