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HEN considering what makes us who we
are, it is easy to think our memories are
the answer. Aside from the physical
traces of the passing of time on your
W body, your recollections are perhaps the
only thing that links the you sitting here today to
the many yous from every previous day of your
existence. Without them, your relationships
would mean nothing, not to mention your
knowledge, tastes, and your many adventures.
It might be no exaggeration to say your
memories are the essence of you.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that
much of the burgeoning field of neuroscience
has turned its efforts to understanding what
makes a memory and how to keep hold of it.
Perhaps the most intriguing idea to come
from recent discoveries is a reimagining of the
dark side of memory – forgetting.
As cherished memories fade or when we fail to
remember an important task it is easy to feel that
memory is failing us. But what the latest findings
show is that simply thinking of memory as either
accurate or fallible is a mistake. Instead, our
memories are malleable, and for good reason.
Rather than existing in the filing cabinet of the
brain, we conjure memories from scratch with
our own style (see page 41). As we sleep, the brain
meticulously crafts them into the most useful
versions (see page 34). Technology too, affects
how we remember and might even create whole
new recollections (see page 38). As for forgetting,
as infuriating as it can be, we’d be lost without it. THORDIS RÜGGEBERG/PLAINPICTURE
Because memory, it turns out, is an illusion – one
we create every time we recall the past and that is
exquisitely designed to help you live your life.

What is A It is your personal database are also impaired at imagining the apart from many other species.
T FIRST, it seems obvious.
If we can’t recall past events and
future,” says Eleanor Maguire at
Memory is about the past.
University College London.
preferences, our ability to make
We now know there is a strong link
memory of things you have experienced. between being able to remember sound decisions crumbles too. This is
In fact, this repository has a
because during the decision-making
process, the brain uses previous
purpose that goes way beyond
past events and being able to plan
choices and existing knowledge to
merely recalling information. Some
for the future. Imaging studies, for
for? of the best evidence of this came example, show that similar patterns assess options and imagine how
of brain activity underlie both.
they might turn out.
from studies of people with brain
The latest thinking is that memory
damage or amnesia.
One iconic case was of a patient The key seems to be the ability to could even have evolved to enable
generate images of scenes in the
known as KC in the early 1980s. After mind’s eye. “If you think about it, our species to communicate. Earlier
a motorcycle accident, he was left recalling the past, imagining the this year, cognitive scientists
with an impaired episodic memory: future, and even spatial navigation, Johannes Mahr and Gergely Csibra at
he could remember facts, but not typically involve us constructing the Central European University in
personal experiences. The weird scene imagery,” says Maguire. It could Budapest, Hungary, suggested that
thing was, it also stopped him doing be that being able to picture the past the key difference between human
something else entirely. “By studying enabled us to imagine the future, and memory and that of other animals is
patients who have an impaired ability therefore plan – one of the complex that we don’t just recall an event, we
to recall the past, we find that they cognitive feats that stands humans also remember how we came to know

32 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018