How are memories stored in the brain?
In: Biology
It’s pretty complex, but at the most basic level memories are stored in the chemicals in the synapsis between two neurons.
Edit: I looked into it and found that this theory doesn’t have clear consensus in the scientific community, my bad.
For anyone interested, I suggest reading this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959438815001270?via%3Dihub,
especially the paragraph “Synaptic plasticity as a mechanism of memory”.
They’re imprinted in a way analogous to a hard drive writing 0’s and 1’s on the disk.
In this case, the disk is certain areas of your brain set up for this, and the imprints, rather than 0’s and 1’s, are networking of axons and dendrites as well as the neurotransmitters and electrical activity connecting them. It helps me to think about that complex inter-arrangement as a QR code that your brain can make sense of when it needs to recall it.
How we perceive that as a “memory” is more philosophical than neurobiological.
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We don’t know.
All of the answers in this thread which sound authoritative are just someone’s guess. We have various unproven hypotheses, most of which are vague enough to be possible and not easily disproven.
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So this is quite a hefty question and it could take decades to really cover it all, but in a nutshell:
Humans have an area of the brain called the hippocampus. Though there are tons of different brain regions involved in the formation and retention of memories, this one is the big guy. Oftentimes we tend to think of memories like computers, where they are stored away somewhere in our mind, but this actually isn’t the case at all. Instead of our hippocampus being a library where each memory is located somewhere, it actually involves many neural networks and passages of connection. Instead of copies of memories, each time we recall something, the memory is reconstructed in that moment. Being that it is an active process and this is constantly happening, our memories of events change and are influenced by everything from memories that have happened after, our environment, mood, motivation, etc, etc. This results in memories either missing details or adding details (see Bartlett’s (1932) War of Ghosts). Even the act of being up a memory changes it each time. Now, this doesn’t mean that every memory is inaccurate, but there are tons of factors that come into the reliability of memory, including rehearsal, emotion, and identity functions. Not to mention that there is a difference between memories that are conscious/explicit (like what you ate for dinner yesterday) and unconscious/implicit (like how to ride a bike). There is a lot here, but that’s the gist.
Source is that I’m a graduate student that studies autobiographical memory 🙂
Tldr: We have tons of neurons in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that fire and create connections when forming memories. Memories aren’t stored through, and are instead reconstructed every time we are remembering something.
I like the Holographic Memory and State Dependent Memory ideas
The first was demonstrated in rats, and supposes that all of your memories are stored in every part of your brain at once. If you get part of your brain scooped out (as they did to the rats, who could still navigate the maze, albeit with less confidence), then you still have your memories, only paler and less sharp.
State Dependent Memory is pretty sensible and states that your memories are stored in the state of mind you were in when they were created. Can’t remember where you set your keys? What were you feeling when you set them down (if anything)?
When you’re anxious, you can’t remember what you knew when you were calm, and maybe even the opposite is true. In order to have access to those memories, you have to put yourself back in that state of mind.
You can even do this with muscle memory. Pinch a certain part of your arm or flex a certain muscle, and focus on a piece of information. When you want to remember it, pinch that part of your arm again or flex that muscle again. It *should* work. The little bit of pain or using only specifically that muscle are both unique states of mind, and therefore memorable information should be stored with them.
How the brain does this? No idea. It’s a 10 watt neural computer way more complicated than any i’ll ever work on.
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