Forgetting helps brain to work effectively and efficiently

Related to previous article, in this article we’re still discussing another benefit of forgetting.

People do forget sometimes for various reasons. Although there’re numerous disadvantages out of this, still people need to forget. Forgetting is the natural mechanism of human brain to work efficiently and effectively. In addition, forgetting also protects people from all traumas and phobias that happened in the past. But if you forget a lot, when the forgetting happens more than the remembering, then you might need professional’s help. Visiting your therapist or other professionals might help. Nowadays they’re so many professions that help people to overcome forgetting, namely therapist, psychologist, mind-coach and many more.

If you need more scientific facts that back up the fact that forgetting has benefits to people, below is one scientific conclusion derived from the latest study of memory on mice.

When you forget, one of the reasons is you cannot recall the information stored in the memory. Human memory generally can be divided into three categories; namely sensory register, working memory and long-term memory. The duration of storage varies from one to another, the first is the shortest and the last is the longest (where in some cases more permanent). Working memory, a form of short-term memory that both passively stores and actively manipulates information, benefits from an inhibition of long-term memory.

Researchers investigating mice used x-rays or genetic techniques to stop the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus, which is important for long-term memory. These mice performed maze-related working memory tasks better than normal mice did, suggesting “that by impairing one from of memory, long-term memory, it is actually possible to improve another form,” says Gael Malleret, a neuroscientist at Colombia University and co-author of the study.

This study backs up the facts that forgetting brings benefit, by making the brain to work more effectively and efficiently. So, if you accidentally call “Primus” as “Sarudin,” take heart – your brain probably just chose to dump his name in favor of a more crucial fact, such as where you left your cell phone.