At every moment, our brain receives a flood of stimuli. Images, sounds, bodily sensations, emotions, and fleeting thoughts constantly invade our minds. Most disappear without a trace, while others are etched with surprising persistence, to the point of accompanying us throughout our lives. Why do we remember an apparently trivial conversation with such clarity, and yet forget facts that may seem important? of accompanying us throughout our lives. Why do we remember an apparently trivial conversation with such clarity, and yet forget facts that may seem important?This question, which has been part of psychology for decades, has entered a new phase thanks to recent work showing that memory is not a passive storage process, but an active and dynamic decision regulated in time, which is inscribed in the molecular biology of specific brain circuits. A study published in Natureby researchers from The Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, led by neuroscientist Priya Rajasethupathy, shows that the brain uses internal “timers” to decide what is worth remembering, a mechanism that favors memory and contributes to building our mental identity.Traditionally, research on memory has focused on the hippocampus, a structure of the limbic system known to be key for the formation of episodic memories. These are memories of specific personal experiences, situated in a particular time and place, and include the emotional context in which they were generated. It has also long been known that new experiences activate specific sets of neurons and that, if the neuronal connections formed are sufficiently reinforced, the memory is consolidated and transferred to the cerebral cortex, where it is stored long-term. This model, however, does not explain why apparently very similar experiences can have such different fates in memory.

According to theMonthly Statistical Report of the DGAIAAccording to a report from the Catalan Agency for Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) in February 2025, 1.4% of Catalan children and adolescents have experienced or are still experiencing situations of abuse, neglect, or family abandonment. The percentage is likely higher, as this figure is based only on reported cases. Globally, according to UNICEF According to the WHO, 6 out of 10 children under the age of 5 experience some form of physical, emotional, or sexual violence. In total, it is estimated that nearly 1 billion children may have been exposed to this violence in the past year—figures that are absolutely chilling.

"We have commercialized happiness, and we believe that if we are not happy, we are miserable," David Bueno emphasized in the talk "Do you know how your brain works?", which he gave on October 22nd at the Byron bookstore for the ARA Premium Club. The science communicator and ARA collaborator explained the difference between happiness and well-being. "Well-being is more flat than happiness. It has uncomfortable emotional states, such as frustration, disappointment, and sadness, which have no place in happiness and which allow well-being to be maintained. These uncomfortable emotional states are telling us that something is not right and we need to change." David Bueno emphasized that stress is one of the brain's worst enemies. "We should have at least 45 minutes each day to do nothing," he proposed, something he himself tries to practice. And he concluded optimistically: "In this changing society, if we can, we should be the driving force of change."

This biologist and popularizer, ARA collaborator, He argues that it was the arts that made us human and that without them we would only be simple. Homo sapiens. It may well be so, considering that we have been prolific composers of symphonies and inventing all kinds of musical genres; capturing the world around us with colors on fabrics; telling a thousand stories on stage; dancing emotional and complex choreographies. That is why this wise man, capable of putting an auditorium full of teenagers in his pocket and making them listen to him with interest, assures that the arts, all of them, are our vessel to immerse ourselves in a journey to the depths of ourselves, and to reinterpret and understand the world around us.