How much information can our brains store?

By: B. Sapoznik

All the information you’re meant to remember is stored in your brain. Inside the brain, the hippocampus is the general part which is designated for the storage of information in your body. It records memory, alongside the memory you need for patterns and the daily intake of information (learning). The hippocampus is the “Hard Drive” of your head – meaning it is the main storage location. However, it has always occurred to me that this storage should be finite, and only a limited amount of information can be stored there, whether temporary or long-term information. But how much information can our brains really store? 
 
There are many different opinions on this matter. Obviously, there is no fixed number for the amount, as every person’s brain reacts/functions uniquely. However, some people believe the brain has infinite storage space, as we fit every memory and there isn’t a fixed value for the number of memories we can have if we’ve lived them. So, some say that the storage won’t be occupied, it’d just cram more information. On the other hand, some believe that there can’t be infinite memory and that the brain has trillions of synapses which might hold an incredible amount of data, but at some point, we would subconsciously remove irrelevant information to store the new information. 
 
Although, according to research, the average adult brain should be able to store 2.5 million gigabytes of data – equivalent to 2.5 petabytes of crude information (that’s a lot). It derives from the study that suspects that each synapse stores 4.7 bytes of information. Of course, it depends on various factors such as quantity of sleep, age, genetics, development, etc. Though, it is still a considerable average. To put it into perspective, that is enough to run 3 million hours of TV shows. Or, if you want it in another form, that’s equivalent to 11,750,000,000 (11 billion 750 million) books. However, we can’t be sure that this works in real life, again, this is just an estimate. If you want to test the science, you can try to make a newborn sacrifice his life to prove science right and memorize 342 years of TV over his lifespan, and let’s see if it’s correct. 
 
Moreover, there isn’t a fixed answer to the question. Apart from the estimate, there isn’t a fixed number because everything varies from person to person. Whilst we can’t be sure of an answer, it can be affirmed that everything you need to remember for your next test can be remembered, and that even though our memory is probably not infinite, there is usually always space for more information. ​