Where Are Memories Stored?

Memory is pretty critical. Without it, we'd never be able to learn, well, anything. We need it to tie our shoes, walk to school, drive a car, study for a test, and even remember the names and faces of our loved ones. It's a complicated process that involves different kinds of memory, several different brain regions, and some

complicated biology. Hey there, I'm Alli Astrocyte. It's back to school season, so sharpen your pencils. You're getting ready to stuff your head with all of that new knowledge and try to remember it all. So, today we're going to talk about what memories are made of, how they're formed, and where they're stored. Yes.

You might think that all memories are created equal, but surprisingly, that's not actually true. First off, memories can be short-term, meaning we only remember them for a few minutes, or long-term, letting us store and retrieve memories over our lifetime. In neuroscience and psychology, scientists split long-term memory into two big categories: declarative or explicit

memory, and non-declarative or implicit memory. Declarative memory is how we remember facts and events, while non-declarative memory is responsible for habit formation and skill development, among other things. This isn't just a way of categorizing different kinds of memory. They actually seem to be different biologically. We know this thanks to a man named Henry

Molaison, better known as Patient H.M. After a bicycling accident as a kid, Henry Molaison developed severe, life-disrupting seizures. Doctors tried all kinds of medications and therapies, but none of them worked. So, his doctor decided to try a radical surgery that removed the parts of the brain causing Henry's seizures: the hippocampus and part of the amygdala. Now, keep in mind,