Is Your Brain Running Out of Memory?

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Devices like smartphones and computers all have maximum data capacities — but how about your brain? Is it possible to max out the capacity of what’s between your ears?

We so often hear people say that they just cannot seem to remember key items.

About this, Boston College psychology and neuroscience professor Elizabeth Kesinger advises, "There isn't a meaningful limit to how much information the brain can store," and that "Memories can be thought of as the data the brain uses to understand the current moment, to make predictions about the future, and to scaffold future learning."

This is largely due to the fact that the brain does not “store” memories as “files” on individual nerve cells. Rather, each part of a memory, such as the color of the sky, the music playing in the background, the taste of food, and the feeling of delight, instead triggers a different part of the brain to fire in certain patterns, which in turn, result in specific memories being saved.

Recalling the memory at a later time simply reactivates this saved pattern.

This has several advantages — one of which is the ability to encode large amounts of memories since your neurons can fire in nearly limitless combinations.

Memories that trigger similar combinations of neurons can help the brain generalize and make predictions — something that many neuroscientists believe to be the reason for memory. Even if a few neurons end up damaged, memories may be recoverable due to the fact that they are encoded in multiple places.

So why don’t humans remember everything?

According to a study  by the California Institute of Technology, led by  Markus Meister, Professor of Biological Sciences, and Jieyu Zheng, a PhD student studying neurobiology,  the human sensory systems are capable of gathering data at an astounding 10 billion bits per second, or the human equivalent of an internet connection able to rapidly download large files, such as movies, in minutes or even seconds. However, in contrast, the actual processing of that information is more like the turtle in comparison to the hare, at only 10 bits per second.

The study’s co-authors determined this number by calculating the number of bits required to perform a task and dividing it by the time it took to perform each task.

Even for record-holding memory experts, who can solve a Rubik’s Cube while blindfolded or memorize the order of a standard deck of cards, the rate at which information is processed is within the ballpark of 10 bits per second. While a few super smart human outliers may exist, none come even remotely close to a speed of 10 billion bits per second.

This raises questions about why human brains filter out all that excess information when it only takes a single neuron that is capable of transmitting 10 bits per second on its own.

Researchers feel further research will be required to understand why billions of neurons are required for decision making, but the researchers predict that it is due to evolution, as early humans only needed to make roughly one decision at a time.

Lila Davachi, PhD, who is a Columbia University psychology and neuroscience professor, supports this idea, stating that “human memory did not evolve for perfect recall,” and that  is because “our memory system evolved for survival.”

Our own brains are likely not running out of storage anytime soon — instead, they are constantly reshaping and adapting to our environments to help predict and learn. Therefore, the next time you forget something, it’s likely not your brain running out of storage space — your brain probably just has more important things to remember at that moment in time.