Where does the brain store memories?

For the types of memories that are hard to explain (“nondeclarative memories” as we introduced in our first blog post), they are stored in the very same regions that you used to process the information. When you throw a ball, you are using memory in parts of the brain that guide you to move your arm. When you find the blue crayon in the box, you are using memory in parts of your visual system to help you locate that color.

For the types of memories that you can easily talk about (“declarative memories”), they are stored throughout the brain, not in one single place. Think back to your last time at recess. Your memory might include colors, sounds, faces, the emotions you experienced, and how it felt to zoom down the twisty slide. As you bring to mind each of these types of details, you are using different brain regions:

• Colors are processed in the back of your brain, in a portion called the occipital lobe.

• Sounds are processed in a part of your brain just behind your ears, in the temporal lobe. Faces and emotions are also processed within that lobe.

• Senses in your body - how it felt as you clutched the sides of the slide - are processed in your parietal lobe.

There are then other parts of the brain that help to bring all these details together. Two of those most important parts are the frontal lobe (just behind your forehead) and other parts of the temporal lobe. It is when all these parts of the brain work together that you have the experience of remembering an event, like your last time on the playground.