It is a sad fact of life that as we age many of us have difficulties retrieving memories. But now researchers think they know why -- it's because older people's brains allocate more space to knowledge built up over the years, meaning there is more material to navigate when trying to access memories. The study found that the older we get the more difficulty we have suppressing information that is no longer relevant. It means that when searching for a specific memory, older people often retrieve other, irrelevant memories along with it. It is a sad fact of life that as we age many of us have difficult retrieving memories.

A team of researchers hope lab-grown brains from 550,000-year-old Neanderthals will be able to pilot the movements of a crab-like robot. The unbelievable experiment is using Neanderthal DNA to grow pea-sized brains masses, which are hooked-up to robots to test the capabilities of the electrical signals detected within the tissue. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine are simultaneously growing brain tissue from human DNA to plug into the same crab-like machines. They hope the difference in robot movements achieved by the lab-grown brains of modern man and Neanderthals, who diverged from human beings around 550,000 to 765,000 years ago, will offer vital clues about the minds of our early ancestors. The lab-grown brains cannot achieve conscious thoughts or feelings – but can mimic the basic structure of a developed brain, and reveal key differences in how the nerve cells function.

These areas serve as an'important hub' of brain organization, responsible for functions like motor control, balance, memory, language, social cognition and the ability to process things around us. This suggests that evolutionary changes to our brain were key to the evolution of the human condition, the scientists said. 'The evolution of endocranial shape within Homo sapiens suggests evolutionary changes of early brain development -- a critical period for neural wiring and cognitive development,' said Philipp Gunz, a co-author of the study. The scientists point out that these evolutionary changes were gradual, taking place over tens of thousands of years. New research suggests key evolutionary changes in our brain shape occurred 100,000-35,000 years ago.

What sets humans apart from other species, despite all the biological and genetic similarities, is our brains. But it turns out that the brain of a Homo sapiens who lived about 100,000 years ago was actually differently shaped, compared to ours. The earliest-known specimen of a Homo sapiens is from about 300,000 years ago, and it was discovered at a site in present-day Morocco. The Jebel Irhoud fossil had a modern-looking face that fell within the variations shown by modern humans and was therefore categorized as one. However, even at the time of its discovery's announcement in June 2017, researchers said the shape of its braincase, or cranium, indicated that the human brain had evolved since.