The nature of memory

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

After decades of research, scientists are still unable to explain why the human brain appears to be missing a memory compartment.

Recently, the study of the human brain has attracted the interest of physicians and psychologists. In Europe, 380 billion euros are spent on these studies a year, which is much higher than the cost of combating cardiovascular and cancer diseases.

One of the main directions in brain research is study of the localization of higher mental functions in it … The first discoveries in this area were made at the end of the 19th century, when scientists discovered a connection between damage to certain parts of the brain and the loss of certain mental functions, such as the ability to understand audible speech, think logically, etc.

But a real breakthrough in this direction occurred in the 90s of the 20th century after the invention of the method of magnetic resonance imaging, which allowed doctors to freely observe the activity of individual parts of the brain.

In these studies, scientists have identified areas of the brain associated with self-perception and the ability to recognize lies, as well as areas that govern curiosity and adventure. Centers of appetite, aggression, fear were discovered, areas responsible for a sense of humor and optimism were discovered. Scientists have even figured out why love is "blind." It turns out that romantic and motherly love turns off "critical" brain functions.

But looking for a site memory manager, were never successful. The human brain lacks a department responsible for storing memories. Scientists cannot explain this fact. Renowned brain researcher Carl Lashley, during experiments on rats, found that they remember what they were taught, even after removing 50% of the brain.

Another mystery is connected with memory.… If the computer disk does not change and each time gives the same information, then 98% of the molecules in our brain are completely renewed every two days. This means that every two days we must forget everything that we have learned before.

Without finding a convincing explanation for these facts, doctor of biology, author of many scientific works Rupert Sheldrake suggested that memories are located in "a spatial dimension inaccessible to our observation." In his opinion, the brain is not so much a "computer" that stores and processes information, but rather a "TV set" that transforms the flow of external information into the form of human memories.

How does the brain see?

Memory, what is it? We come into this world and open our book of life, in which we have yet to write down the history of our life.

What will be included in this book depends on us, and on the environment in which we grow and live, and on natural accidents, and on random patterns.

But everything that happens to us is reflected in the book of our life. And the repository of it all - our memory.

Thanks to memory, we absorb the experience of past generations, without which a spark of consciousness would never have ignited in us and our mind would not have awakened.

Memory is the past, memory is the future! But, what is memory, what miracle happens in the neurons of our brain and gives birth to our our own self, our individuality?

Joy and sorrow, our victories and defeats, the beauty of a flower with drops of morning dew on its petals, sparkling like diamonds in the rays of the rising Sun, a breath of breeze, singing of birds, whispering of leaves, the buzzing of a bee hurrying with nectar to its house - all this and much, much more, everything that we see, hear, feel, touch every day, every hour, every moment of our life is entered into the book of life by an indefatigable chronicler - our brain.

But where is all this recorded and how ?! Where is this information stored and in what incomprehensible way does it emerge from the depths of our memory in all the brightness and richness of colors, practically materializing in its original form, what we already considered long forgotten and lost?

In order to understand this, let's first understand how information gets into our brain.

A person has sense organs, such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and all over the surface of our body there are different types of receptors - nerve endings that respond to various external factors.

These external factors are exposure to heat and cold, mechanical and chemical effects, exposure to electromagnetic waves.

Let's see what modifications these signals undergo before reaching the neurons of the brain. Take vision as an example.

Sunlight reflected from surrounding objects hits the light-sensitive retina of the eye.

This light (image of an object) enters the retina through the lens, which also provides a focused image of the object.

The light-sensitive retina of the eye has special sensitive cells called rods and cones.

Sticks react to low light intensity, which allows you to see in the dark and give a black and white image of objects.

At the same time, each cone reacts to the spectrum of the optical range at high intensity of illumination of objects.

In other words, the cones absorb photons, each of which carries a different color - red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, or violet.

Moreover, each of these sensitive cells "receives" its own small piece of the image of the object.

The whole image is broken into millions of pieces and every sensitive cell thus, it snatches only one point from the whole picture.

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Description of Figure 70

In the human body, there are special formations - receptors. There are several types of human receptors that have different functions and, accordingly, in the course of adaptation to the most efficient work, they acquired specific properties, qualities and a unique structure. The light-sensitive retina of the eye is one of the tools through which the brain receives information from the outside world.

1. Support cage.

2. Cell of the pigment epithelium.

3. Sensitive cells (rods and cones).

4. Grains.

5. Contact area (synapses).

6. Horizontal cells.

7. Bipolar cells.

8. Layer of ganglion cells.

At the same time, each light-sensitive cell absorbs photons of light falling on it.

Absorbed photons change the level of their own dimension certain atoms and molecules inside these light-sensitive cells, which in turn provokes chemical reactions, as a result of which concentration and qualitative composition of ions cells.

Moreover, each light-sensitive cell absorbs photons of light in portions. And this means that after absorbing the next photon, such a cell does not react to other photons for a while, and at this time we are "blind".

True, this blindness is very short-lived (Δt <0.041666667 sec.) and occurs only when the image of the object changes too quickly.

This phenomenon is commonly known as the twenty-fifth frame effect. Our brain is able to react to an image only if it (the image) changes no faster than twenty-four frames per second.

Every twenty-fifth frame (and above) our brain is not able to see, so a person cannot be called sighted in the full sense of the word, the brain is able to see only a part of the “picture” of the world around us.

It is true that we see quite enough to orient ourselves in the world around us. Our vision performs this function quite satisfactorily.

Nevertheless, one must always remember that this is only part of the complete picture of the nature around us, that we are, in principle, half-blind. Not to mention the fact that the eyes only respond to the optical range of electromagnetic radiation (4…10)10^-9 m]…

Download and read further the fragment "Short-term memory"

Nikolay Levashov, Fragments from the book "Essence and Mind", volume 1 The author's book on Kramola.info