Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:30AM (1 child)

    by captain normal (2205) on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:30AM (#530420)

    Actually we knew near 10 years ago that the brain can only hold so much: http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/09/05/memory-lessons-from-homer-simpson/ [scienceblogs.com]

    Now if only I could remember where I put the fancy multi-bit ratcheting screwdriver I brought 4 months ago. was looking for it to take apart an unresponsive netbook. Been looking for it for a week. Not That I really need it, it's just that I can't even remember when I used it last. Guess I should just quit trying to learn a new OS.

    --
    When life isn't going right, go left.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JNCF on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:03AM

      by JNCF (4317) on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:03AM (#530459) Journal

      His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.

      “You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”

      “To forget it!”

      “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

      “But the Solar System!” I protested.

      “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”

          --Dr. John H. Watson [sherlock-holm.es]

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:54AM (15 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:54AM (#530431) Homepage Journal

    "True just means non-zero".

    I wish I didn't have to remind myself of that sentence so much.

    I can also remember being circumsized. For years I thought they gave me a new one.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:05AM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:05AM (#530434)

      And, of course, they didn't give you a new one; they just mangled the only one.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:39AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:39AM (#530443)

        Only one? I always dream I have two penises. I know exactly where the idea came from too. When I was very young and experimenting with masturbation, I rubbed it raw, fell asleep, and then I dreamed about rubbing my other penis which was not rubbed raw yet, and, according to dream logic, I must have two because there are two pockets in my pants. Ever since then, the double penises have appeared in my dreams.

        • (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.

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:08AM (7 children)

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:08AM (#530436) Journal

      How can you remember that? I thought they did it either at birth or 8 days old.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:18AM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:18AM (#530437) Homepage Journal

        My mother took me for a walk in my stroller and I told her that my pee-pee hurt after I took a bath. The next thing I remember is being in an operating room but had no clue what it was. The next thing I remember is being in that stroller again and my mother asking if my pee-pee still hurt.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:18AM

        by coolgopher (1157) on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:18AM (#530439)

        Make anything traumatic enough and you either suppress/forget it, or remember it forevermore, I guess...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:54AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:54AM (#530454)

        Of all men, 30% have been circumcised; of all circumcised men, 68.8% are Muslim.

        Traditionally, Muslims circumcise boys when they are 7-to-12 years old; this is also the same age for non-Muslims in the Philippines, where it is a bizarre tribal ritual, and African tribes tend to do it to older teenage boys. South Koreans, who picked up the practice from Americans, also do it to boys when the are about 10 years old.

        Now you know.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:27AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:27AM (#530470)

          Now blame MDC for talking about his dick.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:03AM (#530483)

          I hope you never find out about Australian aborigines, if just a nip of the tip makes you queasy.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:43AM (#530446)

      I never tried to memorize Page 40 in K&R, but found the quote on Page 41 in my 21st edition. :)

      With the number of things I have forgotten, I must be a genius by now.

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:38AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:38AM (#530477) Homepage Journal

      I do remember that it was toward the top of a right-hand page.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:27AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:27AM (#530440)

    ... i'd be the most intelligent person of all time. I'm only smart enough to know how dumb i am.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:16AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:16AM (#530465)

      . I'm only smart enough to know how dumb i am.

      Only strive to forget even that, and enlightenment will be yours, my young apprentice! Always two there are. Or Three. What is today?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:28AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:28AM (#530472)

        I'm going to need a swift hammering directly to the forehead to forget that.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:00AM (#530482)

    My boss is so smart he never bothers to learn stuff in the first place, which saves the trouble of having to forget it to become smarter. Whenever I do some work or fix something, he doesn't want to know about it so BAM he gets smarter instantly without the boring intermediate steps.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by lx on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:32AM (2 children)

    by lx (1915) on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:32AM (#530490)

    Forgetting Actually Makes You Smarter
    Source: RT

    RT (formerly Russia Today) doesn't want you to remember too much. Seems convenient.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:48AM (#530502)

      Those who control the past control the future.

    • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:55AM

      by Wootery (2341) on Sunday June 25 2017, @09:55AM (#530830)

      Yeah... we're really linking to RT on this site now?

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:13AM (9 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:13AM (#530507) Journal

    OK, let me put this together:

    Drinking a lot of alcohol makes you forget. Forgetting things make you smarter. Thus drinking a lot of alcohol makes you smarter. :-)

    Well, Monty Python knew this all along. [youtube.com] :-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:00PM (#530573)

      And smoking a doobie brings back memories that were long lost.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:05PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:05PM (#530616)

      You are being facetious, but it is real and is called dropout.

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 25 2017, @05:00AM (6 children)

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 25 2017, @05:00AM (#530788) Journal

        Getting smarter due to drinking too much alcohol is real and called dropout?

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @06:02AM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @06:02AM (#530803)

          You added "too much" on your own. Just play with any relatively complex NN and you will see that it is a real phenomenon.

          • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 25 2017, @06:08AM (4 children)

            by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 25 2017, @06:08AM (#530806) Journal

            I have no idea what an NN is.

            --
            The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @12:28PM (3 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @12:28PM (#530855)

              A neural network... I assumed you would search "dropout" and be able to make the connection, this is the top hit: https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/absps/JMLRdropout.pdf [toronto.edu]

              • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 25 2017, @07:22PM (2 children)

                by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 25 2017, @07:22PM (#530935) Journal

                I'm pretty sure neural network simulations don't generally simulate the effect of alcohol consumption. And I don't see how that dropout stuff you linked to is related to that.

                Oh, and BTW, if you are forgetting things because of your alcohol consumption, it definitely means drinking too much alcohol.

                --
                The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @11:33PM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @11:33PM (#531639)

                  The neural networks perform better if they randomly forget things they have learned during training. Try it while learning to play a song, etc. If you just keep playing the same thing over and over you will perform worse later. If instead you mix in other stuff and forget the exact movements, and relearn them, you will perform better. The same goes for studying. People remember almost nothing when they cram for one night for a single test.

                  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:24AM

                    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:24AM (#531749) Journal

                    Thank you for confirming that you didn't get my original post. It's not that what you write is wrong, it's that is is completely unrelated to the joke in my post.

                    --
                    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:05PM (5 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:05PM (#530617)

    Brains were not "designed". Brains , as with everything in the natural world , evolved.

    Iphones and stuff were designed.

    Saying anything in biology has been designed is flat out wrong, as much of it is clearly awful...

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @04:36AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @04:36AM (#530782)

      Brains were not "designed". Brains , as with everything in the natural world , evolved.

      Tell that to your boy Darwin, whose postulation was underpinned by cells being simple "blobs" of matter, rather than the collection of molecular machinery that tantalizes technologists of today.

      It takes a lot of faith to believe in macroevolution in these days of scientific discoveries regarding biology.

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 25 2017, @05:07AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 25 2017, @05:07AM (#530790) Journal

        Since evolution is not about how the first living organism came into being, but about how from that all species came, the complexity of the cell is in no way important for the question whether evolution is real. Evolution is compatible with the assumption that God created a single bacterium on earth, and that bacterium spread and evolved. Evolution is of course also compatible with the assumption that life came into being without intervention of a being from outside this universe.

        Don't confuse things. Evolution is about the origin of the species, not about the origin of life.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:03PM (#531503)

        Macro evolution is just micro evolution over a longer time scale. You can't believe in one and not believe in the other.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @11:34AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @11:34AM (#530846)

      Telling the FDA that you didn't design that drug, and it just evolved all by itself won't be an excuse when they sue you.

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 25 2017, @07:26PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 25 2017, @07:26PM (#530936) Journal

        They won't sue you for designing the drug, they'll sue you for giving it to people without permission.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(1)