The Human Memory: The Memory Process

The human brain is such an impressive machine that scientists have been using it as a model for machinery for years and despite the fact that technology has come a long way scientists are still unable to replicate the human brain in its entirety.
The brain is the command centre of the human body and runs all the processes within the body. As if that was not enough the brain runs complex mental functions as well. It is the home of the human mind. One of the key human functions that are run by the brain is the memory process. The human memory was one thought to work as simply as a filing system. Taking memories and storing them in a particular compartment of the brain. However scientists soon found out that the memory process is much more complex and involves several parts of the brain. A memory is not just a thought but rather it could mean the memory of doing something. In such a case the brain has to …show more content…
There have been cases where something as simple as a certain scent is enough to bring the memories rushing back. On the other hand through therapy and consciously trying to recall the memory the brain is able to retrieve it. This usually happens many years after the event and may be due to the fact that the brain feels that sufficient time has passed since the incident and the person is ready to deal with the reality of the event. However, as mentioned above, sometimes the memory is not fully encoded and in this way large chunks of it may be missing causing problems retrieving it later in life. Some psychologists believe that some instances of trauma may be too difficult for the mind to even perceive and as such the brain choses to not fully encode them or to forget them altogether. Regardless of the school of thought that is adopted understanding of the workings of memory is still a mystery for the large part and as such the mechanisms involved are not fully