Memory feels like a mental video archive, but psychologists have shown it behaves more like a creative editor, constantly rewriting the script. That is why people can be absolutely certain they ...

Close-up of a neuron on a black background that is firing (as shown by yellow glowing dots) with interconnected neurons in the background Your brain activity changes depending on whether you're ...

Why the brain fills in the gaps—even when it shouldn't Medically reviewed by Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, FAAN Confabulation is when someone unconsciously remembers things that didn't happen. People who ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Does Mr. Monopoly ...

Let's say you typically eat eggs for breakfast but were running late and ate cereal. As you crunched on a spoonful of Raisin Bran, other contextual similarities remained: You ate at the same table, at ...

Over the past couple of decades, there has been an explosion of research into “false memories,” showing that our memory can be subtly altered by a variety of internal and external factors. Many ...

Researchers have demonstrated just how easy it is to trick the mind into remembering something that didn’t happen. They also used two very simple techniques to reverse those false memories, in a feat ...

Source: Matthew Baxter, used with permission. In the recent court case of British former socialite and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, her legal team called in a false memory expert. False ...

The human brain is a complex, miraculous thing. As best we can tell, it’s the epitome of biological evolution. But it doesn’t come with any security software preinstalled. And that makes it ...

It’s easy enough to explain why we remember things: multiple regions of the brain — particularly the hippocampus — are devoted to the job. It’s easy to understand why we forget stuff too: there’s only ...

Read this list of words: table, sit, legs, seat, soft, desk, arm, sofa, wood, cushion, rest, stool. Now count to 30. Did you spot the word chair? If so, I've just implanted a false memory—read the ...