Does Memory Exist Outside the Brain?

**Brother of Yeshua** · #1 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 09:12 PM

A very curious article discussing the idea of where memory resides exactly, and the lack of definitive answer in the world of neurology and biology.

Full Article

**SARS-expl0ted** · 09-02-2008, 09:24 PM

"memory does not reside in any geographic region of the cerebrum, but instead in a kind of field surrounding and permeating the brain. Meanwhile, the brain itself acts as a “decoder” for the flux of information produced by the interaction of each person with their environment."

Makes perfect sense.

**Brother of Yeshua** · 09-02-2008, 09:28 PM

It's the same idea how the "sounds" and "sights" we see are just our brain interpreting signals.

What looks like a tree to me could, in theory, look like the statue of liberty to you.

That's a little extreme and outlandish, but who knows.

It's like when I was 8 and used to ask my mom how we knew we all saw the same colors, and she thought I was nuts (not really, but she couldn't answer my question).

**Ristaron** · 09-02-2008, 10:39 PM

I've always been fascinated with how we can lose portions of our brain (or have lobotomies performed, in the case of rats) and not compromise our memory. It's what really distinguishes us from machines, more so than the capacity to learn and adapt (computers have displayed some degree of these capabilities).

Take a computer hard-drive, internal or external, it doesn't matter. It has a limited amount of storage space, operates on a very specific form (keywords, datalinks, etc), and in direct response to commands. Our minds, on the other hand, run without our conscious command (our heart-beat, breathing, etc are all automatic functions), and though they follow paths from stimuli to keywords to memories, ad infinitum, we have the capacity for original thought. We invent, we create, and we apply knowledge in new ways.

What we call "consciousness" is similarly enigmatic. In fact, all the components in our brain couldn't add up to anything that would be close to "consciousness". That's why it's called an emergent property. Edgar Cayce, an early 20th century philosopher who was one of the inspirations for the New Age movement and also a reputed "psychic", went into detail about a supposed Egosphere, a collective of the consciousness of every sentient being on the planet. While it may be a fantastic idea, it's something to consider when speculating about the nature of sentience.

Personally, I think that we form an electric field with the chemical reactions and electric pulses that occur in our bodies -- we generate 100-200 watts of power constantly -- and it's no more metaphysical than the genetic knowledge (such as holding one's breath underwater) that many philosophers have deemed a priori. Then again, I was always a better scientist than a philosopher.

**SARS-expl0ted** · 09-03-2008, 05:41 AM

You know, come to think of it, our memories are not that great. We do not remember anything and everything but only the things that we learned from or affected our personality throughout the years.

I have never really thought about it that way before. Where my brain stores memory is something I never questioned. Weird...