• Question: how do your memories go from your short term memory to your long term memory?

    Asked by AoifeG28 to Chris, Kathryn, Sarah on 16 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Sarah Guerin

      Sarah Guerin answered on 16 Nov 2017:

      Really interesting question Aoife- short term memory tasks, like remembering a long number, activate the part of your brain right behind your forehead- the pre-fontal lobe.If you break that number up into smaller bits, or repeat it many times, you send that information through the hippocampus- every time you memorise something it travels through the hippocampus to be stored in long term memory. The coolest thing is that long term memory isn’t in a particular part of the brain. The hippocampus decodes the thing you remember- like riding a bike for example- and sends that information to lots of different regions of the brain.

    • Photo: Chris Werner

      Chris Werner answered on 16 Nov 2017:

      Nice question Aoife! I can’t add much more to what Sarah has already said to be honest! The great thing about the hippocampus is its of the few areas of the brain capable actually growing new neurons!

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