Archief Roodbont

Since the amygdala doesn't release stress hormones in response to ordinary situations, it's not surprising we forget where we placed our keys or parked our car. "You are likely to remember in fair detail what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001," says Pitman. "But do you remember what you were doing on the morning of September 10?" This reaction, he maintains, is firmly based in natural selection. "If a primitive hominid decided to take a new route to a watering hole and on her way encountered a crocodile," he says, "should she fail to remember in the future that a crocodile inhabited that route, she would be more likely to take it again and be eliminated from the gene pool."