WHAT IS EPISODIC MEMORY?

When you tell people you have a bad memory, that would seem to imply that there is
only one type of memory that can either be good or bad. This seems to look at
memory as a binary thing and suggest that theres no way you can have a memory
that is good in some scenarios and bad in others.

In reality though, memory is much more complicated than that and really comes in a
wide variety of flavors and varieties. For instance, you might have a very good short
term memory or a very bad memory for faces theyre not the same thing at all!

One particularly interesting type of memory with that in mind, is episodic memory. In
many ways, this is the most important type of memory of all and could even be
considered a crucial part of what makes you you. But what exactly is this type of
memory? And how does it work?

Episodic Memory Explained

Basically, episodic memory is the memory you have about events. These are your
unique recollections of things that happened in your life and things that you know to
have happened in the lives of others. If you think of your brain as containing a large
timeline, your episodic memory would then be responsible for that timeline and all the
events that exist on it.

Often, episodic memory will get confused with autobiographical memory, which is
understandable. Autobiographical memory refers to your memories of your own life, as
well as facts about yourself. Some aspects of autobiographical memory to fall under
the banner of episodic memory and vice versa then, but they are still two distinct
things. For instance, autobiographical memory can also include facts about yourself
such as the city you were born in and your name. These are examples of semantic
memories. Likewise, episodic memory can include information about other people,
which is not in any way autobiographical. There is a fuzzy line to be drawn here
however and the distinction is not quite perfect.

How Episodic Memories Are Formed

Encoding is what we consider the first crucial step in the formation of any memory.
Here, the memory is converted to a construct to be stored within the brains long or
short term memory.

The way this actually works on a physiological level is highly complex and not fully
understood, though what we do know is fascinating.

Essentially, when you experience anything, this causes neurons to fire in your brain
corresponding to what youve seen and heard. At the same time, the event will have
an emotional content which is what defines the release of neurotransmitters and
hormones. These tell us whether the event is happy or sad, as well as whether the
event is important enough to be moved to the long-term memory for permanent
storage.

Whats amazing, is the brains ability to take all the inputs from the sensory areas of
the brain and then combine them into a single experience in the hippocampus. The
hippocampus will then ultimately dictate on whether the inputs should be committed
to long-term memory or not. Cases of anterograde amnesia where patients lose the
ability to formulate new memories demonstrate to us the role of the hippocampus
which is normally damaged

Memories will often be stored primarily through particular types of encoding meaning
that they will rely more on one of the senses than the others. Most common for
episodic memories is semantic encoding meaning that the memory is based more on
the meaning and our understanding of it, rather than the sound (acoustic encoding) or
what we saw (visual encoding); although these might also play a role.

Memories can also be consolidated as we recall them repeatedly. The more often we
relive a memory in our brains, the more deeply encoded it will become. This likely
occurs through the process known as myelination and long-term potentiation.
Essentially, repeated use of any neural pathway will cause the myelin sheath that
covers it to become stronger, thereby providing additional insulation and making the
connection stronger.

The Fallibility of Your Episodic Memory

Interestingly, it has been proven on many occasion that our episodic and
autobiographical memories are far from infallible and can be very easily misled. Simple
leading questions for example can be enough to throw an honest jury if a lawyer asks
whether the witnesses saw the vehicle slam into the one in front, they will estimate
its speed as being higher than if the question uses the word tap.

Moreover, it appears that our memories can be edited through the simple act of
retrieving them).

And of course the initial formation of the memory is also highly dependent on our
attention and on our subjective interpretation of events. If something happens but
your attention is not on the key event, then your memory might be very different from
someone else who was more focused at the time. Whats more, is that we will often fill
in the blanks with what we call schemas. In other words, we have a kind of default
idea of what certain items look like or what people behave like. If we werent fully
paying attention, then often our brains will actually fill in the missing pieces by
guessing and we wont know the difference!

