Stephania Brunetti remembers the day her younger sister was born like it was yesterday.

"I was at my aunty's house, and she had answered the phone that was on the wall," says the 45-year-old from Melbourne.

"She was so excited. She kept screaming out, 'It's a girl! It's a girl!' I was two."

Some memories stay in our minds forever.

From fleeting childhood fragments to vivid recollections, they linger on the periphery of our brains, ready to be replayed.

These emotionally charged memories are often called "core memories" — a term that's become entrenched in popular culture since the release of Pixar's 2015 film Inside Out, in which the main character's personality is shaped by meaningful core memories.

But are these types of memories even real? Why do we remember some things and not ot

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