Brain Scans Show If You Can’t Remember Where You Put The Keys-It’s Natural – Dave’s Diary

! occasionally forget where I put stuff like keys, wallet, important papers -

so naturally that morphs into a paranoia about Alzheimer’s.  Why else would it happen, right?  Well, new research shows our forgetfulness may actually be normal. It might be as simple as new thoughts push older thoughts off the radar.

Scientific brain data suggests the very act of remembering something new may cause us to forget other memories.

Participants had their brains scanned in MRI machines as they were asked to recall memories based on images they had been shown earlier. Over the course of several of these tests, participants were asked to recall a specific memory over and over, meaning it became more vivid in each trial.

They discovered that competing memories took more work to retrieve with each additional test.  Recalling memories has a darker side of making us forget others by actually suppressing them --which has possible application when trying to overcome trauma and negative memories from our past  (Yahoo)