WEBVTT - A Podcast to Remember (How Memory Works) 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.400 from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.520 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Davis, Charles W Chuck Bryant. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.319 I remembered your name, and this is stuff you should know. Lizzy, 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.040 had you cracked up there? If that makes it into 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.240 the gut, it's not going to because that was pre 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.760 hay and welcome to the podcast. Everything before that I 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.440 always gets cut out. You know that. I don't think 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.839 a little giggle beforehand might be in. We would be 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:42.440 fired if we didn't cut out everything that came before that, right, maybe, Chuck, 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.920 you ever heard of a guy named Nicolas Carr? Yeah? Sure, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.840 I know you. Have you ever heard of a little 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.880 rag called The Atlantic? Yes? I have. Back in two 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.640 thousand and eight, those two things collided, Nicholas Carr in 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:01.280 the Atlantic and he had a very great UM headlined 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.640 article called his Google making Us Stupid and Nicholas Carr. 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:07.640 He went on to write a book. He followed that 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.399 normal process where like you're writing the book and you're like, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.520 I need some extra cash, so I'll excerpt this or 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.280 rewrite you know, like fifteen pages of it, celts to 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.960 the Atlantic or whatever. We need to get in that gig. Well, 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.520 we have to write a book or be writing a book. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.520 I write a book. We should do that. But it 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.080 was I can't remember what the book was was called. 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.920 But the article actually made a bigger splash than the book. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.280 Din But basically he was saying, like, we are re 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:40.360 configuring the way we learn through our interactions with the internet. Um, Like, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.959 there's constantly things trying to get our attention on a 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.640 web page. You know, it's not like a book with 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.680 with without pictures or um, you know, flashing lights, that 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.160 kind of thing. We we read horizontally he put it, 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.480 rather than vertically, meaning you know, we just kind of 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.480 skimmed the surface of a bunch of different stuff rather 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.240 than really deeply get into one thing. Action which helps 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.320 flex the imagination. Um is pretty much non existent on 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.000 the web unless you're like into live journal, you know, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.880 Harry Potter erotica. Right. So, but at the basis of 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.320 his argument is Google making a stupid was the idea 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.600 that it's actually reforming the way we form memories that 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.680 Google he chose Google, You know, just to get a headline, 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.520 as the editor did. But um, the the idea that 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.320 the internet, the way we read, is re changing or 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:36.000 changing the way that we absorb information and therefore form memory. 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:38.919 It says a lot that he was asking if it's 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.639 making as stupid because we here in the West equate 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:49.400 memory a good memory, too, intelligence, too smart. Um, I 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.520 guess what I'm trying to drive at, very clumsily, is 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.560 how does memory work? I thought that was a great 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.120 set up, And who knows what the heck we're gonna 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.720 look like in a hundred years as a species, how 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.000 our brains are gonna be firing, and what the effect 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.560 it's gonna have on us. We're gonna have mighty humps. Yeah, 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:08.680 well that's the thing. I mean, you can you can 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.800 debate all all day long. Is it stupid? Or are 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.840 we just in the middle of evolution? Probably in the 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:15.560 middle of an evolution. I don't think we're gonna end 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:21.480 up like a in idiocricy. You although never possibility, you 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.720 never know. I watched Idiocracy, so that might mean I'm 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.240 on that road myself. It's a great movie. Did you 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.680 like it? I did. I thought it was what it was, 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.919 But like the one joke premise of most most times 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.520 when a movie has the one joke premise, that kind 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.480 of gets old for me. What one joke? Sort of 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.600 the one joke everybody's stupid? Yeah, it worth than all right? 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:48.480 Moving on, memories, Josh, are what makes us who we 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.400 are if we you know, I imagine if someone has 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:57.040 complete amnesia, they usually don't have a sense of self. Well, yeah, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:01.960 you know, it depends if you remember h M. Henry Mullison. No. 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.160 So he was the patient that proved there's this big 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.320 debate over when we think of memory, whether there's like 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.160 one part of the brain that's responsible for memory or 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.160 whether it's a bunch of different parts of the brain. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.280 And he proved that the multiple memory systems works because 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:18.920 they used to think like, oh, you just got a 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.159 big old filing cabinet and your brain just sticks it 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.200 in whatever filet belongs in and then you go and 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.360 pull it out when you need it exactly. And that's 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.119 very it's very sesame street way of putting it. It is, um, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.560 But you know, they were working with what they had 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:33.320 to work with at the time, and they were wrong. 