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Kaufman's interest in the quirks of the human mind has run through some of his previous films (especially Being John Malkovich), and this is the latest in film-makers' current interest in memory and its brain mechanisms. Think of Memento, a Christopher Nolan film in which the central character is unable to form short-term memories as a result of brain damage.
Whether the film-makers knew it or not, their scenario plays into some very current science indeed, and a major debate among neuroscientists. Some even seriously claim they could erase the unpleasant memories of a soldier in battle or a passenger in a train crash.
Memories fascinate scientists, perhaps because they are created in such a complicated fashion. Our senses are continually bombarded with information, some novel, some a repeat of previous experience. Much is ignored, some is remembered for a few minutes only (short-term memory), and a proportion of that is retained more permanently (long-term memory). Within the brain, short-term memories are "held" in the form of transient increases in neurotransmission between nerve cells, notably in a region known as the hippocampus.