We know that we inherit genes from our ancestors, but can we inherit their memories? This happens among animals and insects: Birds are born with their migration patterns within them and the Monarch butterfly, for instance, makes a long trip every year from North America to a small, 23-acre plot in Mexico, even though it may take 3 generations to make the trip one way.
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Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New research may one day help you improve your memory.
Neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. The finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease.
Neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried says, "The entorhinal cortex is the golden gate to the brain’s memory mainframe. Every visual and sensory experience that we eventually commit to memory funnels through that doorway to the hippocampus. Our brain cells must send signals through this hub in order to form memories that we can later consciously recall."
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Do depressed people make better political candidates because they remember more history (and are thus not doomed to repeat it)? Sad people have another political advantage: they are better than happy people at recognizing faces. You’d think you’d forget the BAD stuff, such a gory slaughterhouse or the devastating scene of a natural disaster, rather than the good, but those episodes are actually EASIER to remember. But in case you want to forget them, scientists are ready to help you.
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