How do you remember events in your life? Let's talk about 'Episodic Memory'

Do you remember what happened on your 16th birthday? Or a joke a friend told you at school? Maybe what you had for dinner last night? The ability to remember these unique, personal events in our lives is what we call 'episodic memory '. It's like a personal diary inside our brain. Let's talk about this in more detail.

Episodic Memory and Other Types of Memory

Episodic memory is a type of long-term memory. It is the memory that helps us remember all the details of events in our lives, including where and when they happened, and who was involved.

But when it comes to memory, there are other types. Let's look at the difference between the two main types.

In addition to this, there are other types of memory:

• Emotional Memory: As the name suggests, this is a memory related to our emotions. It helps us remember the feelings we have when we see a place, person, or thing, such as happiness or sadness.
• Procedural Memory : This is how we automatically remember how to do something. For example, riding a bike, driving a car. We don't think about how to do it step by step, do we? It happens automatically.
• Short-term Memory: This is also called 'working memory'. It helps you remember information for a short period of time. Think of it like hearing someone's phone number and remembering it until you can type it into your phone.

How are these memories formed in our brains?

Several parts of the brain work together to store an event in our lives as a memory.

• Hippocampus : This is the main memory center in our brain. This part helps to store short-term memories into long-term memories. It is also essential for remembering the sequence of events.
• Amygdala: This is like the 'emotional control center' of our brain. This part helps memories associated with strong emotions like sadness, happiness, fear, and anger stay in our brain for a long time. That's why we don't easily forget a day when we were very happy or a day when we were very scared.
• Prefrontal Cortex: This is like the 'executive officer' of our brain. This part helps us plan, make decisions, and retrieve memories.

The four steps to forming a memory

The brain creates a memory in several steps.

1. Encoding: Imagine you are experiencing an event. At that moment, the things you see, the things you hear, the smells you smell, your feelings... all of this is collected by the brain as 'data'. Just like taking a photo with a camera.

2. Elaboration: The process of strengthening the memory by adding emotions or other things to it. For example, saying the name of someone you just met in your mind several times to remember it.

3. Consolidation : This is when the brain takes short-term memory and puts it into long-term storage. This process can take days or weeks.

4. Retrieval: This is when we consciously recall an event. How well a memory can be retrieved depends on how successfully the information was initially stored in the brain.

Episodic Memory Loss

It's normal for us to forget things as we age. However, if you're forgetting more important events in your life than usual, there may be a health reason for it.

Below are some of the causes of memory loss.

How stress and trauma affect memory

Severe stress and traumatic events directly affect our memory.

• Strong emotions: Sometimes, the strong emotions that arise from a very scary or traumatic event can cause some details of that event to remain in our minds forever.
• Memory loss: Also, sometimes when a trauma is too intense to bear, the brain acts as a protective mechanism by completely erasing the event from memory. This is also called 'dissociative amnesia'.
• PTSD: People suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may also experience problems with episodic memory.

How can we improve our memory?

There are several things we can do to maintain a good memory.

• Pay attention: If you want to remember something, focus on the event without thinking about anything else at the time. This will allow your brain to store more information.
• Exercise: Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise that increases heart rate, is very good for brain health and memory.
• Practice mindfulness meditation: Studies have shown that meditation techniques that focus on the present moment improve memory storage and retrieval.
• Exercise your brain: Engage in activities that challenge your brain, like Sudoku and crossword puzzles.
• Reminisce: When you mentally review the details of an event after it has happened, that memory becomes stronger.
• Write: Studies have found that we remember things better when we write them by hand than when we type them on a computer.
• Eat nutritious foods: Flavanols, a nutrient found in colorful fruits, vegetables, tea, and cocoa, improve blood flow to the brain and improve memory.
• Get enough sleep: It's hard to think clearly when you don't get enough sleep. The brain sorts and stores memories while we're asleep. So get a good 7-8 hours of sleep a day.
• Avoid vitamin deficiencies: People who are deficient in vitamins B1 or B12 may experience memory problems. Your doctor can do a simple blood test to see if you have a vitamin deficiency and recommend an appropriate supplement if necessary.

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