We don’t always think of the right thing when we should because of the sensitivity of our cerebral search engine, but we can often reduce our memory blocks by taking care of ourselves.
“I knew the answer, but it didn’t come to me at the time.” “I thought about what I wanted to say to him right after he left.” “I knew what to do, but I froze”.
Most of the time, remembering relevant information at the right time seems easy. It just comes by intuitive association. The words we have just spoken light up the following words. Entering a place makes us think about the next action to perform.
Sometimes, however, relevant information comes less readily to mind. We block on a name we know. We forget what we were going to say. We don’t think about doing what we had planned. We are experiencing an information retrieval failure. We know the answer, because we recognize it immediately if we are told it and we can find it easily with clues, but our mechanisms of access to our memory are disturbed.
Our retrieval issues particularly affect information that has fewer associations such as names of people or places, details, context of events (e.g. time period) or source of information (e.g. who we said that).
Access our knowledge
To remember information, the neural network that represents it must be activated enough to become conscious. And this process must take place despite the interference of billions of other networks. Like Google, our brain uses a search engine (our frontal lobe) to steer our neural networks (our associations) in the right direction and filter out interference.
Most of the time, our search engine guides our associations in the right direction. However, our brain searches are sensitive to stress, fatigue and emotions.
The role of our emotions
Sometimes our emotional state prevents us from remembering what we know. Anxiety can cause our search engine to freeze and leave us with a blank mind (eg when we get evaluated). Oddly, medications that reduce anxiety such as benzodiazepines (eg Ativan) can also cause information recall blockages.
Sometimes our emotions block our brain’s search engine to avoid thinking about painful memories. Some people who have suffered emotional trauma have difficulty remembering past events for a longer or shorter period (dissociative amnesia).
Other people lose access to the details of embarrassing experiences they have had. Our brain can actively forget unwanted details by associating them with negative emotions. These negative associations interrupt our search engine, reducing the access of unwanted details to awareness.
Sometimes our blockages go so far as to prevent us from taking our abilities into account. In depression, we often forget our abilities, which maintains our lack of confidence and our pessimism.
Train our thoughts
When you experience information retrieval breakdowns, they should not be confused with the amnesia of dementia. Not finding known information is very different from forgetting recent events too quickly (eg meetings or calls). For temporary recovery blackouts, sometimes our brain just needs a cue, a break, or more regular exercise. Practicing retrieving information can also reduce our retrieval failures. Above all, it is important to take care of your emotional health to reduce the interference of emotions on our cerebral search engine.