Is it a series of chemicals one creates overtime and stores in the brain? What exactly is being stored in your brain once you make a memory?
In: Biology
No it’s not the chemicals themselves but the neuron network which is the links formed between different brain nerve cells which are connected to all the surrounding neurons by synapses. The neuron network is electrochemical in nature. It’s not only the precise chemicals but the exact flow of electrons between them.
It’s not an easy concept to grasp but if you think of how data is stored in a book or on a hard drive – nope it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s not orderly. Think about a network of telephone poles. If you have 10 poles (neurons) in a circle around each other – you take each pole and run telephone cables (synapses) from that pole to every other pole. So you have 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 45 connections. Add another pole and form another 10 connections and keep going up to a million poles. Now you’ll have n (n+1)÷2 = 500,000,500,000.
500 Trillion connections!
A memory will be stored in a group of connections built up from individual synaptic connections. Now comes what will blow your mind – These aren’t permanent. When you recall a memory you are overwriting the connections that are there. Those childhood memories of yours aren’t childhood memories – they’re memories of you remembering memories of you remembering memories of you remembering memories of what your brain reprocessed during your sleep from your short term memories on the day.
Don’t believe me – check this out:
[Professor Bruce Hood – Change Blindness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOF-saZ1XSQ)
This is explanation very, very ELI5 and there’s a lot more to this.
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