Brain Question

[surftheiop]

Chemically/physically what is thinking/memories?
Like how does the brain hold memories? Is it chemical balances or what? I was wondering to myself if there is a physical limit on how many memories a person could have in their brain and it made me wonder what the memory mechanism is

[Taraz]

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Chemically/physically what is thinking/memories? Like how does the brain hold memories?

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We don't really know. It's a really, really complex issue.

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Is it chemical balances or what?

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I'm not sure what that means, but a memory is basically a specific pattern of neurons firing in your brain. Often, it is your brain recreating the conditions that were present at the time the memory was formed. So parts of your visual system actually fire when you try to remember an image.

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I was wondering to myself if there is a physical limit on how many memories a person could have in their brain and it made me wonder what the memory mechanism is

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This is a tough question. There probably is on some level, but this is another unanswered question.

[madnak]

It's weird as [censored]. There doesn't appear to be any single location in the brain for memories, and damage to different regions can affect memory in different ways. Memory storage is also a mystery, but it's clear some kind of "optimization" happens.

[chasing.idyll]

There's no known limit to human memory. As far as we know, everything is stored in long-term memory, and the trouble on our end is recalling it.

Memory is stored in synapses. When you experience things, sensory input is transferred to the brain, where networks of neurons fire and neurotransmitters are swapped between neurons during synapses. Information is passed this way throughout the brain and is responsible for the "mental images" we "see" in our consciousness (along with smell, taste, touch, etc. - which are arguably all contained in these "mental images"). We have impressions of these experiences left over in our minds, which can be triggered by related events in the future.

The memories themselves occur when related events trigger the networks to fire in the same way. The actual memory is "stored" in the synapse; it's technically not "stored," though, it seems. (This is info from basic Psych courses at school, I'm probably confused.)

Edit: Taraz beat me to it. He's the pro, too, so listen to him.

[GaSSPaNiCC]

Another fundamental question of neuroscience is consciousness, how is it neurons firing in the brain can ever give rise to a conscious experience?

[mbillie1]

eat some mushrooms and you will figure it out

[vhawk01]

Thomas Edison told me that we have a bunch of little men in our brains who work in shifts. Two hour shifts, to be exact. So, whenever you experience something, one of these little men remembers it. Trying to recall something you've learned is simply a matter of getting in touch with whatever little man was on duty when you first experienced it. If you are lucky he is still in the break room.

[tame_deuces]

Psychology usually refers to the brain's memory capacity as 'unlimited for all known purposes'.

Memory is subjective though, it is subject to change, situation dependant and it may be hard to recall. Usually it is referred to as a 'subjective representation of past events' and not actual representation. There is much research showing how memories change over time.

It is also common to separate the term memory into 'encoding', 'memory' and 'recall'. This gives a better view of how it works.

Encoding is putting things to memory, memory is the actual storage and recall is the process of getting it back from storage.

[Mr_Moore]

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Thomas Edison told me that we have a bunch of little men in our brains who work in shifts. Two hour shifts, to be exact. So, whenever you experience something, one of these little men remembers it. Trying to recall something you've learned is simply a matter of getting in touch with whatever little man was on duty when you first experienced it. If you are lucky he is still in the break room.

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How do these little men remember? do they have little men inside their head as well?

[soko]

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Thomas Edison told me that we have a bunch of little men in our brains who work in shifts. Two hour shifts, to be exact. So, whenever you experience something, one of these little men remembers it. Trying to recall something you've learned is simply a matter of getting in touch with whatever little man was on duty when you first experienced it. If you are lucky he is still in the break room.

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How do these little men remember? do they have little men inside their head as well?

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I think they have video cameras