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A memory, or memory engram, is a bio-chemical imprint, located within the neural cell tissue of a lifeform's brain. Memories are often recalled by outside, physical stimuli.
Specifics
From the 23rd to 24th centuries, Federation medicine has techniques to boost or repress memory. (TNG episode: "Shades of Gray"; DS9 episode: "Sons of Mogh") It has been observed through both hypnosis and psychoanalysis that no memory can be truly destroyed-only blocked by the mind for the sake of a subject's health. (VOY episode: "Flashback", TOS episode: "Dagger of the Mind") Nor can a memory be created, or implanted, once a humanoid's psyche refuses to accept, "discrepencies." Thus, altered and distorted memories are the result of these interactions of "remembrances" with the outside world.(TNG episodes: "The Mind's Eye", "Frame of Mind"; ENT episode: "Twilight"; TNG episodes: "Future Imperfect", "Eye of the Beholder") The temporal lobe, along with hypothalamus and cerebral cortex are usually the higher functions of the nervous system to discern such differences. (TNG episode: "Schisms", ST novel: The Return)
The Alpha Quadrant and abroad use memory engram procedures to aid victims (TNG episodes: "Pen Pals", "Violations") and punish ("re-wire") offenders (VOY episodes: "Ex Post Facto", "Workforce"; DS9 episode: "Hard Time") Devices throughout the galaxy exist that can either neutralize or jog engrams for cases of amnesia and dementia. Some devices do both, if enough strain is applied. (TOS episode: "Errand of Mercy", TOS episode: "The Paradise Syndrome", VOY episode: "Random Thoughts"). This realm of "not-exact-science-but-art" is on-going (TOS episode: "Wolf in the Fold", TNG episode: "Night Terrors").
Positronic brains have the capability of collecting engrams (TNG episode: "The Offspring"). This can be done for later testimony by colonists, if no other means of recordkeeping is available-as well as for posterity to preseve the knowledge of research. (TNG episodes: "Silicon Avatar", "The Schizoid Man", "Descent", "Birthright") These AI networks also have failsafes that can withold sensitive info in times of danger for later download, and can also serve as a "piggy back" for forged programs. (TNG episode: "Masks", TNG movies: Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: Nemesis) Positronic relays have shown to (temporarily) maintain thought process to fulfil a critical task, before brain death occurs. (DS9 episode: "Life Support")
One of the first attempts Starfleet made to have duotronic units onboard starships process data as a brain would was experiments in multitronics, in the 2260s. The memory banks were patterned from specimen engrams of the designer. (TOS episode: "The Ultimate Computer") Theoretically, the medium would have succeeded. During this decade, Mnemonic memory circuitry also became prevalent in finding "forgotten", original timelines in alternate history . (TOS episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever") Mental awareness, itself is built upon the "before-during-after" stages of experience. (TNG episode: "Yesterday's Enterprise", TNG episode: "Cause and Effect", DS9 episode: "Emissary") No matter how residual in proportion, memory nuances transfer in time displacement. (TNG movie: Generations, DS9 episode: "Visionary", VOY episode: "Relativity"; TOS movie: Star Trek)
Memory has been observed to be passed genetically from a "parent" animal, to its "facsimilie." (TOS episode: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", TAS episode: "The Infinite Vulcan", TNG episode: "Up the Long Ladder", DS9 episode: "Whispers", ENT episode: "Similitude") The exact nature of this is not well understood, but artificial and organic means of this are achieved-with some margin of recollection drift. (TOS episode: "The Changeling", TNG episode: "Rightful Heir") Mind melding and similar exchange of synaptic patterns, likewise, follow the same rudimentary principle. (TOS episodes: "Return to Tomorrow", "TOS", "The Devil in the Dark"; TOS novelizations: The Motion Picture, The Search for Spock, The Final Frontier)
Later, by the 2370s, ship systems used bio-neural circuitry; each gel pack functioned in unison for the "host" vessel-storing and retrieving more memory than the previous isolinear software. (VOY episode: "Caretaker")
Technology of the later 24th century brought about processors that could influence sub-conscious brainwave activity. (TNG episodes: "The Battle", "Shades of Gray", "Clues", "Conundrum")
Memory is a key factor in determining the logic of a statement, or claim being presented. When lacking in of itself, no bluff of memory can be a substitute, nor can corruptible evidence be presented. (TNG episode: "Conspiracy", DS9 episode: "Second Skin", VOY episode: "Favorite Son", ENT episode: "Exile")
Appendices
External links
- Memory article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Memory article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Memory article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- Engram (neuropsychology) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.