The psychological cause of long-term memories

How do you make memories? Why do we remember events that happened years ago, for the long term? New research suggests that long-term memories depend on both the repetition of events and the complex neural learning process to survive in our memories.

The findings of the team of neuroscientists published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPNAS offers a more realistic understanding of how they form, as well as information about what could disrupt their formation. “Repetition is a well-documented trigger of memory formationSays Nikolai F. Kokushkin of New York University, one of the authors: The more something is repeated, the better it is remembered.

What is behind this nervous process?

The research reveals that the effects of recurring events at the individual level “They interact in more subtle ways and have distinct roles at work to form long-term memories‘, adds the expert at A Statement from New York University. This way the neurons sense not only the repetition, but also the “order of repeated experiences, and they can use this information to distinguish between different patterns of these events in building memories.”

Aim of the study It was in order to better understand what lies behind the nervous process, Specifically, that repeated events stimulate long-term memory. In this sense, he explains, neurons are able to distinguish between two events in an increasing order of intensity and “these two same events are in opposite order, forming a memory only if the intensity increases over time.”

however, One of the things that generates misunderstandings is knowing why recurring events interact with each other to create a memory. To answer this question, the team of researchers studied a California sea sulfur called Abelcia, because its “simple memories are well understood at the molecular and cellular level.”