Why do we retain memories if all of our cells replace themselves after a small amount of years?

Question

Why do we retain memories if all of our cells replace themselves after a small amount of years?

In: Biology

Answer 1

To be honest, having spent the last 15 years as a PhD neuroscientist, no one actually knows how memories are stored. Specifically because the cells and connections in the “memory” areas keep changing, and new ones WILL grow there. There are some theories that memories are stored in the connections between the cells AND in the dna superstructure (modifications to the backbone of dna, not the code). There’s no explain like I’m 5 for this one, because no one knows.