Forgetfulness (Amnesia) is not considered as a disorder as long as one forgets the unimportant things and retains the important ones. In other words, to retain or remember a thing requires a degree of importance given to it which always is subjective. Recollecting the past at times is easy for some or complex for others. This depends on how an individual's brain stores the information through its various neural processes. Memory in general also depends on associative informations that is stored along with the actual information, one of which is emotion. In a recent study published online in Nature Neuroscience, using functional MRI the authors analyze how the amnesia towards useless information favors remembering useful information. Read the news article here We Forget to Remember.
The "title" and 'abstract' of the original published article are as follows:
"Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting"
'Remembering often requires the selection of goal-relevant memories in the face of competition from irrelevant memories. Although there is a cost of selecting target memories over competing memories (increased forgetting of the competing memories), here we report neural evidence for the adaptive benefits of forgetting—namely, reduced demands on cognitive control during future acts of remembering. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during selective retrieval showed that repeated retrieval of target memories was accompanied by dynamic reductions in the engagement of functionally coupled cognitive control mechanisms that detect (anterior cingulate cortex) and resolve (dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) mnemonic competition. Strikingly, regression analyses revealed that this prefrontal disengagement tracked the extent to which competing memories were forgotten; greater forgetting of competing memories was associated with a greater decline in demands on prefrontal cortex during target remembering. These findings indicate that, although forgetting can be frustrating, memory might be adaptive because forgetting confers neural processing benefits.'
Recently I came across one more interesting area of cognitive research called "Qualia", a psychological property related to sensual perception, through an article in Japan times. Its amazing to research how different neuronal properties influence the perception, state of mind and memory in an individual. Reading the article made me believe that neuroscientists in general need to possess philosophical thoughts to postulate neuronal activities.
The "title" and 'abstract' of the original published article are as follows:
"Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting"
'Remembering often requires the selection of goal-relevant memories in the face of competition from irrelevant memories. Although there is a cost of selecting target memories over competing memories (increased forgetting of the competing memories), here we report neural evidence for the adaptive benefits of forgetting—namely, reduced demands on cognitive control during future acts of remembering. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during selective retrieval showed that repeated retrieval of target memories was accompanied by dynamic reductions in the engagement of functionally coupled cognitive control mechanisms that detect (anterior cingulate cortex) and resolve (dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) mnemonic competition. Strikingly, regression analyses revealed that this prefrontal disengagement tracked the extent to which competing memories were forgotten; greater forgetting of competing memories was associated with a greater decline in demands on prefrontal cortex during target remembering. These findings indicate that, although forgetting can be frustrating, memory might be adaptive because forgetting confers neural processing benefits.'
Recently I came across one more interesting area of cognitive research called "Qualia", a psychological property related to sensual perception, through an article in Japan times. Its amazing to research how different neuronal properties influence the perception, state of mind and memory in an individual. Reading the article made me believe that neuroscientists in general need to possess philosophical thoughts to postulate neuronal activities.
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