Memory Bank

Memory Bank
One of the enduring myths about memories is that they are kept in one place in the brain, a memory bank.

At first even scientist assumed that this was the case. But over many decades of research, they realized that this assumption was wrong.

In the 1980s, when the functional brain imaging technology – such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans – became available, scientists could see people’s brains at work for the first time.

They could obtain images of the brain as people performed a variety of tasks, including remembering things.

Researchers discovered that memories are not stored in a single location, but rather are widely distributed in networks throughout the brain, primarily in the cerebral cortex.

The cerebral cortex consists of the outer covering of the two large hemispheres of the brain and is the most highly develop part of the human nervous system.

The cortex contains function to integrate sensory information, control voluntary movements and mediate thinking processes.

Upon further study, scientist learned that different areas of the brain process different kinds of information.

Thus, for most people, language skills are concentrated in the left frontal and temporal lobes toward the front of the brain, while the registration of visual images in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain.

What these findings suggest is that a particular aspect of a memory will most likely to store in a region of the cortex that specializes in processing more or less comparable memories.
Memory Bank