A arte de esquecer

Abstract

In the last twenty years we have witnessed an extraordinary progress in our knowledge about the molecular processes involved in memory acquisition, consolidation and retrieval. However and despite the fact that memory formation is indissolubly intermingled with memory forgetting, we know very little about this phenomenon. What are the causes of forgetting? How do we forget? Is there an active forgetting process or this phenomenon is simply due to interference by other memories or to decay due to the passage of time? In this review, we comment briefly on this subject and others related to memory persistence. In particular, we analyze whether expression of the mnemonic trace has any effect on its perdurability.