A book, that talks about the brain functioning mechanisms.

The book compares brains work with computers functioning mechanisms. The difference is, that the computer is storing data systematically in a specific place, but in the brain is all upside down - at first everything will be saved, important things will be selected from minor ones, and basically they will be just scattered. The more we think about the event later, the more our brain will change it. That is why the brain is constantly making mistakes, but at the same time it has the ability to select things in a certain way, that a computer would not be capable of. If we had to remember every little thing, our brain would crash constantly, like it sometimes happens with computer systems. That's why our brain mostly stores a general picture, such as by reading or listening to a book, trying to understand the idea, rather than learning every word by heart.

An interesting study is about the forgery of memories. We make mistakes while recording them, and we also change our memories every time we remind them - we can't protect ourselves from the influences of external factors, that constantly manipulate our memory. Even if we know it, we are still giving in to the fake recollections, because the companions' pressure, when other people have seen things differently, and the urge to match our memories with those of others, actively affects our memory.

It is possible to completely change memories and replace them with new ones, which is also used in therapies, when people have serious problems due to their past events.

But what could be done to save your memory from changing the events later?

1) By getting older the protection mechanism becomes stronger, so that if a person over 60 is warned before the memory test, that false memories will be told them, he will be able to avoid confusing the right and wrong events and testimonies, as an 18-33 year old will be a victim of false memories despite warnings. Their brains are quicker to build minds connections, that blur the glimpse of the actual situation. On the other hand, the thinking of the older people goes through the paths, that have already been walked in many times and is therefore less prone to errors.

2) Women, who are using anti pregnancy hormones, are less susceptible to misinformation, given afterwards. For example, by showing them a picture first and then convincing them, that the scene looked a little different (one person stood near the tree, not by the door), they would not allow this false information to become part of their memories. The reason is probably, that female  hormones reduce the ability to notice extraneous details (especially when presented inside the story, not as pictures). In other words, a woman using female hormones cannot be so much impressed with a story, but more with a picture. So for men, who want to make acquaintances on dating sites, a stylish photo is much better instead of a lyrical self-description! It has not been established whether the same thing works for men, as there have not been found enough men for testing it, allegedly.

3) Being aware of the weakness of your memory later, to distort the information, the more we think and talk about the past event. 

Distortion of memories can also be interpreted as an expression of the special creative power of the brain. The more we remind and think about some event, the more we beautify our imagination of it, and this way distort our memories. But this is what we need for planning the future ventures. In other words: that we could imagine something later, we have to take to pieces and recompile, what has happened so far. This is, of course, at odds with the desire to remember things correctly, but the advantage is much greater: we can imagine almost all conceivable future scenarios. Just because we accept the mistakes of our memories, we are able to create new ideas. It has become clear, that people are constantly unconsciously falsifying their memories of their lives so far, so that their current circumstances would look better.

The book also talks much about the time. It has been studied, that the more a person has experience in a particular area, the smaller seams the amount of retrospective time spent on these specific operations later. The familiar thing is more routine and it seams to take a lot of time to do it while doing it, but later remembering it, the time it took doing it, seems much shorter. Conversely, doing something new and exciting or having fun, time is just flying and seems to have been just a moment since it started, but later it seems a long time and everything is much better remembered, than while doing routine activities. For example, a week-long holiday will be over really quickly, but later thinking about  all the exciting things will be remembered and this time looks much longer. On the other hand, the working week is going very slowly, but remembering it later it is impossible to identify, whether is passed one week ore two. The routine is a real time accelerator: little new and nothing exciting - the brain pushes the memories together until finally there is only a fraction of the time actually spent.

So, we really don't have any time sense. Rather, it is created artificially and retrospectively. Our senses are stimulated and we finally put the experiences into a time frame.

When talking about time, there is also talk of being late, that most people often encounter. Although one of the other factors plays a role here in our weak time sensing skills. Namely: What is worse for the brain than being late? That's when you arrive too early and have to wait. Because waiting hates the brain like a plague. Why, the book speaks much about this, as well as boredom and much more.

Luckily, the brain is lying also to itself, making sure, that what is various and exciting, or what makes us happy, will seem to be extra long later.

There is plenty of information in the book, that brings clarity to many things. This book is quite thick. I liked it, so I suggest reading it.