50 Times People Forgot Something Important And Documented The Consequences Online (New Pics)

However, scientists recently presented a new theory that contradicts the belief that memories simply decay with time. See, every now and then, we tend to forget memories that are similar to each other to remember the novel or more interesting ones. The research proposed by Dr. Tomás Ryan, Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin, and Dr. Paul Frankland, Professor at the University of Toronto, found that forgetting some memories can actually be beneficial as this can lead to more flexible behavior and better decision-making.

"Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called 'engram cells' and successful recall of these memories involves the reactivation of these ensembles," Dr. Ryan explained. "The logical extension of this is that forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated." In other words, memories are still there, but they can't be recalled: "It's as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can't remember the code to unlock it."

"We propose that forgetting is actually a form of learning that alters memory accessibility in line with the environment and how predictable it is," Dr. Ryan concluded.