Our interesting interactions between Emotions and Memories

Some memories; we remember it in all its details, as if our brain took a picture of that moment. Of course, the same is not true for every moment. There is an interesting and rather complex relationship between emotions and memories; In the light of a study, let's try to understand.

What is Flash Memory?

Your first fall off the bike; did that cinematic image come to life in your mind? The pain in your leg, the wind that eases that pain. Who was with you, where exactly were you? Now you may feel like you're back in that moment and reliving it literally. American scientists, Roger Brown and James Kulik; He calls these memories with high emotional intensity “flash memory”. An earthquake is the death of a loved one. Scientists; He says that when traumatic or shocking things happen, these memories create a specific and clear memory in the brain, and flash memory memories are easier to remember than ordinary memories.

So what exactly could be the reason for this?

What should come to mind when we say emotion? Of course, the amygdala is the emotion control center of the brain. The amygdala plays a primary role in emotional memory formation. Emotional responses are processed, recorded, and surfaced here. Also, the amygdala is located in front of the hippocampus. The hippocampus transfers short-term memory to long-term memory. In other words, the amygdala contributes to the strengthening of permanent memory by establishing connections between emotional stimuli and memory. Thus, it becomes usual for the events associated with emotional stimuli to be stored more permanently and remembered more vividly.

Where does emotional memory occur?

Professor Tali Sharot, an expert in Cognitive Neuroscience, and her colleagues from New York University decided to conduct a study to examine the brain functions of people who remember traumatic events. The results of the study, published in the National Academy of Science, also contain new information about where emotional memories are formed.

During this research, there was no need to traumatize anyone for the sake of science; because the 21st century is already full of disasters. Sharot worked with 24 people who witnessed the events of September 11 personally. They were asked to recall what happened on 9/11 or a random event they had experienced on any summer day. The results said that the memories of people who were in Manhattan at the time of the attacks were markedly different from those found in Midtown, which was a little far from the area where the attack took place. While the Midtown group described the event as their other normal memories, the group close to the attack described the event in a more lively, strong and confident mood. His explanations were long and detailed. In their statements, they described what they saw towers in red flames, the smell of smoke, the screams of people.

Sharot used the brain scanner to view the differences in the participants' memories. Did these differences increase mobility in the volunteers' amygdala? When asked to recall the 9/11 event, more activity was observed in the left amygdala of the Downtown group, while there was no significant change in the Midtown group. This shows the effect of stress hormone on the formation and permanence of memories.

Can a flash drive mislead us?

And Sharot's brain scanner revealed another piece of information: Our memories in flash memory may not be as reliable and accurate as we thought. When the Downtown group was asked to recall 9/11, activity in their parahippocampal cortices showed reduced activity. This part of the brain is involved in processing and recognizing the details of events. This information supports the idea that while participants clearly remember how they felt in difficult moments, they were able to remember details of the event differently from what actually happened.

The hallmarks of the brain are incomprehensible. How does it feel to know that our emotional experiences color and shape our memory as it pleases? Even if they are not reliable.

As a child, I watched the love disappear in my soul as a child who saved every pocket money in his pink piggy bank, when he grew up, bought cotton candy for all his money, and sadly watched all his savings, the cotton candy slipping from his hands melt in the rain water.

Forgive me Child

However, with what effort I had accumulated I had knitted stitches, decorated every detail with my tears, and preserved it with mother's prayers. Behind the door, my childhood watched in silent horror as the purest feelings of my child's heart vanished. She couldn't hold me accountable, who stole her life from her, while she was tiptoeing in fear, she threw it in and silently looked at me with a naive sweet childish smile. It was his last look, the spear carved into my heart. His eyes were full of me. Resentful but proud. Sorry but quiet. Stronger than me, ready to start over. Despite me, my mistakes, my leaving alone. Child.

I destroyed your dreams.

I threw you into dark nooks and crannies.

I left you without you, you without me, I left you helpless.

Forgive me.

I have a lot to learn from you.