А woman looks familiar to you, but you can’t remember her name or where you saw her? According to a new University of California study, the memory about it exists – you simply have no access to it.
Using advanced brain imaging methods, the scientists found that a person’s brain activity at the moment of remembering an event is similar to when it was experienced, even if a person can’t remember any details. Jeff Johnson, lead author of the study published in the journal Neuron, says that if the information is still there, there is a chance to retrieve it.
Inside an MPT scanner, the students were shown words and asked to do various tasks: imagine how an artist would draw the object named by the word or say the word backward in their minds. At this moment the scanner captured the brain activity. About 20 minutes later, students were shown the words again and asked to recall all details about them. Again, the scanner captured their brain activity. The scientists conclude that this shows the brain stores the information about all events, even if a person thinks it’s long forgotten.
Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/11304375@N07.
