Old Memories Can Prime Brains to Make New Ones

Memories are shadows of the past but also flashlights for the future. Our recollections guide us through the world, tune our attention, and shape what we learn later in life. Human and animal studies have shown that memories can alter our perceptions of future events and the attention we give them. "We know that past experience changes stuff," said Loren Frank, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. "How exactly that happens isn't always clear."