I had this GREAT idea for a blog yesterday…

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Idea - Lightbulb -aloshbennett -FlickrBut it didn’t write it down and now it is gone. Poof. Like so much ephemera. How frustrating.

I hate when that happens. Same thing happens to me with dreams. I will wake up and thing “Huh, cool (or odd, or etc..) dream” and think I will have to tell people about this one. But then just a few minutes later the thing is just gone.

Of course that idea, and those dreams, are not really gone. The brain doesn’t really forget. They are in there somewhere. But for some reason they are just inaccessible. Running away as if being chased the more I try to remember them.

When you think about it memory is really an incredible process. Quick, what did you have for dinner last night? Got it? Now think about what just happened in your brain for a moment. This virtual spider web of cells throughout your brain spring into action each doings its job to retrieve the little bits of info that will make up that memory and working in perfect, and often almost instantaneous, unison they deliver that memory to your consciousness. It really is incredible isn’t it? You are with me on this one right?

The amazing thing is scientists are still trying to figure out how it all works. They are just beginning to understand howbrain - brain_blogger - Flickr the brain delivers all the little pieces of information to make up what we perceive to be a single memory. The guys in the white coats even say that as far as they can tell at this point there is virtually no difference between thinking and the process of remembering. Yeah memory, is fascinating.

Oh I think I may be remembering that “GREAT” blog idea. And, hm, yeah maybe not so great after all. Well this is embarrassing. So never mind. Here’s a cute puppy (falling asleep!) instead…

Lightbulb photo: Aloshbennet

Brain anatomy illustration courtesy of: Brain_Blogger