Posted
6/11/2008 05:30:00 PM
by Douglas
Music is memory, man. Anyone that's ever heard
Schoolhouse Rock could tell you that. For some reason, the only reason I know what an adverb is today is from that damned cartoon. But check out the story, at least for the picture of
The BeatlesIt is these moments of "autobiographical memory" that seem central to our sense of self: without them, we cannot understand who we are or how we relate to other people. And when one of them comes to mind, we can reconstruct the sights, sounds, even the smells associated with it to an astonishing extent.
One of the key triggers for such memories is music. "If you hear a song that you have not heard since your teenage years, it has the capacity instantly and forcefully to transport you back to that time," says Dr Catriona Morrison of the Leeds Memory Group, based at Leeds University's Institute of Psychological Sciences.
So when you can't think of the name of that song. . . does that mean you're screwed?