Remember me?

Carls says:

A pal of mine is seriously worried about his memory and constantly frets about why he is becoming so forgetful. Mind, he is an ex-professional rugby player from the days when cognitive concussion was better known as the drummer of your favourite prog-rock band, so I get his concern. However, upon a little research it transpires we’re designed to forget.

The vast majority of what we experience and think about during any given day will be forgotten about pretty sharpish. And this is a good thing as much of it is inconsequential and irrelevant. If our brains systematically filed and hoarded away every flotsam moment of every jetsam experience, we would never be able to answer that oh-so-important pub-quiz question or find our car-keys ever again.

Science refers to our ability to recall significant events as ‘episodic memory’ and it’s best understood as something akin to mental time travel. When we recall such a significant or poignant memory there is an almost palpable feeling of being transported back in HG Well’s Time Machine, where we viscerally reacquaint ourselves with it. Think of what the smell of freshly mowed grass can do, or how Celine Deon’s Titanic crooning transports you back to your first dance-floor snog? This same process also allows us to contemplate the future and have some perception of what may be coming just round the corner. Alzheimer sufferers are unable to use episodic memory and perhaps accounts for their disorientation in the present and fear of the future?

The area of the brain that supports this function is, apparently, the prefrontal cortex, and it develops rapidly from our early years. Sadly, it starts to pack-up as early as our mid-30s, at which time our episodic memory gets worse. The good news, kinda, is that this means our grey-matter is actually functioning exactly as it should through our lifetime. Consider, historically, what our ancestors were actually having to do during these ages: Young adults would have needed to care and provide for their offspring; make the life-determining ‘fight or flight decisions; to forage or hunt; to differentiate between good and bad, allies and rival, and so on. By contrast, elders tagged along for the ride, perhaps chipped-in the odd nugget of wisdom and whittled wooden spoons.

So, the next time you find yourself pondering ‘why am I so forgetful’, appreciate that pruning the begonias, compiling a shopping list or contemplating The Times’ cryptic crossword isn’t really that important and take some comfort that your brain is doing exactly what it’s evolved to do.

This blog was written by Carl, an old chum, and I thought you’d like it – Read more of his observations on carlbeetham.com