Forgetting Is More Complicated Than Remembering

Who has not tried to erase an unpleasant memory or a traumatic experience? For your brain, however, forgetting is more complicated than remembering. It is as if this fascinating body wants you to remember because your memories are the essence of your experience.

While it is true that this reality may seem hopeless, you must be aware that everything has a reason in the neuroscience universe. Your memories represent who you are. If you could erase a chapter in your life at will, you would cease to be who you are. After all, every person is made of light and shadows, successes, and also mistakes and tragedies.

However, this does not mean that scientists and the rest of the world do not wonder why. Why can’t the brain erase a specific memory at will? Why do people forget some things and others hang like the light of a lighthouse flashing again and again in the same painful memory?

Researchers recently published a study that revealed the answers to these questions.

Why is forgetting more complicated for the brain than remembering?

The University of Texas at Austin conducted a study to find out why forgetting is more complicated for the human brain than remembering. While it is true that everyone knows that it happens often, you need to understand what neural mechanisms orchestrate this psychological reality.

Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at this university, pointed out something important. The brain continuously repeats data and experiences, and it almost always does so while you sleep. People do it unconsciously and have no control over it. The reason is that the human brain rejects unimportant and transcendental facts. This is because the main goal is to improve efficiency.

In the same way , something is observed through magnetic resonance when a person tries to forget something specific. Then the effort in the brain concentrates on three brain areas. For example, you made an attempt to get attention from someone you like, and that led to an unfortunate situation. The experience took place in all three areas of the brain: the prefrontal cortex, the left temporal cortex and the hippocampus.

Forgetting is more complicated than remembering because of the associations and the emotional strain

There are neutral memories and very emotional memories. As neuroscientists explain, it is the material most people almost immediately forget the visual. During the day, people forget 80% of the things they see: car signs, the faces of the people they meet, the colors of the clothes others wear, and so on.

If there is anything that shows resistance to going into oblivion, it is all these facts where an impression of the emotions remains. If something made you scared, ashamed or happy, it will stay longer in your memory because your brain considers it important.

On the other hand, it is a remarkable fact. Many of our memories are rich because they are formed through associations. When you experience something meaningful, the brain puts together images, smells, sounds and your own impressions compared to previous events. It all further strengthens certain memories.

Memories, both pleasant and unpleasant, define who you are now

Every experience, sensation, thought, habit and feeling leads to a change in brain level. Thus, a connection is generated and the brain reorganizes or changes it. Forgetting is more complicated than remembering because deleting a fragment of your past means that you also have to delete that connection, a cerebral synapse.

Somehow, each experience, both pleasant and unpleasant, prepares the brain for future experiences. Furthermore, all the synapses and brain modifications created from each felt and lived fact will build the cerebral anatomy that defines you. Every memory, every sensation, is in a way the mountains of your vital geological ages.

It is possible to forget, but only under certain circumstances

In the study quoted above, the focus is on a fun detail. Forgetting on purpose is possible in certain cases.

According to this research, a person can forget an experience if they “generate” a level of moderate brain activity. What does this mean?

• This means that if you do not place undue emphasis on a fact (such as making a mistake in front of people), it is easier to forget it.
• If you avoid reducing the emotional impact on that fact and do not think about it for that long, it is easier for that experience to leave your memory.
• A moderate level of brain activity is the key to forgetting.

Similarly, if it is an intense emotional component and you focus your mind constantly on the specific fact you want to forget, it is 100% likely that you will not do so.

It seems ironic, but the brain mechanism is in accordance with this rule. With this in mind, you can therefore assume a very simple fact:  forgetting does not solve anything.

After all, you are the sum of your successes and failures. Thus, every loss, mistake or dissatisfaction is a part of your journey as a human being.