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memory
Recalling a memory makes it vulnerable to being altered.
Research indicates that when a memory is reactivated, it enters a plastic state where it can be modified before being re-stored.
Known as memory reconsolidation, this process implies that our past is not a static record. By accessing the memory trace, the brain permits the integration of new information, effectively rewriting the original experience.
The more you think about your past, the less accurate it becomes.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Nader et al., 2000, Nature
- What the check found
- This is the seminal paper that provided the primary evidence for the reconsolidation hypothesis, demonstrating that reactivated fear memories require protein synthesis to be restabilized.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.