One other interesting phenomenon pertaining to episodic memory is something called

a flashbulb memory. This is a type of memory that is cemented in stone and is easy
for us to vividly recall in extreme detail. Usually, flashbulb memories occur when were
highly shocked, scared, happy or upset. This triggers a sudden rush of hormones and
neurotransmitters corresponding to that emotion adrenaline for fear for example
and that in turn means that the memory gets laid down much more permanently and
vividly. This is why so many people remember where they were the day Diana died for
example and why you probably remember your wedding day in greater detail than
Thursday three weeks ago.
The Neuroscience of Dj Vu
Even the most rational of us experience it: you'll
be chatting with friends or exploring a place
you've never been when suddenly a feeling
washes over you: you've experienced this exact
moment before. The familiarity is overwhelming,
and it shouldn't be familiar at all. The sensation
becomes stronger before ebbing, then completely
leaves, all within a matter of seconds. Had you
predicted the future? Yet, chances are, you can't
pinpoint exactly when you'd experienced that
premonition before.
Dj vu is a French term that literally means
"already seen" and is reported to occur in 60-70%
of people, most commonly between the ages of
15 and 25. The fact that dj vu occurs so
randomly and rapidlyand in individuals without a
medical conditionmakes it difficult to study, and
why and how the phenomenon occurs is up to
much speculation. Psychoanalysts may attribute it
to wishful thinking; some psychiatrists cite
mismatching in the brain causing us to mistake
the present for the past. Still, parapsychologists
may even believe it is related to a past-life
experience. So what do we know for certain about
what happens during an episode of dj vu?
Some researchers speculate that dj vu occurs
when there is a mismatch in the brain during its
constant attempt to create whole perceptions of
our world with very limited input. Think about
your memory: it only takes small bits of sensory
information (a familiar smell, for instance) to bring
forth a very detailed recollection. Dj vu is
suggested to be some sort of "mix-up" between
sensory input and memory-recalling output. This
vague theory, however, does not explain why the
episode we experience is not necessarily from a
true past event.
A different but related theory states that dj vu is
a fleeting malfunctioning between the long- and
short-term circuits in the brain. Researchers
postulate that the information we take in from our
surroundings may "leak out" and incorrectly
shortcut its way from short- to long-term memory,
bypassing typical storage transfer mechanisms.
When a new moment is experiencedwhich is
currently in our short-term memoryit feels as
though we're drawing upon some memory from
our distant past.
A similar hypothesis suggests that dj vu is an
error in timing; while we perceive a moment,
sensory information may simultaneously be re-
routing its way to long-term storage, causing a
delay and, perhaps, the unsettling feeling that
we've experienced the moment before.
One characteristic is common of all dj vu
experiences: we are completely conscious that
they are occurring, implying that participation of
the entire brain is not necessary to produce the
phenomenon.
Over the years, researchers have pinpointed
disturbances of the medial temporal lobe as the
culprit behind dj vu. Studies of epileptic patients
investigated via intracerebral electrodes
demonstrate that stimulation of the rhinal cortex
(such as the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices
structures involved in episodic memory and
sensory processing) can actually induce a dj vu
episode.
A study published in the March issue of Clinical
Neurophysiology analyzed the patterns of
electroencephalography (EEG) signals from the
rhinal cortices, hippocampus (involved in memory
formation), and amygdala (involved in emotion) in
epileptic patients for whom dj vu could be
induced by electrical stimulation.
The researchers (from France!who better?)
found that synchronized neural firing between the
rhinal cortices and the hippocampus or amygdala
were increased in stimulations that induced dj
vu. This suggests that some sort of coincident
occurrence in medial temporal lobe structures
may "trigger" activation of the recollection system.
While the cause and precise mechanism of dj
vu remains a mystery, worry notif it happens,
nothing is wrong with you. In fact, bask in the
moment and appreciate the strange feeling that
washes over you. Or pretend to be a fortune teller.