科學家發現人類大腦竟有"記憶鏈條"

Reminiscing with friends about the good old days may be fun, but it's unlikely to be accurate. Social pressure when recalling a shared event with somebody else who was also there causes false memories to be formed, according to scientists. People regularly replace their stored memory with the one that is recounted by a friend, a study claims.

回憶和朋友們在一起的歡樂時光絕對是令人愉悅的事情，但是人的記憶力不可能做到精確。科學家認爲“社會壓力”是造成人們形成錯誤的記憶鏈條的關鍵。

Researchers from University College London arranged for volunteers to watch a documentary film in small groups. Three days later, they returned to the lab individually to take a memory test, answering questions about the film. They were also asked how confident they were in their answers. They were later invited back to the lab to retake the test while the scientists scanned their brain activity. This time, the subjects were also given a 'lifeline' - the supposed answers of the others in their film viewing group, along with social media-style photos.

來自倫敦學院的研究員們安排了一組志願者觀看紀錄片來進行實驗，3天后，小組的每一個成員分別來到實驗室來進行鍼對他們的記憶力的測試，測試他們對於看過的那部紀錄片的記憶程度，以及需要回答他們對於測試的回答的信心程度。緊接着，他們被送到實驗室重新開始測試，與此同時，科學家對他們的腦部活動進行掃描。

The participants conformed to the group on these 'planted' responses, giving incorrect answers nearly 70 per cent of the time.

實驗顯示，大量承受社會壓力的志願者在回答問題時，70%的答案是錯誤的。

The most outstanding feature of the false memories was a strong co-activation and connectivity between two brain areas - the hippocampus and the amygdala.

The hippocampus is known to play a role in long-term memory formation, while the amygdala, sometimes known as the emotion centre of the brain, plays a role in social interaction. The scientists think that the amygdala may act as a gateway connecting the social and memory processing parts of our brain.

科學家分析，人體大腦中有兩個區域“海馬體”“杏仁核”對錯誤的記憶力有着“不可推卸的責任”，據悉，海馬體主要負責學習和記憶，日常生活中的短期記憶都儲存在海馬體中，如果一個記憶片段，比如一個電話號碼或者一個人在短時間內被重複提及的話海馬體就會將其轉存入大腦皮層，成爲永久記憶。杏仁核，附着在海馬的末端，呈杏仁狀，是邊緣系統的一部分。是產生情緒，識別情緒和調節情緒，控制學習和記憶的腦部組織，而且研究發現，幼兒自閉症似乎也與擴大的杏仁核有關。科學家認爲杏仁核作爲人腦中的“機動門”扮演着社會意識以及記憶力的鏈接角色。