ScienceDaily states that "Neurons (nerve cells in the brain) communicate through synaptic connections (structures that pass a signal from neuron-to-neuron) that "talk" to each other when certain neurotransmitters (chemicals that allow the transmission of these signals) are present... it's the strength of these connections between neurons that determines how a memory is formed." We have two types of memories: short-term and long-term. Although many think that short-term memories are memories from a day or a couple of hours ago, in reality they are memories from the last 15-30 seconds ago. "Any memory that can be recalled after that length of time is a long-term memory," states Neuroscientist Dean Burnett. Neuroscientists actually have theories that short-term memories are "supported by patterns of neuron activity in the prefrontal cortex (that bit at the front of your brain)." Dean Burnett then explains how long-term memories are formed, "Unlike short-term memories, long-term memories have a physical presence in the brain, and aren't dependent purely on specific patterns of activity... information is channeled to the hippocampus, the brain region crucial for the formation of new memories and one of the only places in the brain where brand new neurons are regularly generated. The hippocampus links all of the relevant information together and encodes it into a new memory by forming new synapses."
|
Neurotransmitter shown above
|