Memories

  Memory   (All credits to: The Human Brain – Rita Carter)

Memory is basically a broad term used to represent a number of different brain functions. They are stored in fragments all around the brain. You react towards past memories using the same neurons that created that memory. Memory can be as simple as reciting phrases or recognizing people, walking, or even knowing that the cereal is waiting in the right most cupboards. Different events or phenomena involve learning or the full/ partial reconstruction of the past. 

  When you re-call an experience you recollect (recreate)  it. Recollecting makes the original neurons even more involved in the past experience this makes remembering much easier and then to a point that it simply pops up into your consciousness more frequently. So, repeatedly reconstructing memories makes it easier to recall. For example, lets take something simple like walking. You walk very often, so this memory is for your motor cortex(movement center - see previous posts). This memory is then stored.

  When a memory sparks off, the hippocampus triggers various aspects of it in unison. For example, remembering a pet dog Different areas of the brain recall different things about this dog. Such as feeding the dog, the dog will howl, or even the roughness of its fur. 

Thalamus – Directs Attention

Parietal Lobe – Spatial memories (cognitive, records memories)

Frontal Lobe – Working, processing memory

Cerebellum – Memory and events linked by time

Hippocampus – converts short term memory into long term

Amyglada – Emotional memory is store

Mamillary bodies – episodic memories (memories you can recall)

Temporal Lobe – General knowledge

Declarative memories are facts you can bring to mind consciously. This is processed by the hippocampus.

  Short Term memories will stay until they have no further use, such as a phone number you only use once. Long term memories will be recalled even after years or decades. It will take 2 years at least for a long term memory to form. 

  Working memories are important. Processed in the frontal lobe, it holds a plan of action based on past experiences. This includes calling pieces of memory from all over the brain. Brilliant tacticians have a good working memory.

  Memories from different senses are stored in the limbic system (found in the temporal lobes). This will remind you of the mushy texture of rotten banana or the stench of a dead lizard. Perhaps even the voice and tone that lets you know that your father is angry at you.