24.01.2018Remembering Unintentionally and Forgetting Deliberately – How Our Brain Processes Unwanted Memories of the Past

Dr. Gerd Waldhauser, Faculty of Psychology, Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Our memories define who we are and how we perceive the world around us. On the one hand we are afraid of losing memories; on the other hand we remember events and experiences we would rather forget. What happens in the brain when those unwanted memories pop up in our heads? How does the brain distinguish between important and disturbing memories? Is it possible to control the way we remember things? New methods of research allow us not only to track the brain-physiological patterns of individual memories from the moment they are stored in the brain to their retrieval, but also to modify the way in which memories are being processed. This helps us to improve our understanding of the way we remember things and enables us to treat mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder.