Memory – what a fantastic part of us. Whether you believe it is a result of God’s best work or an element of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, it remains one of the most important parts of our consciousness.
For the most part, memory is stored in the temporal lobe and hippo campus of the brain and stores not only recent memory (short-term) but also long-term memory.
Remember the first edition of the Village News in 1998? I can only remember the cover and some of that particular article, but that first issue is ingrained in my memory because it changed my life.
Called episodic memory, long-term memory stores those important pieces of your past, but not the parts that you do not really need. These memories, consisting of episodes recollected from an individual’s own life, often based on a combination of personal experiences and specific objects, people and events experienced at particular times and places are necessary for impressions of your wedding, you trip to Aruba or your daughter’s award for cheer leading 10 years ago.
Semantic memory (general knowledge and facts about the world) is what you learned in school, while short-term memory is what acts as a kind of scratch-pad for temporary recall of the information which is being processed at any point in time and has been referred to as “the brain’s Post-it note,” according to “Your Brain: The Missing Manual” by Matthew MacDonald.
There are so many more parts of the brain that do millions of processes. It amazes me.
This weekend I read an article about Clive, an amnesia sufferer, who could remember only 15 to 30 seconds at a time. He felt as he woke up each time he cycled through his on and off short-term memory. Eventually it was discovered (he was a very talented pianist and choir director) that he could remember his playing and directing, his long-term memory, to an extent he could pay impeccably without memory problems.
This week in VN discussions relate to memories of the Enon Volunteer Fire Station: volunteer firefighters are an endangered species. Rick Gray reviews the history and present state of education.
A heart-pulling remembrance of Max, J.R. Wilson’s best friend of 14 years, after he passed recently, tells the story of pets being part of our lives.
If not for our complicated memories, loved ones, the evolution of our child’s accomplishments and the best part of our lives would be unimportant and forgotten.
