Mental cloud storage

Diary entry

“My mental cloud storage,” is a phrase I use when I momentarily forget something that I already knew.

I love the topic of memory and how memories shape our identities and presence. It’s both a dreamy subject matter while potentially precarious.

In getting to know someone, I love hearing memories and learning how someone’s memory works.

For me, I have a strangely cinematic memory, so when I remember conversations or scenes I tend to remember very fine details, quotes, and visuals. My memory feels like footage my mind can move through.

But if the reams of footage aren’t at the ready, it just takes me a moment or two to load the memory, if that makes sense.

But of course, there are parts of life that are just completely blank, a time of my life I never knew.

A friend told me recently how there are parts of her life she barely remembers. And in no way is there a optimal way to be, but there has to be some connection between memory and personality, or how life is experienced.

Sometimes I wonder if science will ever get us to a place to return to different parts of our memory. As of now, I think many of those ways into memory are therapeutic practices and, honestly, making art.

How does your memory work? I’m curious to hear.

I’m going to go down this rabbit hole and share five interesting things when I come out of it. See below!

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1. Memory is emotionally encoded—not just factually stored.

+ Memory isn’t a perfect recording of what happened; it’s shaped by how emotionally significant the experience was at the time. The amygdala modulates emotional salience, enhancing memory vividness when an event is emotionally charged.

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2. Personality traits influence memory performance.

+ Traits from the Big Five model are linked to differences in memory. Studies show that higher conscientiousness and openness are associated with better recall, while higher neuroticism is consistently linked to poorer memory performance and more negatively biased recollections.

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3. Some people experience “cinematic memory” due to hippocampal time cells.

+ The hippocampus contains specialized neurons known as time cells that help sequence events and create a sense of narrative flow. This supports the phenomenon where individuals can mentally “replay” memories like scenes in a movie.

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4. Memory is constructive, not photographic.

+ Although some people report vivid, scene-like memories (especially with strong emotional encoding), most people recall events as fragmented, incomplete, or conceptual, rather than full narratives. Memory is reconstructed each time it’s recalled.

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5. Vivid memories are formed by coordinated activity between key brain systems.

+ The hippocampus encodes time and place.

+ The amygdala enhances emotional intensity.

+ Neuronal ensembles and synaptic plasticity support memory consolidation and vividness.