Scientists explained why we forget what we come into a room for, details. Infopun

You stand in the middle of the room, agonizingly trying to remember what you came for. Then, when you come back, you suddenly remember that you were going to put the kettle on or water flowers on the windowsill. This unpleasant phenomenon is probably familiar to you. Many people find this absent-mindedness, which occurs mostly in adults, frightening since it might be associated with old age and dementia. But scientists have been able to find the cause of this phenomenon and explain it in detail.

Now it has been proved that old age has nothing to do with it. Scientists from Bond University, Australia, called this phenomenon "doorway effect," as it was noticed that walking through a doorway makes one forget. It turns out that this is a perfectly normal universal feature of the human mind, which is not related to age, gender, or occupation.

While researching the nature of the "doorway effect," scientists were very surprised. They conducted an experiment in which they showed volunteers a sequence of three-dimensional figures, and then made them walk through a virtual gallery of rooms filled with different objects and images. During the 3D tour, participants were periodically asked to recall the sequence of figures shown at the beginning. Surprisingly, in this case volunteers did not fail to name a number of objects. Therefore, it was concluded that amnesia could not be artificially triggered.

But the professors of Bond University did not give up. They made the task more difficult by making the volunteers solve mathematical and logical problems in their minds during the virtual voyage. And it worked! Every second participant of the experiment forgot the sequence of figures. Thus, it was found that the "doorway effect" occurs at the moments when our brain is overloaded with information and at the same time we suddenly change the environment.

Simply put, our brain begins to process new visual information, and the previous tasks are simply nullified. But there are nuances to this as well. If we move in more or less homogeneous interiors or in the same scenery, for example, driving on the highway or wandering through a large store, such an overload does not occur. But something new, such as leaving the market to the parking lot can make us forget.

The scientists are sure that this bug of our consciousness is a completely normal phenomenon and if it happens sometimes, it poses no danger. However, if one faces "doorway effect" every day or even several times a day, it can be a sign of a serious illness, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Source: bigpicture