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.560 But Hm, like age twenty three, this guy UM who 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:43.719 became known as HM. Patient HM had temporal labectomy to 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.440 cure his epilepsy. Oh, that guy also removed his hippocampus 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.360 so he could tell you, you you know, where he went 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.440 to high school, who his oldest friend was, that kind 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:54.800 of thing. But he couldn't tell you what he had 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.080 for lunch that day because he lost the ability to 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.760 form new memories. So the fact that he could maintain 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.760 old memories but couldn't form new memories proved that there's 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:08.200 multiple systems involved for different types of memory, like Memento. Right, 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.080 great movie that he would have proven it to a 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.000 memento did not have Ellen page. No it didn't, So 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:21.800 it's on your list of acceptable films. She would have 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.240 written in by now Um or not. She may just 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.120 be like, I hate those guys so much. Maybe so 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.160 uh so, let's let's talk a bit about memory, josh Um. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.640 Let's say we were talking about breakfast this morning. If 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.200 you remember what you had for breakfast, you might think 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.680 that that is a very simple thing that happened, when 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:45.080 in fact, it is very complex reconstruction from different parts 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:51.159 of your brain putting together. Maybe the smell of your eggs, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.200 of your eggs bacon is octuating you didn't need that 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.000 slab of ham. What it looked like, maybe, what it 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.680 felt like, um in your mouth, how it tasted. So 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.560 you're recalling all these different parts, but not complex thing, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.320 not and even just that. I mean, there's so much 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:11.880 more to it, the the tablecloth, whether you were angry 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.000 at the weather guy, to remember even what eggs are. Yeah, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.839 you know these memories that go way back, but we 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.760 we conceive of it as this one little snapshot of 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.680 a memory called what what you had for breakfast? Right? Um? 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.240 But all of those different things put together are called 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.800 neural projections, right chuck, Okay, so go ahead. Well the 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.599 other instance too, that they always mentioned is riding. You 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:37.640 never forget how to ride a bike, and it seems 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:39.880 like a very easy thing, but there are so many 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.480 things going on when you ride a bike. How you 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.320 get on the bike, how you mount the bike, where 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.480 your feet go, how you move it forward? Where should 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.560 I put my hands? Um? What about this car barreling down? 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.600 I should probably not ride in the center of the 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.000 road going the wrong way. So it's just like hundreds 0:06:58.000 --> 0:06:59.800 of memories. I can't put a number on it, you 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.120 know how many there are? Well, the reason why it's 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.799 so difficult is because it's this is all a seamless process, 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.040 right exactly. It ding a bike as if it's one 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.960 single file that you pull out of your cabinet called 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.800 ride a bike. Yeah. And at times it's so it's 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.280 so second nature, it's so natural to us that we 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.320 kind of detach ourselves from it and call it things 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.640 like muscle memory. So just things muscle memory. Your muscles 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.200 are there, they don't have a capacity for member remembering 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.800 anything well, and we don't even know how we recall still, 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.360 even though we have a better handle on storage of 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.240 memory and now, and we should we should disclaim this 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.600 episode by saying that there is a lot of there's 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.160 a This is the rough sketch of what we know 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.840 right now about how we form and retrieve memory, which 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.480 is more than we've ever known. Yeah, and I think 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.600 we're hot on the trail. It's really starting to come 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.320 together and make sense. So should we start with encoding, Yeah, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.240 which is basically your senses. It's rooted in your senses. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.120 Encoding is the first step to create a memory. It 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.440 begins with perception. And when we talk about perception, we're 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.720 talking about your sensory perception, um, right, which like, right 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:09.920 now you appear to me as you know, a little 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:14.160 scruffy looking good. You've got your braves cap on, almost 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.160 smile right the the ikea lights gleaming off of your eye, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.040 about eyeballs a little bit. All of this is visual information, right, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.280 But in my brain it's nothing more than electrical impulses 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.400 traveling through the optic nerve to my hippocampus. Right right. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.040 You might smell me, um, you might. You know. The 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.199 example they use in the article is the first girlfriend. 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.560 But that's right on the money, man. I mean, I 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.240 still remember all that stuff. But when you when you 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.000 see that first girl that you fall in love with, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.120 you know what she looked like, what she smelled like, 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.000 the first time she shook your hand. I hate to 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.319 say this, but it's the exact same thing as breakfast 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.200 this morning or riding the bike. Well true in a way, 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.160 but there's also a point made later on that we'll 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.560 talk about that things that are more important to you 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.760 are more likely to be rooted in your long term memory. 