Library · Physiology
Memory
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Memory is the brain function that stores information and later retrieves it. Put that way it sounds simple, but it covers everything from remembering a date to recognizing a face or knowing how to ride a bike.
A memory is not filed away all at once in the place where it ends up. It first goes through a short-term stage and then it is consolidated, and that consolidation happens mainly in the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure deep in the brain. What gets stored, on the other hand, does not stay there: it ends up spread across the cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
At the level of two neurons, the phenomenon is called long-term potentiation. When two neurons fire together many times over, the connection between them grows stronger. It is a path worn into the grass: the more the same stretch is walked, the more it shows. That is the basis of synaptic plasticity, the ability of connections to change with use.
In brief
Memory is the complex brain function of storing information and retrieving it later.
Long-term memory is consolidated from short-term memory, mainly in the hippocampus, and is stored throughout the cortex.
In long-term potentiation, two neurons that fire together repeatedly strengthen the connection between them.
It is a path worn into the grass: the more the same stretch is walked, the more it shows.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Long Term Memory, StatPearlsPublished
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