The Los Angeles Times (2/5, Mohan) “Science Now” blog reports, “Memory can be altered by new experience, and isn’t nearly as accurate as courtroom testimony might have us believe,” according to a study published online Feb. 4 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
USA Today (2/5, Weintraub) reports, “Using brain scans of 17 healthy volunteers as they were taught new data and recalled previously learned information,” researchers demonstrated “for the first time precisely when and where new information gets implanted into existing memories.” They found that when people recall “an old memory, the bits of information get melded with new bits relevant to [one’s] present life.” In other words, memories can be modified when retrieved.
Related Links:
— “Remembrance or revision? Brain study shows memory misleads, “Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2014.