The brain as a whole has to be the most fascinating organ in the entire body aside from the heart. With the many different functions, one of the main functions that are used by everyone on a daily would memory. Memories play a major role in a person life and many can either receive happiness from their memories while others unfortunately will receive sadness. As we grow up we learn how to manage our memories and make sad moments turn into happy ones, while some are learning memories, and others are just memories we won’t ever want to relieve. One perfect example that can be used to describe this entire process would be the animation movie “Inside Out.”
In this animation it described the life of an 11 year-old girl named Riley, who is later described by her personality and experiences to better understand her. We are then introduced to her 5 main emotions, Joy, Disgust, Fear, Anger, and Sadness. Along with her emotions, we are also introduced to a basic Neurosystem, which included the headquarters where the emotions resided, personality islands, and a labyrinth of long-term memories and memory dump. Although this is an animation, it relates to the science behind memories extremely well and how the brain shows all its functions related to memory functions.
As a person can relate, in our everyday lives we make short-term memories, while there’s some that are worth keeping in long-term. Now, with understanding how memories are encoded and the differences between them all, I would say that I for one have a memory that is extremely keen to details. However, one thing I find myself doing is repeating stories without noticing. I remember all the details, people that was there with me, those that weren’t, what I did, pretty much everything. Sometimes even if I was to just learn something new or a person gave me their number for instance, I would instantly remember it. One thing I can say when memories are encoded in my mind, it is often repeated three times, and then remembered until I find myself no longer having use to that certain memory. However, compared to memories with friends and family, my childhood, and so on and so forth, I find myself speaking about them often. So in a way, with the animation “Inside Out,” I can say that my brain happens to function the same exact way. Every day short-term memories are made while my core memories are stored. Then each memory happens to be thought about when in a similar situation or if I need to think about a situation more detailed, and sometimes just remembered to be in a better mood.
As stated earlier, the mind is an amazing thing. With the amount of functions that comes from this one organ and how much it plays a role in a person’s every day life has its importance. Memories allow a person to identify himself or herself as a person, without memories a person life is really nothing it’s having to start a whole new life again.