Research out of Johns Hopkins reveals why some memories disappear, some remain, and others blend with fiction: Scientific American Think back to your first childhood beach vacation. Can you recall the color of your bathing suit, the softness of the sand, or the excitement of your first swim in the ocean? Early memories such as this often arise as faded snapshots, remarkably distinct from newer memories that can feel as real as the present moment. With time, memories not only lose their rich vividness, but they can also become distorted, as our true experiences tango with a fictional past. The brain’s ability to preserve or alter memories lies at the heart of our basic human experience. The you of today is molded not only by your personal history, but also by your mental visits to that past, prompting you to laugh over a joke heard yesterday, reminisce about an old friend or cringe at the thought of your awkward adolescence. When we lose those pieces of the past we lose pieces of our identity. But just where in the brain do those old memories go? Despite decades studying how the brain transforms memories over time, neuroscientists remain surprisingly divided over the answer. Some of the best clues as to how the brain processes memories have come from patients who can’t remember. If damage to a particular brain area results in memory loss, researchers can be confident that the region is important for making or recalling memories. Such studies have reliably shown that damage to the hippocampus, a region nestled deep inside the brain, prevents people from creating new memories. But a key question, still open to debate, is what happens to a memory after it’s made. Does it stay in the hippocampus or move out to other areas of the brain? To answer this, scientists have studied old memories formed before brain damage, only to discover a mix of inconsistent findings that have given rise to competing theories. ( By Emile Reas from Scientific American ).