I have another site about words The word "memory" is all over our language, especially in idioms. Clear it, jog it, have it etched in your mind, stroll down memory lane, lose your train of thought, have a mental picture, or have something slip your mind. Maybe your memory is like a sieve, or you can remember like an elephant, perhaps even have a mind like a steel trap.
There are so many ways to describe memory. A neurobiologist, such as Flavio Donato, University of Basel, will do it differently than the rest of us. His studies suggest that memories are left in multiple traces—or patterns of neuronal activity—each on a different population of neurons.
These groups of neurons form at different stages of the brain’s development and are found in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a small, seahorse-shaped brain structure located in the medial temporal lobe, crucial for forming new memories, learning, and spatial navigation, and is part of the limbic system.
1. Neurons emerge in embryonic development; they create stability for long-term memories.
2. Following these “early-born” neurons are “late-born” neurons, primarily used to retrieve short-term memories
3. During an intermediate stage of embryonic development, neurons form that are used for the recollection of a memory at both recent and remote time points.
So, a single memory of yours is left in multiple traces.