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posted by n1 on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the i-forget-which dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The inability to remember has long been considered a failure of the brain, but a new study has found that our brains are actively working to forget memories in order to retain the truly important information.

In fact, the study’s researchers believe the brain is not designed to keep memories intact, but its actual purpose is to only hold onto valuable information to optimize intelligent decision making overtime.

"It's important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the stuff that's going to help make decisions in the real world," says Blake Richards, author of the study and associate fellow in the Learning in Machines and Brains program.

The new University of Toronto paper was published Wednesday in the Neuron journal. Paul Frankland, a senior fellow at CIFAR's Child & Brain Development program, who was also involved in the study, says,"We find plenty of evidence from recent research that there are mechanisms that promote memory loss, and that these are distinct from those involved in storing information."

Source: RT


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:50AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:50AM (#530451)

    The foreskin provides a very nice rolling/gliding action without lube... it's almost like the penis was meant to have a foreskin...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:01AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:01AM (#530457)

    Uncircumcised. When I was about 11 years old, I masturbated enough to make my foreskin swell shut, so that it was too swollen to roll it back. My parents took me to a doctor, who was unconcerned and prescribed an antibiotic cream in case of infection.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:22AM (#530468)

      The doctor probably assumed the situation was normal for an 11 year old boy, since the glans and foreskin grow at different rates, at that age the foreskin doesn't necessarily retract.