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:06.800 So oh yeah, yeah, okay, breakfast is pretty important to me, right? True? 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:09.200 Is that that is that that's something been your long 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:14.319 term memory though I remember every breakfast I've ever eaten. Okay, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.320 it's because you've only had breakfast four times. Uh So 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.400 where are we within the hippocampus, Well, yeah, we're with encoding. 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.640 So basically what just happened is the light bouncing off 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.240 of you that gives you shape, and all that is 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.760 coming into my eyes and be in transforming into electrical information. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.679 It doesn't matter what it is. Like, that's the language 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:37.200 of the brain, right, translates information and stores it in 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.320 the hippocampus initially. Right, that's like the big processing, sorting, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.120 routing hub. Yeah. So your hippocampus is like this, uh, 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.559 this region of the brain shaped like a sea horse, 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.880 which hence the name um that basically says, okay, so 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.719 I don't get that part hippocampus. It's not shaped like 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.520 a hippopotamus, shape like a sea horse. And why Plus 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:05.000 the name hippocampus means seahorse. I did not realize that, man, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.679 I hope it does. That's how I've always taken it. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.040 So let's call it the seahorse a campus. But basically, 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.320 what the hippocampus does is it takes in all this information, 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.400 including stuff that I have no idea I'm taking in 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.839 at the moment um and says this is important, this 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.240 is an important you can leave this out. Let's send 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.640 this over here, let's send this over there. Let's create 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.199 this neural projection by by combining this, this, and this, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.440 and it's like basically, the the the man behind the curtain. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.320 The hippocampus is the sent center of forming new memories, 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.719 and along with the frontal cortex, they work in hand 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:42.880 in hand at this Yeah, okay, and it's a really 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.520 efficient way to deal with your surroundings, Chuck, because consider this. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.120 Let's say you or I, um, well, let's say we're 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.679 doing it together. We're coming out of the woods into 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.360 a meadow and it is um a primal area, and 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.240 we're scared of bears, so we're scanning the meadow for bears. 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.520 Right we don't see any bears, but there's birds, there's flowers, 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.720 there's butterflies, and we're kind of taking in all of 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.480 these things, but we're not really taking it in because 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:10.880 none of them are the bear, which is what we're 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.400 tasked with finding. Right then, So the the hippocampus isn't 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:19.040 in forming any memories of the butterfly or the daisies 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.440 or whatever. Maybe we would know, oh, well, there's a 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.040 splash of white against the green, so there are flowers there. 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:26.600 If we were asked later on what kind of flowers 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:28.680 were in that meadow, we couldn't say. So it's just 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:34.880 filtering that what we would consider unnecessary information out exactly. Okay, Um, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.760 it travels while we said this perception and encoding is 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.160 where it starts. But then you have to it has 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.000 to go somewhere from there, and this is where the 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.479 chemistry of the brain comes in, which is endlessly fascinating 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.200 to me. Yes, Josh, we have nerve cells, neurons and 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.240 these uh, these connect with other cells, not a point 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.560 called the synapse, right well, which is actually that's funny 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:58.440 that the author of this article put it like that 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.640 because it's actually not a point. It's a gap. You 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.679 think that all these things connect, but there is a gap, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.960 and the leap to the other side. The leap of 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:14.600 the gap is uh performed via neurotransmitters that right, and 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.560 then latched onto by a dentrite. The little feathery things 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.480 on the cells collect. Yeah, they accept the transmission. Come 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.080 on in transmission. Welcome to my cell. So Chuck I'm 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.520 going to give a couple of stature quick. Okay, there's 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:32.360 possibly as many as a hundred billion neurons in your brain. 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:38.280 It's a lot um. Each of them have many tens 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.560 of thousands, are many, many thousands of connections up to 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.800 UM which are synapsis, yes, which are which leads to 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.600 as many as a quadrillion synapses in the human brain. 