Researchers have explained the brain's ability to form false memories

False memories are memories of events that did not happen, or of facts that do not correspond to reality. This phenomenon has become more well-known in recent years, especially in the context of the Mandela effect, when people are convinced of events that actually did not happen. This was reported on January 27 by Popular Science magazine.

Human memory is divided into episodic, concerning autobiographical events, and semantic, memories of facts or general knowledge. At the same time, it is argued that false memories tend to appear in personal, episodic memory.

In one study, participants were shown artificially created images in order to prove that they had supposedly ridden in a hot air balloon as children. Some participants allegedly stated that they really remembered it, and even described a flight that never actually happened.

"Our memories are essentially a filtered version of the original experience. When you recall this experience, you bring back this compressed version," said Wilma Bainbridge, a psychologist at the University of Chicago.

According to research, false memories can occur for several reasons. One theory, known as the fuzzy footprint theory, suggests that people retain not only the exact moments, but also their generalized essence. This can lead to errors when a person adds or changes details based on previous experience.

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Another approach, activation-monitoring theory, states that when studying any data, the brain activates memory, which can "spread" to related words or events. This explains why people can "remember" a word that wasn't on the list based on associations with other concepts.

It clarifies that false memories can also have real consequences, especially in court proceedings where the testimony of victims of violence or other crimes may be questioned. For example, in cases of violence, the question often arises whether people who have experienced trauma can create false memories of events that did not actually happen.

Bainbridge's own research on the Mandela effect could not find a single satisfactory explanation for the formation of this phenomenon, but revealed that some images are simply more difficult to recall in detail compared to others.

According to modern research, false memories are a natural part of the human experience, but it is important to understand that they are still rare. Therefore, it is important to develop awareness of false memories so that they do not influence important decisions such as lawsuits or therapeutic interventions.

N+1 magazine, with reference to the book "A Second Before: How the Brain Constructs a Future that becomes the Present" by neuroscientist Daniel Jon, on January 23, explained the brain's ability to invent reality. It was clarified that the brain independently "completes" the missing details of the overall picture, forming a distorted reality. Such a projection is said to work all the time and demonstrates how perception is always based on expectations rather than pure data.

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