How the Brain Filters Insignificant Details?

Imagine locating a restaurant without using GPS. You would have been there a few times before, so you might associate that place with some landmarks you see nearby. You use only concrete details and not abstract details like the shapes of the clouds in the sky or the colour of the taxicab which just passed through.

Now, scientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute have discovered new secrets about how the brain remembers useful details and discards insignificant ones. The cells in our brain consolidate these memories and the process is called ‘associative memories’. The brain selects useful information for remembering is focused on what we selectively pay attention to at the moment as we experience the world. The study aims to identify the brain circuits and molecular mechanisms underlying associative memory, which could prove targets for therapies related to memory loss.