• Question: how do we remember happy or sad memories?

    Asked by to Charli on 15 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Charlotte Flavell

      Charlotte Flavell answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      Hello again 2ronnies 😀

      This is a very good question and it’s one that I am trying to answer myself! The truth is, scientists don’t know exactly how we remember things, but lots of research into it has given us some good clues as to what is going on.

      We know that there are some areas in the brain that are very important for remembering happy and sad memories, including an area called the amygdala (ah-mig-dah-lah) and another called the hippocampus (hip-poh-camp-us).

      Like the rest of the brain, these areas are made up of lots of tiny cells called neurones, that become activated (like when you turn on a light switch) when we remember something. Different patterns of neurones are activated by different memories, for example one pattern may be activated by you looking at a picture of One Direction but a very different pattern will be activated by you seeing your mum!

      All of the neurones in our brain connect to other neurones and we think that the way that they connect to each other is very important for how we remember things.

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