Understanding Memory Storage: Unraveling the Mystery of Storing Information

[Curious6]

I have carried out a quick search on the Net but was unable to find anything that answered this question:

How are pieces of information, for example, a date, stored in memory?

 

[gerben]

Nobody really knows, yet.

 

[GiZeHy]

hi curious
i think i have to tell you the same as gerben ;)
but if youre interested I've got something for you...
scientists don't even know how signals that are perceived over the senses form the whole thing you call reality. nothing in the human body gives a hint where and how these electronical signals are interpreted to form your consciousness. in the brain people only found regions that are used for certain functions but itz not sure where for example your mind is located. in earlier days it was thought that certain information is stored in only certain areas of the brain. later on it came out that always regions spread over the whole brain were used in the process of 'remembering'.
but i will tell you something not only concerning biology and neuro-physiology. do whatever you want with this info ;) maybe you once heard of funny incidents related to people who had transplantations of organs. they said that they would have adapted certain behavior, even people who didnt know much about their donator. they even told that they remembered situations of their donator they could not have known before. if it is true, hows that possible?
the brain is actually a filter for electromagnetic waves and acts as a processing unit. when you think about something your brain attracts thought ( high frequent wave ) from the universe ( whole spectrum of wave from very high to very low frequency ). in the brain the frequency of the thought is changed into electronical signals and sent to the region of the brain which was stimulated by the hypophisis. then current of the signals is strenghened and sent to the pineal gland. over this gland, which rules the central nervous system, the signal is sent to each and every cell of the body. every thought directed to all cells is causing a feeling in your whole body. when you remember something it is not stored in the brain but in your whole body, in each cell. your soul is saving every feeling you ever felt. when you remember a certain situation or anything else you do it over your feelings. this feeling was stored in each cell before because of the stimuli. the soul is then scanning all cells for saved information ( sum is the feeling one had before ) and sends it to the brain so that the intellekt can find words to describe it and make a picture of it. a thought is understood and known over feeling. knowing and understanding new thoughts is letting it enter the brain feeling it all over the body.
anyhow, this is not an easy topic. just wanted to give you some info so that maybe your search becomes easier. i can tell you, when you don't give up finding anwers the universe will feed you with answers ;)
have a nice day

 

[Lisa!]

Do you know what happens to a person who loses his memory in an accident?and dpes this person forget everything for example his second language or what he learned?

maybe you once heard of funny incidents related to people who had transplantations of organs. they said that they would have adapted certain behavior, even people who didnt know much about their donator. they even told that they remembered situations of their donator they could not have known before. if it is true, hows that possible?

Intresting.

 

[Ouabache]

I have carried out a quick search on the Net but was unable to find anything that answered this question:

How are pieces of information, for example, a date, stored in memory?

On this subject things in our memory, examples for each of our senses are also stored as memories. smell (scent of fresh cut grass, ripening apples, firewood smoke), sound (honk of wild geese, peep of frogs, a musical tune and even the specific pitch of notes), sight (perhaps of a favorite place you've been to),
touch (trampoline, mud, boulder, water; each quite uniquely stored and remembered) Your example of "a date" is one of the abstract examples in our memory.

 

[saltydog]

I have carried out a quick search on the Net but was unable to find anything that answered this question:

How are pieces of information, for example, a date, stored in memory?

I suspect it's all in the dynamics: 10 billion neurons, non-linear dynamics. A memory may be a strange attractor; our recollection of it, a trajectory leading to such.

 

[selfAdjoint]

I suspect it's all in the dynamics: 10 billion neurons, non-linear dynamics. A memory may be a strange attractor; our recollection of it, a trajectory leading to such.

The neurotransmitter climate near some 10^10 synapses.

 

[saltydog]

The neurotransmitter climate near some 10^10 synapses.

I'm reminded of the purkinje nerve. It has on average 20,000 connections. I imagine to myself, how tall would an average oak tree have to be to have 20,000 leaves on it? I'm guessing 20 feet.

Might you elaborate a bit further about exactly what a "neurotransmitter climate" is? Are you suggesting memory is in the chemistry?

