Sadly, the words "reliable" and "accurate" can rarely be applied to the workings of the brain, particularly for memory.

Everything you are is a feature of your brain, and as such much of what your brain does is dedicated to making you look and feel as good as possible. ]...] For example by modifying your memories to make you feel better about yourself.

One of the brain's most prominent skills is the ability to ignore anything that becomes too predictable, no matter how important it may be

What have we learned so far about the human brain? It messes with memories, it jumps at shadows, it's terrified of harmless things, it screws with our diet, our sleeping, our movement, it convinces us we're brilliant when we're not, it makes up half the stuff we perceive, it gets us to do irrational things when emotional, it causes us to make friends incredibly quickly and turn on them in an instant.A worrying list. What's even more worrying, it does all of this when it's working properly.