• Question: How do humans store memories - what differentiates between short and long term memory?

    Asked by snacks to Mariana on 20 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mariana Vargas

      Mariana Vargas answered on 21 Mar 2010:


      Hello! great question. We still have a lot to research regarding how we store memories. There are many kinds of memories… and different mechanisms to store them. For example the memories of people you’ve met (declarative memories) are stored differently from “motor memories” such as riding a bike. We know that a part of the brain called the hippocampus is crucial for the storage of long term declarative memories, and we think that the way that the memories are stored here is by making the synapses stronger (more receptors are integrated into the cells that recieve messages). The storage of short term memories such as remembering a phone number for a few seconds, is thought to occur by temporary changes in the way the cells release their neurotransmitters after the event happens. And other types of short term memories (such as working memory) involve the activity of neurons in several parts of the brain at once.

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