| I'd like to imagine the brain is a lot like the 'world wide web' as a data structure, than a pure graph. That it isn't just a question of pure storage and retrieval. There's quite a bit of varied experience on the same root(& their storage) happening multiple times and layers within. Content that gets shared/liked more, gets replicated, re-iterated on, transformed, re-tagged.
As time progresses, you'll find more content similar to the parent, being generated -- re-experienced via dreams and the subconscious. Eventually, when its necessary to dig out the piece of content using tags or searches, it'll end up finding the most 'linked-to' piece. Possibly one that was associated with a explosion of favorable chemicals. ----- There's some evidence to suggest that the same experience, isn't stored as a single piece of memory. During the process of consolidation [when a long term memory gets etched], the 'experience' being transcribed goes through iterations. With variations being stored as well, some of them decaying almost instantly. It's possible the brain applies 'instagram' like filters while etching these memories. (a process that happens over weeks) It'll be interesting if in the future, we could modify/augment these 'filter' processes. Both at the storage and retrieval stages. [http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/85/8536cover.html]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engram_(neuropsychology)] |