Bigger brain space leads to lesser confusion between similar memories: Study

A new research has revealed that there would be less confusion between similar memories, which overlap physically in the brain, if the brain area responsible for them is larger.

Scientists have spotted overlapping memory traces in a specific corner of the hippocampus called 'CA3', which is a known memory area, and have noted that if the subject's CA3 was bigger, they were less confused and there was less overlap in the traces, the BBC reported.

Professor Eleanor Maguire, the study's senior author from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London (UCL), said that their results might have helped to explain why people sometimes find it difficult to differentiate between similar past memories and why some people are better at doing this than others.

Scientist Martin Chadwick added that a larger CA3 might contain more neurons or more connections between neurons, which could allow greater physical separation of the different memory traces.

The study was published in PNAS.