As to why we (and mice) would have a gene that makes it easier to forget, perhaps they should consider that while being locked into the memory of a maze may be advantageous to a lab raised maze walking mouse - it could be absolute MURDER for a wild mouse that has to adapt to changing circumstances and cannot be a slave to its memory.
Imagine if you never forgot anything! I asked out a gal once, and she turned me down.... never do THAT again!
You’re right. The brain needs to dump useless stuff...
“As to why we (and mice) would have a gene that makes it easier to forget, perhaps they should consider that while being locked into the memory of a maze may be advantageous to a lab raised maze walking mouse - it could be absolute MURDER for a wild mouse that has to adapt to changing circumstances and cannot be a slave to its memory.”
It’s hard to imagine that a better memory would not be an advantage for survival. Remembering not to eat certain things that made you sick or not doing to certain things that almost got you killed would be helpful. There must be other things the gene effects that on balance make it better to have in the wild.