How Many Images Can You Remember?
Recent
findings of science point to a massive human memory capacity. A 2004
Nobel Prize winning discovery pointed directly to neurons as the
vehicle of memory. The memory for thousands of smells for animals
resides in the combinatorial codes of their olfactory neurons.
Combinatorial codes can theoretically store a galactic memory. The
brilliance of the mind can only be explained by the presence of a
massive memory.
Just ordinary people were reported to be able
to store, at a glance, billions of pixels of visual data. They could
recognize, with 99.5% accuracy, any one of 10,000 images shown to
them at one second intervals. Thousands of distinctive multi-million
pixel classifications were swiftly absorbed and retained in the
memories of their visual subsystems. Instinctual responses from
millions of years of evolution have merged with new data of myriad
images, sound bytes, tastes and smells into an incredibly detailed
human memory. Pixel by pixel differences in these sensory images are
recalled instantly.
Human Memory Capacity
How Many Odors Can A Mouse Receptor Spot?
The Nobel Prize acknowledged the discovery of researchers, who
used calcium imaging to identify individual mouse receptor neurons,
which fired on recognition of specific odors. The investigators
exposed the neurons to a range smells. They found that a single
receptor could identify several odors. At the same time, each odor
was identified by several receptors. Different combinations of
receptors fired to identify different odors.
Human
Memory Capacity
What Are Combinatorial Codes?
The
olfactory subsystem recognized smells, when specific neuron receptor
combinations fired. The olfactory circuit used an "alphabet"
(A to Z) of receptors to identify a specific smell. Combinations of
receptors (ABD, ABP, or XYZ), fired to indicate different smells.
Subtle chemical differences caused distinct combinations to fire.
This ability to recognize combinations reduced the number of receptor
types (A to Z) required to identify a multitude of odors (the
infinite vocabulary of A to Z combinations).
In the
experiment, scientists reported that even slight changes in chemical
structure activated different combinations of receptors. Thus,
octanol smelled like oranges, while the similar compound octanoic
acid smelled like sweat. Remembering
sweat smell is memory. Leslie
Vosshall reports that, in her lab, ordinary volunteers, (not wine
tasters or perfumers), could clearly distinguish between different
combinations of 128 odor molecules, indicating an average human
ability to differentiate between 1 trillion smells. Combinatorial
coding provides massive human memory capacity.
Human
Memory Capacity
What Are Nosebrains?
Dogs
can quickly sniff a few footprints of a person and determine
accurately which way the person is walking. The animal's nose can
detect the relative odor strength difference between footprints only
a few feet apart, to determine the direction of a trail. It was the
same combinatorial coding, which enabled nerve cells of early
reptilian nosebrains to recognize smells as safe, or dangerous.
Myriad such judgments of the environment in cubic miles of codes
support human memory.
Human
Memory Capacity
How Does The Brain Remember Patterns?
Odorant
molecules reach the receptors in your nose, hitch on to a group of
receptors, which recognize the odor. Calcium channels in the
membranes of those cells open and calcium ions poured inside,
generating electrical charges down the axons of those cells. You
recognize a smell. Similarly, chemoreceptors in the tongue report
molecules with information on taste. Other receptors are massed
together to form sensory subsystems such as your eyes and ears. Human
memory stores combinatorial signals generated by millions of similar
receptors. Even the four "letters" in the genetic code –
A, C, G and T – are used in combinations for the creation of a
nearly infinite number of genetic sequences.
Human
Memory Capacity
Can A Nerve Cell Remember Clinton?
Researchers
discovered the “Bill Clinton neuron,” which fired on recognition
of just one special face. The cell fired on recognizing three very
different images of the former President; a line drawing of a
laughing Clinton; a formal painting depicting him; and a photograph
of him in a crowd. The cell remained mute when the patient viewed
images of other politicians and celebrities. Scientists found similar
cells in other patients, which selectively recognized Jennifer
Anniston, Brad Pitt, and Halle Berry. Human memory assists in
identification of people and places by remembering combinations in
myriad neural recognition subsystems.
Human
Memory Capacity
How Do You Transmit Data Over Distances?
Before
the arrival of nerve cells, the earliest multicellular forms moved
about and swallowed, or expelled food, by contracting their cells.
The contraction was effected through chemical signals, the
forerunners of hormones, which diffused quickly throughout the
system. But the diffusion of chemicals was slow over longer distances
and they could not be specifically targeted. Nature developed neurons
to transmit specific information. Human memory comes from the ability
of neurons to remember and recognize specific neuron firing
combinations.
Human
Memory Capacity
Can The Size Of Human Memory Be Measured?
The
memories of computers are measured in terms of their smallest
addressable element, called a byte. A byte usually contains eight
binary digits. Nerve cells also have an “all or nothing” binary
response. If combinatorial codes are remembered by nerve cells, each
combination of firing inputs received by a neuron with 100 dendrites
could contain 100 binary digits. The possible number of unique
combinations of inputs for a single neuron with just 100 incoming
dendrites could be computed as 100 x 99 x 98 x 97 x .... x 2 x 1
possibilities.
That represents more than 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000 unique possible combinations! Multiply that
number by 100 and divide by 8 to measure the number of bytes of
possible memory. A single nerve cell with 100 dendrites can
potentially remember that many bytes of singular combinations. Some
nerve cells have upto 2,50,000 dendrites! Only the possible existence
of such codes can explain the phenomenal capacity of human
memory.
Human
Memory Capacity
How Big Are Nature's Data Stores?
To
get a proportion on human memory capacity, consider the estimates by
science of the store of DNA codes in the human body. At the moment of
conception, a single fertilized human egg contains information
equivalent to about six billion chemical letters, which can be
recorded in a thousand 500 page books. In a grown human body, with
the DNA in each cell containing a sequence of over 3 billion chemical
nucleotide bases, the total of those codes in the body would fill the
277 mile long Grand Canyon fifty times over with 500 page manuals!
The memories stored by nature for programming life exceeds known
computer capacities on an exponential scale.
Human
Memory Capacity
Where Is Memory Located?
Karl
Lashley reported that memory could not be isolated to any region of
the cortex. He had taught rats to run complex mazes and then removed
segments of the cortex to identify the locus of memory storage for
the maze. He found that memory could not be completely obliterated by
ablation of any specific region. Nerve cells were richly interlinked
and code memories powered millions of interactive links. The memory
of a location in a maze for a sought reward could still be remembered
as an echo, or scent, even if the visual and taste regions were
injured. Nerve cells in widespread neural circuits stored such coded
memories.
Human
Memory Capacity
Is Intelligence The Use Of Logic On Memory?
Science
continues to search for a mathematical basis for the functioning of
nerve cells. The central mathematical foundations of science support
this view. In Principia
Mathematica,
Bertrand Russel held that all questions of logic could be expressed
in mathematical terms. Great mathematical theories underpin every
aspect of space and matter. Since scientists favor maths, neurons,
the basic building blocks of human intelligence, are assumed to be
computers. Nerve cells are presumed to compute, not recognize. So,
memory research failed to note the significant combinatorial role of
neurons in the Harvard discovery. That role mandates a massive memory
capacity