Does Your Brain Ever Run Out of Memory?
In short: A Salk Institute estimate puts the brain's memory capacity at no less than a petabyte, but research on reconstruction, retrieval cues and working-memory limits suggests that getting memories in and finding them again matter as much as storage.
A 1:59 short film in the series “Rabbit Hole: Memory, Preference and the Brain”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.
Sources used in this film: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, “Memory capacity of brain is 10 times more than previously thought – Salk Institute”; PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine); article published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, “The synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis: encoding, storage and persistence”; Smithsonian Magazine (Smithsonian Institution), “How Our Brains Make Memories”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology | work by Bartlett | Britannica”; Science (AAAS), author manuscript hosted by PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine, NIH), “Memory engrams: Recalling the past and imagining the future”; Current Contents 'This Week's Citation Classic' (Institute for Scientific Information), commentary by Endel Tulving, archived by the University of Pennsylvania Library (Eugene Garfield collection), “Tulving E & Pearlstone Z. Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. J. Verb. Learn. Verb. Behav. 5:381-91, 1966.”; John F. Kihlstrom, University of California, Berkeley (course notes hosted on the Berkeley Open Computing Facility), “Retrieval”; Nature Neuroscience (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine), “Retrieval Induces Adaptive Forgetting of Competing Memories via Cortical Pattern Suppression”; Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine), “Working Memory Limits Severely Constrain Long-term Retention”; Nature Reviews Psychology (Springer Nature), “The roles of attention, executive function and knowledge in cognitive ageing of working memory - Nature Reviews Psychology”.
Sources used in this film
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies — Memory capacity of brain is 10 times more than previously thought – Salk Institute · View →
- PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine); article published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B — The synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis: encoding, storage and persistence · View →
- Smithsonian Magazine (Smithsonian Institution) — How Our Brains Make Memories · View →
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology | work by Bartlett | Britannica · View →
- Science (AAAS), author manuscript hosted by PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine, NIH) — Memory engrams: Recalling the past and imagining the future · View →
- Current Contents 'This Week's Citation Classic' (Institute for Scientific Information), commentary by Endel Tulving, archived by the University of Pennsylvania Library (Eugene Garfield collection) — Tulving E & Pearlstone Z. Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. J. Verb. Learn. Verb. Behav. 5:381-91, 1966. · View →
- John F. Kihlstrom, University of California, Berkeley (course notes hosted on the Berkeley Open Computing Facility) — Retrieval · View →
- Nature Neuroscience (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine) — Retrieval Induces Adaptive Forgetting of Competing Memories via Cortical Pattern Suppression · View →
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine) — Working Memory Limits Severely Constrain Long-term Retention · View →
- Nature Reviews Psychology (Springer Nature) — The roles of attention, executive function and knowledge in cognitive ageing of working memory - Nature Reviews Psychology · View →
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Memory capacity of brain is 10 times more than previously thought – Salk Institute
- Also: PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine); article published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: The synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis: encoding, storage and persistence
- Also: How Our Brains Make Memories
- Also: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology | work by Bartlett | Britannica
- Also: Science (AAAS), author manuscript hosted by PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine, NIH): Memory engrams: Recalling the past and imagining the future
- Also: Current Contents 'This Week's Citation Classic' (Institute for Scientific Information), commentary by Endel Tulving, arc: Tulving E & Pearlstone Z. Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. J. Verb. Learn. Verb. Behav. 5:381-91, 1966.
- Also: John F. Kihlstrom, University of California, Berkeley (course notes hosted on the Berkeley Open Computing Facility): Retrieval
- Also: Nature Neuroscience (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine): Retrieval Induces Adaptive Forgetting of Competing Memories via Cortical Pattern Suppression
- Also: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (author manuscript hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine): Working Memory Limits Severely Constrain Long-term Retention
- Also: Nature Reviews Psychology (Springer Nature): The roles of attention, executive function and knowledge in cognitive ageing of working memory - Nature Reviews Psychology
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