 

[selfAdjoint]

The quantity of neurotransmitter released, the rate of uptake and untold possible subtleties in the process, it reminds me of something else where the simple answers don't begin to cover the interactions that are important; the weather.

There is research with knockout mice that shows that a little faster uptake of a certain neurotransmitter in, I think, the cerebellum improved the mice's spatial analysis scores (remembering and solving 3D mazes), but that too much increase was as bad as too little in depressing this function. Also there are two sides to a neurotransmitter interaction; the rate of release and the rate of uptake. Two different teams attacked the cerebellum thing, one with mice genetically modified to release more, and the other with mice designed to be more efficient in takeup. Both sets of mice showed improvement, but the release mice were better than the takeup mice. So it's subtle, alothough the popularizations tend to make it seem cut and dried.

 

[Curious6]

Thanks for the insightful comments. Brain, mind and memory are truly fascinating topics. Understanding how they process the constant flow of information perpetually launched at us will probably take some time still. Apart from not knowing exactly how consciousness is formed, what do we know about the processing of information and what constitutes the mind?

 

[saltydog]

Thanks for the insightful comments. Brain, mind and memory are truly fascinating topics. Understanding how they process the constant flow of information perpetually launched at us will probably take some time still. Apart from not knowing exactly how consciousness is formed, what do we know about the processing of information and what constitutes the mind?

Curious, you need to walk over the track into the Philosophy Forum dude. They talk plenty about that. Be careful. They're sharp.

 

[Curious6]

Saltydog, thanks for the advice, but I prefer to read about it in scientific terms so as to avoid philosophical discussions and hypotheses which cannot be corroborated by any solid experimental evidence.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Saltydog, thanks for the advice, but I prefer to read about it in scientific terms so as to avoid philosophical discussions and hypotheses which cannot be corroborated by any solid experimental evidence.

What do you think of this paper: http://www.nsi.edu/users/seth/Papers/SethBaars.pdf
which is being discussed on the metaphysics forum?

 

[Curious6]

Thanks for the paper, selfAdjoint. I have read the introduction, but right now I don't have enough time to read it entirely. It seems like an thorough review of a theory (ND) I am not very acquainted with. (By the way, it's interesting that they also mentioned sidestepping philosophical discussions, so you found a paper that was just was I was looking for.)

 

[saltydog]

What do you think of this paper: http://www.nsi.edu/users/seth/Papers/SethBaars.pdf
which is being discussed on the metaphysics forum?

Thanks selfAdjoint. I noticed he mentioned "reentrant" a lot. That's "fed-back" I take. That is, the neural assemblies he refers to are "fed-back": the output of some go back to the input of others (in the same assembly). The cortex is "massively fed-back" I understand. This makes for a very complex dynamics.

I use to work on neural network programs. These are fed-back as well. Interesting how the output of these programs exhibit Feigenbaum behavior. You know, one of the three icons of Chaos Theory. Chaos of course being evidence for the presence of non-linear dynamics. It is because of this connection, and other evidence, that I am led to suspect that perhaps there is a connection between non-linear dynamics and consciousness.

P.S. I checked the MetaPhysics thread. You guys are good. Too good for me.

 

[Spin_Network]

I have carried out a quick search on the Net but was unable to find anything that answered this question:

How are pieces of information, for example, a date, stored in memory?

Its a functional process that is "cause+effect". The learning process that has been drummed into anyone over and over ie Thursday= day-of-the-week, 11th= a number, as is 2000 a number that can be Year?..memory just reprocessess the cause-effect of a learned past event.

I am pretty certain if you could find a Human that has had no contact with english language, who has never seen the written words '11th-June-2000', they would have no concept of its meaning?..but if you could converse with the Human in their language, you could get similar meaning "date-year" in their thinkings.

The recall of a date, stored as memory cannot happen if one has not first devised numbers and a notion of Time for instance?..I am also pretty certain that the process of 'thought' in ascerting numbers to signify 'bits' or 'wholes' would have had a totally different meaning for events of our far distant anscestors, say Neanderthal Man.

I guess that the brain cannot store an event process that it knows not of?

 

[N Parag]

Hey friends
I just need to know in what form are the memories stored? Not where they are stored...How? in what format? ...Whether it is chemical form or molecular form or any other...Waiting...