The Science of Memory, and how we’re Hoping to Rewire it
Memory is neither perfect nor permanent: an array of studies have found that it is easily manipulated. The brain is not a “video recorder”, and even extraordinarily vivid memories have been shown to be inaccurate. Factors such as illness, trauma, substance use, or even nutrition, stress, and depression can damage memory. This imperfection has lead to a growth of innovation in neurotechnology seeking to address this issue: a prosthetic for the mind and a form of support for a degrading memory.
Creating technologies to support the formation and recall of memories requires an understanding of how these memories are constructed and stored. There are two types of memories: declarative and nondeclarative memories. Declarative, or explicit, memories can be consciously recalled and consist of facts and ideas a person encounters as well as their autobiographical memories concerning their experiences.
The creation of declarative memories is mainly managed by the hippocampus, which is associated with the arrangement of space within a memory. In coordination with other parts of the brain like the amygdala, which incites and is responsible for our emotional responses to events, the hippocampus assists in the formation of our working, short-term memories. These short-term memories are held in the prefrontal cortex. Eventually, these…
