How We Remember and How We Forget

Humans can remember complex real-word events in a rich and immersive manner. We recollect where we were, who we were with, and what we were doing in vivid detail, bringing to mind the sights, smells and sounds of the experience. How does the brain enable such a rich subjective experience? Conversely, how are these rich multisensory memories forgotten? Do we forget some aspects of an event and not others? Dr Aidan Horner will present a systematic body of research that reveals how the human brain supports our ability to recollect past events. Using experimental psychology, computational modelling, and brain imaging, he will show how distinct regions of the brain act in concert to encode and retrieve the multiple aspects of an event. Critically, Dr Horner will show how event memories act in a holistic manner. If we remember an event, we remember all aspects of the event. Equally, if we forget an event, we forget all aspects of an event. The research sheds light on how the brain supports one of our most personal mental experiences and highlights the profound personal loss that can be suffered by individuals with episodic memory impairments.

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