Adrenaline is the final common pathway for stamping experiences into memory.

“While I would never want to distill an important question such as that down to a one molecule type of answer, I think we can confidently say based on the vast amount of animal and human research data that epinephrine, adrenaline, and some of the other chemicals that it acts with in concert, is in fact, the way that we remember particular events and not all events.”

“They all come back to the same general neurochemical theme, which is that, when we experience an increase in these catecholamines that include adrenaline, dopamine, and norepinephrine, the memory systems of the brain flip on in a way that try to capture the information and the perceptions and the experiences that we were exposed to just prior to the increase in catecholamines and caffeine but also exercise and also cold water.”

“The memory instilling event is the release of adrenaline in the body, which makes perfect sense if you think about traumatic events.”

“The idea that being in this semi-stressful environment would aid in the learning and and retention of information is is really well substantiated by this beautiful work by a guy named James McGaw. He was at UC Irvine for a while and then [snorts] I think at uh University of Arizona as well. They have a great memory group at both places. Very strong in learning and memory both places. and he was the one that really defined this um kind of uh inverted U-shaped function for the relationship between adrenaline and memory.”