Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

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DangerMouse
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Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

Postby DangerMouse » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:29 pm

I'm not really sure of the best way to start posting on the board so I decided just to jump in.

The story below details the changes in thinking behind how our memory system works. The current thinking is that short term memory is converted to long term memory through repetition, thus the phased retention systems that many learners use. The scientists in the article below however have discovered that two memories, short and long, are created at the same time, but it takes a few more days for the long term memory to switch on.

The retention system of redoing material many times may need a rethink, it may be possible just to leave material for three days before going over it.

Would be interesting to know what everyone thinks.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many contributors to this board and the old one, you have been truly inspiring.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39518580

Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

The human brain is a biological masterpiece
What really happens when we make and store memories has been unravelled in a discovery that surprised even the scientists who made it.
The US and Japanese team found that the brain "doubles up" by simultaneously making two memories of events.
One is for the here-and-now and the other for a lifetime, they found.
It had been thought that all memories start as a short-term memory and are then slowly converted into a long-term one.
Experts said the findings were surprising, but also beautiful and convincing.
'Significant advance'
Two parts of the brain are heavily involved in remembering our personal experiences.
The hippocampus is the place for short-term memories while the cortex is home to long-term memories.
This idea became famous after the case of Henry Molaison in the 1950s.
His hippocampus was damaged during epilepsy surgery and he was no longer able to make new memories, but his ones from before the operation were still there.
So the prevailing idea was that memories are formed in the hippocampus and then moved to the cortex where they are "banked".
The team at the Riken-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have done something mind-bogglingly advanced to show this is not the case.
The experiments had to be performed on mice, but are thought to apply to human brains too.
They involved watching specific memories form as a cluster of connected brain cells in reaction to a shock.
Researchers then used light beamed into the brain to control the activity of individual neurons - they could literally switch memories on or off.
The results, published in the journal Science, showed that memories were formed simultaneously in the hippocampus and the cortex.
Prof Susumu Tonegawa, the director of the research centre, said: "This was surprising."
He told the BBC News website: "This is contrary to the popular hypothesis that has been held for decades.
"This is a significant advance compared to previous knowledge, it's a big shift."

The experiments were performed on mice but are thought to apply to human brains too
The mice do not seem to use the cortex's long-term memory in the first few days after it is formed.
They forgot the shock event when scientists turned off the short-term memory in the hippocampus.
However, they could then make the mice remember by manually switching the long-term memory on (so it was definitely there).
"It is immature or silent for the first several days after formation," Prof Tonegawa said.
'Strong case'
The researchers also showed the long-term memory never matured if the connection between the hippocampus and the cortex was blocked.
So there is still a link between the two parts of the brain, with the balance of power shifting from the hippocampus to the cortex over time.
Dr Amy Milton, who researches memory at Cambridge University, described the study as "beautiful, elegant and extremely impressive".
She told the BBC News website: "I'm quite surprised.
"The idea you need the cortex for memories I'm comfortable with, but the fact it's so early is a surprise.
"This is [just] one study, but I think they've got a strong case, I think it's convincing and I think this will tell us about how memories are stored in humans as well."

For now, this is simply a piece of fundamental science that explains how our bodies work.
But Prof Tonegawa says it may illuminate what goes on in some diseases of memory including dementia.
One of his previous studies showed mice with Alzheimer's were still forming memories but were not able to retrieve them.
"Understanding how this happens may be relevant in brain disease patients," he said.
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heatherbergman
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Re: Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

Postby heatherbergman » Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:00 am

I am wondering that is this your first post? i found it very interesting and informative. Thanks for the post mate.
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Ezy Ryder
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Re: Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

Postby Ezy Ryder » Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:26 am

DangerMouse wrote:The current thinking is that short term memory is converted to long term memory through repetition, thus the phased retention systems that many learners use.

I'm no expert, but, to my (limited, of course) understanding, if no type of short term memory tends to go much beyond 20-30 seconds or so... Why would you be using spaced repetition software/systems (I assume that's what you were referring to) with the purpose of "converting things to long term memory", if even an interval of a mere 1 minute already requires it to be stored in some kind of long term memory?
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Teango
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Re: Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

Postby Teango » Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:24 am

Here's a link to the original study cited in this BBC article:

Kitamura, T., Ogawa, S. K., Roy, D. S., Okuyama, T., Morrissey, M. D., Smith, L. M., Redondo, R. L., & Tonegawa, S. (2017). Engrams and circuits crucial for systems consolidation of a memory. Science, 356(6333), 73-78.

I haven't read beyond the abstract yet, but look forward to doing so with my morning cup of tea tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing the article, DangerMouse, and welcome to the forum. Crikey, chief...your moniker has already awoken several long-term memories from my childhood. :)
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Re: Rules of memory 'beautifully' rewritten

Postby SophiaMerlin_II » Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:00 pm

DangerMouse wrote:The current thinking is that short term memory is converted to long term memory through repetition, thus the phased retention systems that many learners use. The scientists in the article below however have discovered that two memories, short and long, are created at the same time, but it takes a few more days for the long term memory to switch on.

The retention system of redoing material many times may need a rethink, it may be possible just to leave material for three days before going over it.


I think that the way the study was conducted might mean that it's not 100% applicable to language learning. An electrical shock is a very powerful stimulus because it involves pain and fear. However, a vocabulary word is very rarely going to trigger a fight-or-flight response (and if it did, it would not need to be reviewed in the forseeable future because of the strength of the impression. Or that's my opinion anyway, I don't have any kind of biology or neurology degree.
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