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We’ve all been there: You recognize someone but can’t quite remember their name or, worse, call them something else. Or maybe you tried bonding with a friend over a memory you mistakenly thought you both shared.
Before you swear off all further human interaction for fear of repeating such gaffes, neuropsychologist Ian McDonough of Binghamton University has some potentially comforting news: Rather than completely forgetting a particular memory, your brain likely just misplaced it.
“Memory is a complicated process,” McDonough writes. “Even when everything’s working as it should, the way people remember specific events has many parts.”
In recently published research, McDonough and his team examine the multistage process involved in forming and retrieving a memory, sussing out where and how these memory mix-ups happen in the brain. Better understanding of how the brain files away new memories, he writes, could lead to new ways to prevent memory loss or restore lost memories.
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