11 Reasons Why Your Brain Is A Total Dick

11. It Rewrites Memories

Have you ever been arguing with somebody about a past event and you're both absolutely convinced that two different things happened? Maybe you have a strong, formative childhood memory, only for your mum to insist that it never happened, or it happened to your sibling? 

Or perhaps you could have sworn that you put your glasses down on your bedside table last night, you vividly remember doing it, and now they're not there (somebody must have moved them).

It's just your brain playing tricks on you.

Memory doesn't behave like a video recorder, faithfully noting down everything that happens and storing it away. The human memory is there as a learning tool, and will therefore alter itself as and when it needs to in order to fit in with the new information that it has.

When the brain recalls memories, it's not so much dredging them up from some recess of your mind, it's actually more like the brain creates the memory from scratch all over again. This obviously leads to processing errors and alterations depending on any new thoughts and experiences you may have had since it happened.

This means that you might want to think a bit harder next time, before you go tearing up the house looking for your glasses and shouting about how every keeps touching your stuff ... and maybe check whether they're on your head first.