Memory Solutions

  Admitted

It is how do you ever lost your keys.

  Have you noticed this doesn't happen. 

If you systematically place them in the same location 

do you know why.

 How does our brain optimize memory function and what can we learn from it. To treat memory loss 

to improve education or even to build artificial brains

.

 Let me start by introducing my friend Mark.
 Mark is the CEO of a high tech company.
 He is married 

to a beautiful career woman.
 And he has two small children.
 Mark is responsible for driving the kids to school every day and he's usually in a hurry. But on that particular morning everyone overslept. Mark was so anxious to get everything done on time and on top of it all he couldn't find his car keys. 

He usually plays them in the living room table so that he didn't have to search for them in the morning. This coincident presentation of the two objects resulted in a strong association between his case and that particular location. 

Can you think why does the brain form such associations. 

We live in an era of information overload. 

We are continuously bombarded with information about our health our work our environment yet our neural resources do not allow us to store everything.

 I propose that forming associations is an optimal strategy that maximizes both memory capacity and then use of neural resources. Let's take a look at Mark's brain. 

Deep inside lies this primitive structure that looks like a seahorse called the hippocampus. The hippocampus is critical for learning and memory formation.

This is where memory associations are believed to reside. If you take a closer look you'll find thousands of neurons communicate through electrical signals.

 Tiny mushroom-like structures called synopsis serve as communication portals. When activated they lead to the generation of electrical signals that form the essence of everything our brain does. Now deep inside this complex universe, associative memories are stored in specific cell populations. In fact,

 we now have the technology to manipulate such memories. If you delete this neurons the memory will disappear. 

If you activate them again the memory will come back. However. To do find their manipulations one needs to know the molecular mechanism behind such memories. 

And this is where computational models can help. Our simplified model neurons learn to associate to objects. By modifying their synaptic connections much like real brains do. If you present one object the other option will be recalled. Thus creating a virtual memory.

 In fact our models predict that associated memories are formed by strengthening their connections in nearby locations within the same cells.

 This is energetically efficient because the same memories share molecular resources to be established. So how is this beneficial at the organism level. 

Let's go back to Mark and his efforts to retrieve his case. What do you think he did.

 Well he tried to identify the last moment that he had seen his keys and the events that followed. Hoping that this would give him the answer. 

This. Mental Exercise back in time. Started from the moment that Mark drove his car into his garage. He remembered locking the door and climbing up the stairs to his house.

 Upon entering he heard the phone ringing. He rushed into the study room to pick it up and to do so. He placed his car keys next to the phone device.

Now this mental exercise recalled a memory of him driving into his garage.

 If our models are right this memory also activated a set of neurons that contained the second memory the phone ringing memory. 

In turn the phone ringing memory reactivated neurons that contain the memory of him placing the keys next to the phone device and that's how he managed to find his keys and drive the kids to school on time. Now the goal of this presentation was to stimulate your curiosity about why and how our brain forms memory associations. 

If this is an optimal strategy that evolved in order to maximize performance. While operating under limited resources perhaps as something to gain by understanding it.

 And this is where models can help. They serve as a bridge between the real brain. And the technological innovations that may emerge by simulating such neuronal functions. 

Our models can be very detailed starting from the molecular level of single neurons to the micro circuit with the entire brain regions. What can they be used for. 

They can predict new treatments for memory loss by pointing to key molecules that can inspire new educational protocols that capitalize or on our innate ability to bind information or even inspire new technological applications that lead to smart artificial brains.

 If the brain is doing it it might be the best way of doing it. So here is my question for you. What's in it for you. 

What does the social and technological world have to gain by. Understanding the brain's memory strategies and adopting our tools to achieve technological advances.

Thank you.