Memory If your brain sometimes feels a bit like a sieve, with pieces of information flowing out of it beyond your control, it might help to know that it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re losing it. It could just be a sign of your brain’s efficiency, says new research from Tsinghua University, China published in the journal Cell.
Apparently, your brain, just like a house, gets cluttered with stuff you don’t need and forgetting certain things is just your body’s way of clearing some shelf space for new thoughts and memories.
Previously it was thought that memories faded over time or that new experiences simply overwrote the old ones, but, say the scientists, they have proven that forgetting is an active process.
Using flies, the researchers have been able to pinpoint a molecular pathway that causes new memories to be forgotten. Disrupting that pathway in flies resulted in new memories being recalled for longer periods of time.
First published March 3, 2010