COMPUTER VS HUMAN BRAIN

Memory management is an essential skill that every programmer develops over time. To develop that skill you need to have a sense of how computer memory works. Surprisingly, memory is not a simple thing. It is actually quite complex and only a few experts actually understand all of the details. In this post, I make an analogy between computer and human memory to explain the basics of both. This leads me to dive into the core of both computers and human minds as these are deeply intermingled.

To limit access time, RAM is organized around arrays of electronic components that allow very quick access to any location in the memory. The main advantage of RAM is speed (typical RAM bandwidth today is around 5-10 GBytes/s). The constraints on speed have historically limited the overall size of available RAM on computers (today typical RAM memory is around 8 GBytes). The main disadvantage of this form of memory is its volatility : you turn off your computer and it is gone.

Where is the hippocampus in our brain?

Humans do have a form of RAM and it is called short-term memory. Interestingly, short-term memory is usually associated with a very specific region of the brain called the hippocampus. Short-term memory is the memory you will use to recall immediate actions (like the series of words you are actually reading).

The hippocampus
We don’t really understand how the hippocampus does it but I have always been puzzled by this structure homogeneity. It is composed of billions of cells that are very densely packed, like on an array as can be seen on the Golgi staining in the attached image. Reminds you something?
It is traditionally thought that the memory content stored in the hippocampus is transferred to another brain area for long term storage. This process is supposedly happening when you are turned off (your sleep). Again another similarity….

• The hard drive and the cortex.

A hard drive
As for the hippocampus, RAM storage was too volatile so engineers came out with a complimentary form of storage for long term memory in computers : the Hard Drive or HD. Hard drive have low bandwidth (usually 100 MBytes/s) but can store much more (computer usually comes with 500 GBytes of hard drive). This is where all of your data and programs is located.
Human long-term memory is presumably located in the cortex, exactly why and how is a matter of intense research nowadays. I am sure you have experienced that recollecting old memories can take quite some time (sometimes minutes). This process is usually variable as it is when reading from the hard drive. Hard drive can have very different read/write speed depending on where the memory is stored.

Long term memory is supposedly transferred to the cerebral cortex via the hippocampus.
As for humans, when you put a computer to sleep, RAM memory is transferred to the hard drive for long term storage.

Our brain is not clocked at any speed. A typical neuron emits a new spike at about 10-40 Hz. While it can go higher, we can say we have a 40 Hz clock running in our skull. This is why our computer screens are only refreshed at 60 Hz.
YOUR BRAIN IS MORE POWER

FUL THAN A COMPUTER, SO USE IT.Memory management is an essential skill that every programmer develops over time. To develop that skill you need to have a sense of how computer memory works. Surprisingly, memory is not a simple thing. It is actually quite complex and only a few experts actually understand all of the details. In this post, I make an analogy between computer and human memory to explain the basics of both. This leads me to dive into the core of both computers and human minds as these are deeply intermingled.

To limit access time, RAM is organized around arrays of electronic components that allow very quick access to any location in the memory. The main advantage of RAM is speed (typical RAM bandwidth today is around 5-10 GBytes/s). The constraints on speed have historically limited the overall size of available RAM on computers (today typical RAM memory is around 8 GBytes). The main disadvantage of this form of memory is its volatility : you turn off your computer and it is gone.

Where is the hippocampus in our brain?
Humans do have a form of RAM and it is called short-term memory. Interestingly, short-term memory is usually associated with a very specific region of the brain called the hippocampus. Short-term memory is the memory you will use to recall immediate actions (like the series of words you are actually reading).

The hippocampus
We don’t really understand how the hippocampus does it but I have always been puzzled by this structure homogeneity. It is composed of billions of cells that are very densely packed, like on an array as can be seen on the Golgi staining in the attached image. Reminds you something?
It is traditionally thought that the memory content stored in the hippocampus is transferred to another brain area for long term storage. This process is supposedly happening when you are turned off (your sleep). Again another similarity….

• The hard drive and the cortex.

A hard drive
As for the hippocampus, RAM storage was too volatile so engineers came out with a complimentary form of storage for long term memory in computers : the Hard Drive or HD. Hard drive have low bandwidth (usually 100 MBytes/s) but can store much more (computer usually comes with 500 GBytes of hard drive). This is where all of your data and programs is located.
Human long-term memory is presumably located in the cortex, exactly why and how is a matter of intense research nowadays. I am sure you have experienced that recollecting old memories can take quite some time (sometimes minutes). This process is usually variable as it is when reading from the hard drive. Hard drive can have very different read/write speed depending on where the memory is stored.

Long term memory is supposedly transferred to the cerebral cortex via the hippocampus.
As for humans, when you put a computer to sleep, RAM memory is transferred to the hard drive for long term storage.

Our brain is not clocked at any speed. A typical neuron emits a new spike at about 10-40 Hz. While it can go higher, we can say we have a 40 Hz clock running in our skull. This is why our computer screens are only refreshed at 60 Hz.

YOUR BRAIN IS MORE POWERFUL THAN A COMPUTER, SO USE IT.