Have you ever seen a movie like The Butterfly Effect where memory flashbacks are sometimes portrayed like a DVD on fast forward? Well researchers out of the University of Arizona have figured out that this is kind of how the brain consolidates memories from the prior day. In other words, when processing the day’s events, our thoughts literally break the laws of physics.
I had trouble wrapping my mind around that one (pun intended). But the university write-up describes it as a memory consolidation process that doesn’t follow the rules “that regulate activity in time and space.”
Are you serious?
This makes our brains seem literally out of this world. In fact, our minds organize and store these memories up to seven times faster than real-time thinking. If that sounds weird, consider the time it is taking you to actually think right now.
Look out your window, or at a TV, and just think. Whatever was on your mind just then, whether it was a sight or some sounds, the memories will be consolidated into the cortex six to seven times faster than it took you to actually think about it.
Pretty neat! It’s like life on fast forward.
