Sonic Memories

 

Observation: When you hear something for the second time, your mind returns to 'memory landmarks' set on first hearing, and are automatically recalled on second review. Try this yourself: listen to a program with a mobile audio device, such as a podcast, while taking a walk or traveling somewhere. Play the program a second time, and you will recall locations (encoded visual memories) directly associated with various parts of the program. These landmarks tend to fade over time, but if emotionally charged at time of encoding, may become more salient, especially if repeated along the same path. This could be useful for developing memory capacity in general, or for modifying memories by listening to something in specific places, then listening to it again to recall the memories. Apparently places are the 'adhesive' for sonic memory, and could be useful in changing unwanted memories by replacing them with new ones through the process of binding them with specific places.

8/30/2024:

Our experience of the world is spatiotemporal; there are 'place' cells mapped in the hippocampus, and are associated with memory. Audio books will do this, whereas paper books, even though they invoke place in the imagination, don't get replayed in the brain when read again.) Virtual environments are like books read while traveling; it doesn't imprint your memory of the place where you were reading it. If stationary, a virtual experience probably will not invoke place memory. 

"Two kinds of cells appear to create the mental map: place cells and grid cells. Place cells were first reported in 1970 by neuroscientist John O'Keefe. They're a dense array of cells in the limbic system that have a large number of connections with nearby parts of the brain. Each place cell seems to be programmed to fire at a high rate when the rat is at a specific location. If the rat changes location, another place cell starts to fire." (The Lost Art of Finding Our Way)