What Part Of Your Brain Handles Retention And Memory?
One of the crucial functions of the brain is to memorize things for us and retain them for long. These memories could be something that we need to keep in mind for future actions, response to certain things, or simply emotional reactions for different types of situations. Different parts of the brain handle different types of memory. This article will help you get a clearer idea.
Types of memory associated with the brain
There are many interconnected regions in the brain that store different memories. We can divide memory into three basic types- explicit, implicit, and working memory.
Explicit memories are those who are episodic in nature. That is the memory that refers to events or scenarios that have happened in your life before. Semantic nature, that is, general information, as well as factual things, also comes under explicit memory. Implicit memory includes motor memories of the brain.
Explicit memory
We can associate the three main parts of the brain with explicit memory are neocortex, hippocampus, and the amygdala.
Hippocampus is responsible for episodic memories. It is the section of the brain that generates episodic memories and then indexes so that the brain can access them later. These memories are generally related to past events of our life. For example, regarding the meeting, we had last week, or a movie we watched last month.
Certain information which is stored in the hippocampus gets transferred to the neocortex of the brain. This memory is mostly based on the ‘general knowledge’ or things that become a part of our lives.
The amygdala plays an essential role too. We can associate it with the retention of memory in the brain. It attached an emotional stimulus to the incidents or memories — for instance, an emotion of fear or excitement.
Implicit memory
The basal ganglia, as well as the cerebellum, deal with the implicit memory. The basal ganglia of the brain are associated with emotion, habits, movement, learning, as well as motor activities. That is, it handles the coordinated type of activities and functions of the body. The cerebellum is also a crucial part of the brain that helps in managing the motor activities of the brain.
Working memory
It is the prefrontal cortex, or PFC, which is a sub-part of the neocortex, is responsible for performing cognitive functions of the body. It is associated with short term memory of the brain.
The human brain is a very complex organ and has multiple intricate parts. These parts handle different activities and functioning of the body. Each part of the brain is equally crucial for proper functioning. Memory is one of the most basic and essential parts of our lives. There are different types of memories that are all taken care of by different, designated parts of the human brain. Hope this article helped you in learning about which parts of the brain are related to memory storage and retention. Each of these parts has its role to play in the proper functioning of the human brain.
