Topic description and stories

Smiling woman with eyes closed

Public invited to share their most vivid memories to aid research

22 Oct 2025

Researchers have launched a public survey to help them unlock the secrets of vivid memory, and find ways to help us better recall past experiences

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Deckchairs on a beach

Seaside more likely to make us nostalgic than green places

09 Jul 2025

People in the UK and US are more likely to feel nostalgic towards places by the sea, lakes or rivers than they are towards fields, forests and...

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Jon Simons, by Susana Camacho

The Cambridge view on memory

15 May 2025

By tying together more than a century of memory research at Cambridge, the Memory Lab gives us tangible ways to improve, preserve and understand our...

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Pi written out on a blackboard

Search is on for ‘super memorisers’ to help scientists unlock the secrets of memory

03 May 2023

Cambridge scientists are today launching a search to find people who have exceptional memory, as they attempt to understand why some people are much...

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Tennis match

For the brain, context is key to new theory of movement and memory

24 Nov 2021

Mathematical model could help in physical therapy and shed light on learning more generally.

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The collector of future memories

24 Jun 2019

College Recorder Alice Oates is passionate about Pembroke, its community and capturing the latest instalment in the College’s 670-year history.

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Selective amnesia: how rats and humans are able to actively forget distracting memories

07 Nov 2018

Our ability to selectively forget distracting memories is shared with other mammals, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The...

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Scientists identify mechanism that helps us inhibit unwanted thoughts

03 Nov 2017

Scientists have identified a key chemical within the ‘memory’ region of the brain that allows us to suppress unwanted thoughts, helping explain why...

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Driving a car

Running on autopilot: scientists find important new role for ‘daydreaming’ network

23 Oct 2017

A brain network previously associated with daydreaming has been found to play an important role in allowing us to perform tasks on autopilot...

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Owl and the Pussy-Cat illustration by Edward Lear

‘They sailed away, for a year and a day’: why learning poetry by heart is good for you

28 Sep 2017

Most of us can quote snatches of poetry - but which poems can we recite in their entirety? In a survey of memorised poetry, Lear’s The Owl and the...

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Screenshot of Game Show

‘Brain training’ app found to improve memory in people with mild cognitive impairment

03 Jul 2017

A ‘brain training’ game developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help improve the memory of patients in the very earliest stages...

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P1012863

Patients recovering from depression show improvements in memory from the drug modafinil

17 Jan 2017

Modafinil, a drug used to treat narcolepsy – excessive daytime sleepiness – can improve memory in patients recovering from depression, according to...

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