Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

by David Rock

As you experience emotions, your limbic system automatically becomes aroused. Many brain regions are part of this process, but the two more interesting ones are the hippocampus and the amygdale. The hippocampus is a large brain region involved in declarative memory, meaning memory that can be consciously experienced. Such memories are made up of billions of complex networks of neural maps, spread across the brain. The hippocampus is in charge of organizing and indexing these maps. Your hippocampus doesn’t just remember facts; it also remembers feelings about facts. The stronger you feel about something, the easier it is to recall (with the exception of some events with intense emotions that are not remembered for more complex reasons). If you can remember far back enough to recall a mental picture of a favorite high-school teacher, you will also remember how you felt about her. The feeling arises at the moment the memory appears; it’s all part of the same network.