Scents of cinnamon and fresh evergreen evoke holidays past. Dangling mistletoe conjures up long-ago kisses. With each refrain of Christmas carols, words and music not heard for a year come tumbling back. How the human mind remembers has long intrigued scientists and philosophers. He imagined that the mind captured perceptions and thoughts, receiving impressions of them like the seal of a ring.
Memory is the very essence of being human.
Without memory, people would be unable to read this sentence or find their way home tonight or grasp the jokes on their favorite television sitcom. Memory provides the foundation for learning throughout life, whether it's to explore emotions through psychotherapy, become fluent in a second language or master snowboarding. All animals, from the lowly sea snail to humans, have some form of memory. But people possess the remarkable ability to make a nearly infinite number of memory associations. And it's why, as the Decade of the Brain draws to a close, neuroscientists are pressing to better understand this still mysterious process.