Whereas short-term memories are generally formed by strengthening the connections between neural circuits, long-term memories require our brains to create new proteins. (This likely accounts for the physical differences that were observed in the brains of the London cab drivers who had passed The Knowledge.) Importantly, the process of creating these new proteins can be derailed if we are distracted or interrupted. This means that the more often we allow our attention to be stolen or scattered, the fewer long-term memories our brains will be able to record—not just because we weren’t fully
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