Moments like these make us fear the worst. Is this early Alzheimer’s? Is my memory broken?
That moment you can’t remember the name of the actor in that movie? That’s likely “blocking”—a temporary tip-of-the-tongue state. Genova explains that this happens when competing memories are shouting for attention. Your brain knows the answer; it just can’t find the right neural pathway at that millisecond. Moments like these make us fear the worst
According to neuroscientist Lisa Genova, author of the brilliant new book Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting , the answer is almost certainly no. In fact, forgetting where you put your keys isn’t a glitch in your brain’s operating system. It’s a feature. We tend to think of memory like a camera. You take a picture, store it in a folder (your brain), and pull it out when needed. When we can’t find the file, we assume the computer is failing. That moment you can’t remember the name of
Do you ever walk into a room, stop dead in the middle of the doorway, and think: Why did I come in here? Your brain knows the answer; it just can’t
Forgetting where you parked the car at the mall? Annoying, but normal.