Cognitive scientist Elan Barenholtz says memory isn't retrieval. It's generation. When you remember something, you're not accessing a stored file. You're prompting your mind, like an AI model, to synthesize a response. There is no image of your mother. He's exploring how we might improve our own prompt design,... because “memories, in some ways, aren't real.”show more

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It's called "lossy compression", and that's what any modern media file does. So yeah, it's exactly like pulling information from a file. "Confabulation" is the word for his own "memory".

I think it's like everything else in the brain it's stored as a pattern connected to other patterns like emotion, experience and so on.

Our own hallucinations don’t need to be accurate. They just need to be useful enough to survive in the savanna

That is how the human brain works. Consciousness is a controlled hallucination using our priors.

Michael Levin is studying this as well.

If this is true… then sure the “memory” in the imagined and intuitive form might be generated, but those inputs required to perform the generation are still retrieved aren’t they? So I guess memories are just the output of our wet ware performing RAG .

Talking about memory, Elan Barenholtz says each human has an engine that is able in the moment to generate the image of the past on command with the appropriate input. That image is not in your brain, but generated on demand. Current research supports his claim that the image is not stored in the brain. But human brain might still have to store some related info about the image for later retrieval. That is where hippocampal indexing theory comes in. The theory proposes that the hippocampus acts as a "memory index" or a bookmark, not storing memories directly, but rather forming and retaining an index of neocortical areas activated during an experience. How does it work? 1) When you remember something, by using the "memory index" your brain reactivates the same network of brain cells that fired when you first lived the event. 2) But the reactivation does not give you a perfect image or scene, but more like a sketch or outline. 3) Then the hippocampus triggers the rest of the brain (including the neocortex) to generate or rebuild the detail of the image/scene/smells/words on demand. 4) So, through this way, the memory feels both familiar and flexible: Familiar: The same rough wiring pattern is switched on, so the memory stays anchored to reality—you don’t confuse your mother’s face with a stranger’s. Flexible: The gaps are padded with whatever makes sense now, so small details can drift: her shirt colour, the background, even her expression. That’s why each recall can vary: mood, current goals, or new information can tweak what gets filled in. The generated memory can be altered by mood? Yes, this is supported by the current research (see the 2nd and the 3rd screenshots). So, the generated memory in the human brain may also be distorted and susceptible to misinformation.

I wish scientists would stop saying, "...like..." to make things sound similar. If I say that cats bringing dead mice are like humans sacrificing virgins to the sun, it doesn't mean they work the same way. It definitely doesn't mean they should have the same rights as humans.