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.120 And they can connect. Is it an infinite amount of 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.080 times if need be? What do you mean is there 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.520 any limit to the amount of neural connections these cells 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.360 can make? Well, I think ten thousand is the high 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.679 end that I've heard, But I love that you had 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.840 an answer for that. UM. And they're constantly going to 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.600 and forming new connections. I think it's something like thirty 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.360 to sixty times the second. Near neurons are firing all 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.640 over your head and they're not sentence down. They're always changing, 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.920 always forming new connections. The more that you do something, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.120 the stronger the connection is going to be. We might 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:31.920 know that in the real world as practice or repetition, right, 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.880 but the another word for it is plasticity, where the 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:40.479 brain you're the organizational structure of your brain actually changes 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:45.240 shape it as as you're saying, like, through practicing something 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.720 like the repeated firing of a neural connection, right, which 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.080 is just an electrical impulse that triggers the release of 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.959 neurotransmitters that crosses synapse are accepted in the den drite right, 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.959 and the neurotransmitters are the message carried like a certain 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:03.000 type of neurotransmit or like dopamine says hey, everything's just 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:07.800 ire right um, And this information has just passed along 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.360 from one neur onto another if the the impulse is 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.800 strong enough. Right. But then when you do it again 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:17.760 and again and again, more channels that allow the neurotransmitters 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.240 to to be released from one and accepted by another 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.119 are dug which means that this thing fires more efficiently 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.640 and all of a sudden after firing them. By practicing 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.240 your violin this one piece of music slowly over and 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.680 over again, you get faster and faster and faster at 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:37.160 it until you can play it perfectly. That's exactly what's 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:42.040 going on your your neural connection is is that top performance, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.680 peak performance practice makes perfect How to play uh the 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.800 intro to Stairway to Heaven. When I first got my 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.280 guitar and I played it over and over and over 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.120 and over until I learned it. Give me a guitar. Today, 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.000 I can monkey through about a third of it very 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.800 clumsily because I forget or I can't write in cursive anymore. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.200 I can't either. I mean, I'd really have to concentrate. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.000 And they're definitely letters that I would forget how to write. 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.560 That was a jarring realization for me, that, like, how 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.160 do you make the cue? And whatever happened to that Z? 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.000 That weird Z like it's all gone and even like 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.400 the S and the R and all that like normal stuff, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.080 it's just gone. Yeah, you don't want to see my 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.880 cursive writing. So what what you're talking about is a 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.960 while you can refine the organization of your brain to 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.240 peak performance, your neural connections also have a kind of 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.720 use it or lose it aspect to them as well. 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:45.160 Remember that study with the kittens. No, this the really 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.920 sad study. I think it's funny that you're asking me 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.000 how much I remember and I keep saying no. Um. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:55.320 There was this study that um that involved kittens having 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.560 one eye so and shut from birth, and they would 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.280 they were allowed to frolic and play and do whatever, 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.880 but they just had one eye so and shut UM. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.080 And then after I think like eight or ten or 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:13.120 twelve weeks, the eye was um released opened up again, 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.000 and the kittens were blind for life. And I guess 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.440 they killed the kittens and looked at what was going 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.880 on in the brain and they found that that they say, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.120 the left eye had been so and shut during the 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:28.360 stage of development. UM. The neural connections had all traveled 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.320 to the right eye, which was seeing, and the ones 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.560 that had been there on the left eye that formed 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.360 the optic were withered and dead. You know what they 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.600 called that experiment, They called the saddest experiment in the 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.280 history of the world. It's pretty bad. It's a pretty 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.000 bad experiment, but it basically goes to show you that 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.280 not only will neural connections wither and die if they're 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.240 not used, they'll also migrate to places where they can 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.640 be used. There's kind of like a survival of the fittest, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:59.840 like um jungle grab for firing, because the more fired 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.440 a neural connection is, the more important it is, the 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.119 stronger it's going to be right, right and f I 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.119 I Giraffe neurons can grow up to three ft in length. Really, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.960 are they all in the neck. Isn't that cool? That 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.320 is pretty cool. Uh. So we were talking about encoding, Um, 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.000 you have to really be paying attention to properly encode, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.840 and we also talked about filtering things out. What they 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.280 don't know again, is this maybe the first time we've 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:32.000 said it, is are we screening this stimuli out during 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.639 the first initial sensory stage or are we literally processing 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.240 it and saying no, we don't need this, get rid 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.040 of it. Yeah, it would make sense to me that 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.560 it comes afterward, but they don't know. Yeah, it makes 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.720 sense to me too, Like the hippocampus is like, that's 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.399 not a bear, so forget it. Yeah, forget that. So 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.000 are we at short term and long term? Josh? Yeah, 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.199 you have to store all memories, even if it's just 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.159 for a blip, you're going to be storing it, or 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.680 it's not a memory, even