I’ve been crushing my word game lately because my brain has remembered most of the puzzle words. But now I’m worried. I’ve heard that to make room for new info, our brains toss out old memories. So what got the boot for these few thousand words? Probably everyone’s name.
Memory guru Oliver Hardt says “Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all. If we remembered everything, we would be completely inefficient because our brains would always be swamped with superfluous memories.” (1)
I can guarantee you my brain is swamped with superfluous memories. Cambridge U. memory researcher Michael Anderson says, “The vast majority of the things that are happening to me in my life I’m most likely not going to remember when I’m 80.” Oh yeah? Why do I still remember sticking my finger in the hole in the sink in kindergarten on a dare? Or the China tchotchkes decorating my Italian babysitter’s China cabinet?
I also remember the lyrics to thousands of songs, especially the goofy ones from my teenage years, “Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang (The Witch Doctor), and Ba-bom-a-bom-bom (3X), Ba-dang-a-dang-dang (2X) Blue moon (Blue Moon by the Marcels)
Why would my brain decide to keep the names of all my aunt’s cats and dogs (she’s been dead for over 30 years) and forget my neighbor’s name? And my brain insists on keeping incorrect memories. I consistently call a friend Sally. Her name is Shirley. She’s corrected me. I’ve corrected me. I repeat her name over and over. Yet the next time I see her I still say, “Hi, Sally.” She doesn’t even look like any Sally I’ve ever known. Yet my brain insists she must be Sally. I’ve heard that association helps people remember things – so maybe I should think of that famous line in Airplane, “Don’t call me Shirley.” But association never works for me. I’d probably start calling her Leslie (Nielsen) or Airplane.
My brain must be totally inefficient because it’s remembering superfluous things and ditching important things.
Anyway, to study how we forget things scientists have studied the memories of Drosophila melanogaster. That’s fruit fly but Drosophila melanogaster sounds more impressive. Since we remember things associated with trauma, the scientists shocked the poor critters while exposing them to an odor. They knew that the feel-good chemical dopamine is critical for forming and forgetting memories, so they blocked dopamine release onto the fruit fly's “mushroom body cells”. They found that the flies’ memory scores were twice as high when tested three hours later.
I don’t know about you, but this whole study seems absurd. First, how did they hold the fly down to shock it? I visualize a poor fruit fly on a table with its teeny legs in teeny leg cuffs. Second, the scientists have mapped a fruit fly’s brain and identified “mushroom body neurons.” (I can’t help but chuckle each time read the words mushroom body neurons). Third, what memory test did they use on these fruit flies? Is there a fruit fly IQ test? Who developed it?
Finally, I’m afraid after reading this study that some valuable memory like the date of my next doctor’s appointment will be pushed out of my brain because I can’t help but remember “mushroom body neurons.” And no, people do not have mushroom body neurons. Finally, do scientists snigger when someone says “mushroom body neurons?”
Meanwhile, Chinese scientists are studying mice memories and have determined that a protein called Rac1 (also known as Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1) speeds forgetting. So next time you buy meat at the grocery, check the ingredients to ensure it doesn’t contain Rac1. Just joking, it won’t be listed. But it may be in cattle and chicken feed. If you are a chemist, or you’d like more info, see the Rac1 references below.
But maybe I don’t need to worry so much about forgetting people’s names. Two neuroscientists say we forget things like proper nouns like someone’s name or the title of the book that we read last week. (2) As we age, our brains prioritize the gist over details, giving us wisdom. So next time you blank on a name, just remember you’re getting wiser.
Scientists who study slug memories learned that new memories might overlap old memories and make them fuzzier. But they also know that the newer memories usually suffer the overlay fate. Older memories survive this overlap. It’s like wrinkles, the deeper they are, the less likely wrinkle cream will remove them.
So this explains why I remember Aunt’s cat Hussy from 50 years ago and I forget my friend is Shirley. Oh no, I hope I don’t start calling her Hussy!
References
Demeet Sinfh Chawla, To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget, Quanta Magazine, July 24, 2018
Mineo, Lisa, Why we remember — and forget. And what we can do about it, Harvard Review, February 2, 2023
Rac1
Lykke Sylow,1, Rac1 Is a Novel Regulator of Contraction-Stimulated Glucose Uptake in Skeletal Muscle, ncbi.nlm.nch.com, 2013 Mar 14
Xuehong Liu, David K. Grandy, and Aaron Janowsky, Ractopamine, a Livestock Feed Additive, Is a Full Agonist at Trace Amine–Associated Receptor 1, ncbi.nlm.nch.com, July, 2014
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