– How is information stored in the brain?

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I had a lecture today and my professor mentioned Hemispherectomy, which led me down a rabbit hole about brain procedures and now I seem to have gotten myself confused.

I can I understand how information is stored in a SSD for example(Chips use electron charges in trap cells that are associated with a particular binary value to read and write data).

How does this work in the brain? Is it a similar process?

In: Biology

Anonymous 0 Comments

Neurons which form relationships other neurons in the brain create networks of complex webs called engrams. When you form a memory, a web of these cells which, in an orchestrated capacity, create an overall perception of the experience, may maintain their connections for the experience to be stored in long term memory. Repetition strengthens the memory as repeated signals sent between these cells causes construction of literal scaffolding and higher efficiency transmission channels to communicate between two cells that get a lot of attention. Similarly, heightened emotions can expedite the strengthening of a new engram. Then when a memory is recalled, the most salient aspects of that engram which received the most positive feedback and formed the strongest connections within the engram are stimulated again and once again induce the perception that occurred when the memory was formed.

In essence, each experience sort of paints a picture on your brain. If it is kept clean and repainted, the painting remains crisp and legible. But if it is forgotten, left in the sun, or parts of it are painted over with new ideas, the original painting loses fidelity.