Regulating memories in the brain
Trips to Silverwood Theme Park, camping in the Idaho wilderness and conquering "Lego Angry Birds Star Wars," tops the list of, "Things I did on my summer vacation," stapled to the bulletin board on the walls of my school. Reading each paper I wonder, will these students remember in 20 years what happened during their summer of 2015?
Some kids will distinctly remember the summer of 2015 because of the death of their dog, grandparent, frog or fish. Many will forget in a few years swimming at the lake, spending endless days watching television with their baby sitter or walking barefoot on hot cement in search of a friend to play. The idea of a deliciously delightful summer day will remain with the child through adulthood but the independent thoughts of this particular summer day will disappear as quickly as the day's sun sets.
Each summer day will seem as the last until one remarkable, memorable act startles the mind to create an important, lasting memory. Understanding a day can come, I can participate in the day and as quickly as the day disappears so does my memory for that day, is an alarming realization. Why is every day fleeting? Why isn't every day important? Why can't I remember what I had for breakfast two days ago but I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of two planes crashing into the World Trade Center in 2001? The answer is in our mind.
Our brain is more like an emotional regulator than a video recorder. As each day passes, one regulates information received and determines if the day's event make one sad, happy or has no emotional importance. Events that ping our emotional regulator are permanently stored in our brain as a 30-second YouTube video continuingly playing in our noggin. Events that do not carry an emotional charge - most information - is quickly relegated to a region in our brain which understands the emotion of the event but disregards the act, therefore dismisses the memory of the act itself.
For this reason, we perfectly remember our wedding day, the death of our father, our 10th birthday party and the terror of Sept. 11, 2001, but cannot remember driving home from work last night. If we cannot remember most of what happens daily, is our life unimportant? Are we ants walking through the world like soldiers doing what is expected of us with little memory of our reason or purpose? Yes and no.
There are acts and routines we conduct daily which, if requiring our full attention and emotion, might overload our brain. Driving to work, writing a letter, watching television and performing daily routine tasks can be achieved with little mind-work allowing us to complete tasks with minimal neural response. Now something dynamic, exciting, sad or scary happens and our brain jumps into action. Neurons fire, our sympathetic nervous system activates, our endocrine system emits hormones and our body and mind determines the event as important and we start the DVD player in our mind - creating a permanent, long-term memory. Amazing!
Send comments or other suggestions to William Rutherford at bprutherford@hotmail.com or visit pensiveparenting.com.