the shortest of short term 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.640 memories as a memory. And there are three ways they 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.720 believe that we store these memories. We've already talked about 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.800 the sensory stage. Then you have the short term if 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.240 it's deemed important enough to remember at least for a 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.640 little while, and then eventually long term. Yeah, if it's 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.640 really important to you, which there's different ways to look 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.639 at long term memory. The way that I found is 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.840 that long term memory is this dormant neural projection, all 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.640 the all the different neural connections that make up that 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:36.160 rich memory you know from long ago. Um that it's there, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.800 like it can be activated again. It's long term memories, 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.200 short term memories when it's active, and then working memory, 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.920 which isn't in this article. Working memory is like bringing 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.320 something to mind and then the action of consciously keeping 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.280 it in mind, like repeating a phone number over and 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.359 over again that you knew before, but you're having to 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.040 to remind yourself you're keeping it in your working memory. Well, 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.040 it's funny you mentioned phone number because short term memory 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.200 is really limited. UM. I love the status. It says 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.119 that short term memory can hold about seven items for 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.200 no more than twenty or thirty seconds at a time. 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.159 So that's why when you see something like a phone number, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:14.959 you shouldn't be able to remember that. So what you 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.119 do is you break it down, or it's already broken 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.600 down usually for you UH into three sets of three 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.320 or two sets of three and one set of four. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.679 I would be missing a digit. And that's how you 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.600 remember things and then saying it over and over. And 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.920 there's all sorts of exercises you can do to remember things, 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.720 like when you meet somebody. That's where I'm bad. You know. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.640 You know how I am with remembering names. I can 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:41.879 never remember names. But you're also very friendly. You can 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.080 be like, hey, I I recognize your face. What's your name? Well, yeah, 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.240 and I might remember. You could say you met this 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.640 girl Francis at this thing that we did, and I'd 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.400 say who. I'd say, oh, that the lady who wore 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.120 the overalls in the flip flops. Like I'll remember things 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:03.119 like that forever. Names forget about it. That's why you 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.240 have all the names of everyone you've ever met written 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.240 down on your hand. That's why I have no friends. 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:13.679 But long term memory can store everything forever if you 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.160 wanted to. Yeah, that seems like a ge whiz we 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.720 don't really know exactly what's going on kind of statement, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:22.520 you know, I totally agree. When I read that, I 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.360 was like, really, yeah, I don't know about that one, 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.520 but it is I would agree that it's um at 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.480 least as much as we need or another way to 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.159 look at it is, what if we are all operating 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:41.560 pretty much a capacity. How much more incredibly intelligent would 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.800 we be if we had even like more memory storage. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.679 But like we mentioned earlier, things that are important to you, 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.680 you're more likely to remember. Um. And then when you're 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.800 encoding how you're perceiving things. That's why I probably when 0:20:55.800 --> 0:21:00.280 I meet someone, I look at their shoes and they're 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.240 wearing I guess, and and and I'm distracted. I'm not 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.239 thinking of the fact that they said their name when 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.679 they shook my hand. Well, you just hit two big points. 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.000 One that's something that is meaningful to you. You're going 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:16.920 to remember more. That's because emotion is usually attached the emotion. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.199 The seat of emotion is the amygdala, and it is 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.520 directly connected to the hippocampus. It's got like a direct 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.320 line to the hippocampus, like up coming through I'm first 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.200 right the saddle on the sea horse, if you will, Yes, 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:33.400 and that's great. Um, the uh, that's really good, and 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:35.960 the there's a I guess. The one of the big 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.359 theories behind what emotions are, why we have them, is 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.760 they're basically like learning guides. They're teaching guides Like you 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.080 feel fear, um, you're going to remember that you feel 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.399 fear when you see a bear, and you're going to 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.640 stay away from bears. Um Or joy makes us all 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:58.320 you know, what makes us feel familiar with other people groups, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:02.679 which is which is right away from it keeps bears away. 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:04.920 You know, eight people could beat up a bear rather 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.480 than just one. So we have emotions, and we learned 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.520 from our emotions, which is why we managed to remember 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.280 things so much more clearly when there's an emotion attached. 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:18.240 And if you examine most of your memories, there's probably 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.960 going to be some sort of emotional memory. I guess 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.359 beneath the surface there. Like have you ever watched the 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:30.800